What Happened?
More than 31,000 incidents of sexual harassment involving veterans at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers were reported between fiscal years 2020 and 2025, according to Congress' independent watchdog agency. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report this week and said that the true scale of the problem is likely far larger, because most people never formally report what happened to them.
Studies cited in the report found that only two to seven percent of people who experience sexual harassment ever formally notify anyone. That means for every incident in the official count, many more went unrecorded. Most of the 31,000-plus reported incidents involved veterans or other patients directing these behaviors at staff, rather than the other way around.
Why Does it Matter to Me?
People who experience harassment at VA medical centers may avoid seeking care they need as a result. For the roughly nine million veterans enrolled in VA health care, that means a safety concern at a medical facility could translate directly into delayed or skipped treatment.
Staff who experience these behaviors may rush through patient care in response, meaning the consequences reach beyond the individuals directly involved. A veteran who walks into a VA clinic expecting attentive care may receive less of it because the staff member treating them is managing the aftermath of a harassment incident.
Both Sides, Now
The VA established a policy in 2022 assigning certain medical center staff responsibility for managing reported incidents of harassment-related behaviors involving veterans. Despite that policy, reported incidents have generally increased since it took effect, and the agency has not launched any systemwide effort to measure how widespread these behaviors actually are.
The GAO issued one recommendation: the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should take steps to periodically measure the prevalence of harassment-related behaviors, including harassment, sexual harassment, and sexual assault, across VA medical centers. The report suggested this could be done by adding scenario-based questions to an existing survey or by developing a new representative survey.
Congress has oversight authority over the VA and can press the agency to act on GAO recommendations through hearings, legislation, or budget conditions, though no specific congressional action has been announced in connection with this report.
What Happens Next?
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendation is currently open, and the VA did not provide comments on the report. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs holds the authority to act on the recommendation without waiting for Congress, but no timeline has been announced.
Until the VA takes steps to measure how often harassment occurs across its health care system, prevention efforts will lack the data needed to guide them, the GAO report found. No deadline has been set for the VA to respond, and no congressional hearing or vote on the matter is currently scheduled. Without a measurement system in place, the gap between the official count and the true number of incidents is likely to persist.
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