Story highlights Obama still has "complete confidence" in Shinseki, spokesman says 
 
 Boehner "not ready" to ask for Shinseki's ouster; calls VA's problems "systemic" 
 
 House panel votes to subpoena Shinseki after CNN reports on veterans waiting for treatment 
 
 CNN exclusively reported veterans dying while on wait list in Phoenix, Arizona 
 
 Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has ordered a "face-to-face audit" at all Department of Veterans Affairs clinics, a spokeswoman told CNN on Thursday. 
 
 Earlier in the day, the House Veterans Affairs Committee voted to subpoena Shinseki in the wake of accusations that his department is responsible for deadly delays in health care at some of its hospitals. 
 
 The Shinseki subpoena will cover e-mails that allegedly discussed the destruction of a secret list, first reported by CNN, of veterans waiting for care at a Phoenix VA hospital. 
 
 The House panel agreed to issue the subpoena in a verbal vote Thursday morning. Shinseki will testify May 15 before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, CNN also learned. 
 
 Attention on the secretary follows months of CNN exclusive reporting about U.S. veterans who have died while they waited for treatment at VA hospitals across the country. 
 
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 CNN has submitted numerous requests for an interview with Shinseki; the secretary has refused them all. 
 
 On May 1, Shinseki issued a written statement announcing that the director of the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system and two others have been placed on administrative leave amid claims of a secret waiting list and allegations that 40-plus veterans died waiting for care. 
 
 "We believe it is important to allow an independent, objective review to proceed," Shinseki wrote. "These allegations, if true, are absolutely unacceptable and if the Inspector General's investigation substantiates these claims, swift and appropriate action will be taken." 
 
 Shinseki told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that he would not resign over the allegations. 
 
 "I serve at the pleasure of the president," Shinseki told the newspaper when asked whether he would step down. "I signed on to make some changes. I have work to do." 
 
 The plans to conduct an audit come after Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona wrote to Shinseki, urging a nationwide audit of the scheduling system currently used at VA medical facilities. A news release from Kirkpatrick said the letter was being circulated among her House colleagues. 
 
 At a White House daily briefing Tuesday, press secretary Jay Carney said that President Obama takes seriously the allegations that veterans died waiting for care at the Phoenix VA hospital, Carney said. He repeated that the VA's inspector general is conducting an independent investigation into the allegations. 
 
 On Thursday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest echoed Carney's comments, telling reporters that Obama still has "complete confidence" in Shinseki. 
 
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 And House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that he is "not ready to join the chorus of people calling for (Shinseki) to step down," calling "the problems at the VA ... systemic." 
 
 On Tuesday, Shinseki said on NPR that he was determined to find out whether the allegations are true. 
 
 "Allegations like this get my attention," Shinseki said. "I take it seriously, and my habit is to get to the bottom of it. 
 
 "If allegations are substantiated, we'll take swift and appropriate action." 
 
 On Monday, the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans organization, and another veterans group, Concerned Veterans for America, called for Shinseki's resignation. 
 
 The national commander of the American Legion said the group's call for Shinseki's ouster is a very serious gesture. 
 
 "It's not something we do lightly. But we do so today because it is our responsibility as advocate for the men and women who have worn this nation's uniform," said Daniel M. Dellinger. 
 
 Pete Hegseth, CEO of the Concerned Veterans of America, offered a statement: "We're proud to stand with The American Legion as they take this courageous and historic stand. As America's largest veterans organization, their moral authority on this issue is unimpeachable. We applaud their demands for accountability at the very top of the Department of Veterans Affairs." 

 The turnabout by the Legion underscored the political peril faced by Mr. Shinseki, who has been President Obama’s only secretary of veterans affairs. Soon after the Legion’s announcement, several leading Republican lawmakers, including Senator John Cornyn of Texas, called for Mr. Shinseki to quit, while the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said a change in leadership at the V.A. “might be a good step.” 
 
 Mr. Shinseki, who according to Senate aides is expected to testify next Thursday before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has placed two top officials at the Phoenix hospital on leave and vowed swift action if allegations are substantiated by an investigation being carried out by the department’s inspector general. 
 
 Congressional officials say that as many as 40 veterans died waiting for care in Phoenix, though officials in Phoenix assert that none of those deaths have been linked to delayed care. 
 
 Similar allegations have surfaced about facilities in Colorado and Texas. On Thursday, the House Veterans Affairs Committee will meet to consider issuing subpoenas for documents and testimony related to the alleged hidden list in Phoenix. 
 
