Anne Harkavy and Will Fischer

Opinion contributor

When Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie testifies Wednesday before a joint congressional hearing on VA efforts to modernize health care access and services for veterans, we urge him to do what this administration has refused to do to date and answer a question of critical concern: Is a shadow council of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago golf buddies still holding meetings and exerting unlawful influence over the makeup of VA leadership and policy decisions aimed at privatizing VA health care services?

We know that prior to his confirmation, then Acting Secretary Wilkie flew to the president's private Florida golf estate to meet with the Mar-a-Lago "council" — Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, Palm Beach concierge doctor Bruce Moskowitz, and financial consultant Marc Sherman, all members of the president’s private club — and thanked the group for creating a "template" that set a new direction for the agency.

We also know that, despite having no government or U.S. military experience, these three men met more than two dozen times, behind closed doors, to use their prominent position of influence to try to steer VA projects. For example, the VA tasked them with reviewing a $10 billion contract for the largest health information technology project in American history. And at least one project they worked on was one in which a member of the trio may have had a personal interest.

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Specifically, records show that the group recommended the VA develop a mobile app for veterans that would be adapted from a platform owned and developed by Moskowitz, one of its members. And Moskowitz’s son Aaron was brought on board as a manager of the project and included on a call with Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss the app.

Federal law imposes important transparency requirements when the government enlists private interests to recommend or formulate public policy, in part, to guard against special interests advancing their own agenda without the public knowing or using their privileged positions to promote their personal concerns. This is why we sued the Trump administration: to stop it from unlawfully relying on the advice of Mar-a-Lago members in ways that crowd out the voices of actual veterans and raise concerns of self-dealing.

Brazenly, in seeking to have our lawsuit thrown out, the VA has gone so far as to argue that if our allegations of influence are true, federal transparency laws do not apply because the group has exerted too much power over veterans policy.

Veterans shouldn't have to sue to be heard

It's insulting that veterans have to sue to have a voice when it comes to Trump administration veterans policy. But suing has proven necessary because, at each turn, the VA has failed to serve veterans. The VA has refused to come clean about the Mar-a-Lago group's influence, instead digging its heels in and shielding the illegal troika from public scrutiny.

For example, when Reps. Tim Walz and Elijah Cummings (senior Democrats on the House Veterans Affairs and House Oversight committees, respectively) demanded records that bear on the so-called council's influence and access within the VA, they were denied. When Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Maggie Hassan requested that the VA Office of Inspector General open an investigation into the group, they too were denied.

The Inspector General cited our ongoing lawsuit in denying the senators' request. On Wednesday we called on the Office of the Inspector General to reconsider its refusal to open an investigation. We do not believe that our lawsuit should stand in the way of the office carrying out its statutory obligation to investigate and report on matters affecting VA programs and operations. The public seeks, and deserves, transparency about the Mar-a-Lago group's influence over policies affecting America’s veterans.

Veterans deserve to know who's running the VA

In September, Sen. Patty Murray asked Wilkie: “Are there any VA officials consulting with the Mar-a-Lago crowd now?" He replied at that time: "Not that I know of." The commitment to our nation’s veterans must be greater than loyalty to the president’s golfing buddies, and so questions about the Mar-a-Lago group's influence must be repeated until they are fully and accurately answered. We are calling on Secretary Wilkie to provide that full and accurate accounting of the level of influence the Mar-a-Lago trio has held over the VA.

It’s unconscionable that the Trump administration continues to stonewall the public on how private interests are affecting veterans’ access to critical health care. The millions of veterans who rely on the VA deserve answers from Secretary Wilkie. The American people deserve to know the truth.

Anne Harkavy is the Executive Director of Democracy Forward. Will Fischer is an Iraq War veteran, and Director of Government Relations for VoteVets.org. Follow Will Fischer on Twitter: @will_c_fischer