 Last month, the department also revealed that the deaths of at least 23 veterans were linked to delayed cancer screenings at hospitals over the past several years. 
 
 Though not as loud, the growing calls from Republicans for Mr. Shinseki’s resignation echo their push to oust the former secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, who oversaw the bungled rollout of the federal health care exchange until her resignation last month. Though the health care law is expected to be the major issue in the fall midterm congressional elections, several Democratic senators face tight races in states with high populations of veterans, and problems with veterans’ health care could resonate in those campaigns. 
 
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 Yet for all the mounting pressure, some Republicans, including Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona, as well as the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Representative Jeff Miller of Florida, have not called for Mr. Shinseki’s resignation, saying that while they are deeply troubled by the recent allegations about Phoenix, they want to wait for the results of the inspector general’s inquiry. 
 
 The White House says it has confidence in Mr. Shinseki, and no influential Democrats have called for him to step down. Senator Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent who is chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, vowed to get to the root of the problems. But he said he feared efforts to make the V.A. into a whipping boy for the smaller-government movement, even though surveys show that, over all, most veterans are satisfied with their health care. 
 
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 “What I don’t want to see is this issue politicized by these same folks who don’t like Social Security, they don’t like Medicare, they don’t like Medicaid, they don’t like the Postal Service,” Mr. Sanders said, adding that some Republican senators had come out for full or partial privatization of veterans’ health care. 
 
 Some other veterans groups are backing Mr. Shinseki. The National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs said resignation calls were a “premature rush to judgment,” and praised Mr. Shinseki for shrinking a backlog of disability compensation claims for wounded veterans, reducing the number of homeless veterans and enrolling two million additional veterans for health care. 
 
 Rick Weidman, the executive director for policy and government affairs at the Vietnam Veterans of America, said more focus was needed on why some veterans hospitals appeared to have felt the need to hide long wait times. While the system has enough resources overall, he said, too many have been allocated to nonclinical functions, and not enough to doctors and nurses seeing patients. 
 
 “You got the troops, but they are not in the right configuration,” he said. 
 
 Mr. Weidman, who supports Mr. Shinseki but favors replacing some officials beneath him, recalled a conversation more than a year ago where Mr. Shinseki asked him, “Do you trust me?” Mr. Weidman said that he did, but that he questioned the advice Mr. Shinseki was getting from other department officials who he said had resisted shifting resources into primary care physicians and other clinicians. 
 
 “Who I don’t trust are the people giving you bad intel,” Mr. Weidman said he told the secretary. 
 
 Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the largest group of post-Sept. 11 veterans, said its members were “outraged, disappointed and flabbergasted” by the allegations about Phoenix. 
 
 “There is a total loss of confidence in the V.A. right now,” Mr. Rieckhoff said. “Unfortunately, the V.A. is becoming a punch line.” 

 The head of the Department of Veterans Affairs said Tuesday he won't resign, but will work to rebuild confidence after the nation's largest veterans organization called for him to step down Monday amid allegations of inadequate treatment of patients at some VA facilities. 
 
 In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, Eric Shinseki said his department will strive to improve its communication and collaborate with... 

 By Jeremy Schwartz 
 
 American-Statesman Staff 
 
 A day after accusing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials in Texas of an elaborate scheme to manipulate wait time data at medical facilities, a government whistleblower said he was contacted by VA investigators Wednesday about his allegations, which were first revealed by the American-Statesman. 
 
 Previous internal VA investigations have turned up evidence of a similar attempt to falsify appointment records at a VA clinic in Fort Collins, Colo.
– Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has remained defiant amid calls for his resignation in the wake of a report on a "secret waiting list" and veterans dying over delays at some of its hospitals, particularly one in Phoenix. But as the fever pitch grows, the House Veterans Affairs Committee today voted to subpoena Shinseki, and as CNN reports, the subpoena extends to emails that allegedly mention destroying the secret list. This as the Austin American Statesmen yesterday reported that a whistleblower has talked to investigators about allegations of orders to fudge veterans' requested appointment dates at San Antonio and Austin VA clinics. Who thinks he should resign: The American Legion, which the New York Times points out is not just the oldest but is also the "most influential" veterans group. It marks the first time the Legion has called for a public official to step down since 1978. It's been joined by Concerned Veterans for America, another veterans organization, which wants President Obama to fire Shinseki, the Arizona Republic reports. Who doesn't: As of Tuesday, Jay Carney told reporters "the president remains confident in Secretary Shinseki's ability to lead the department and take appropriate action."