[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 173 (Friday, November 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16653-S16655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   POLITICAL ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, JESSE BROWN

  Mr. SIMPSON. Let me just now refer briefly to my work on the Senate 
Veterans' Affairs Committee. I chaired that committee.
  Mr. President, each and every day the Secretary of Veterans Affairs 
apparently greets his employees with a memo on their computer. Usually 
that memo recognizes the accomplishments of individual employees, notes 
the significance of a particular date in terms of this country's 
military history, or exhorts VA employees to a higher level of service 
to America's veterans. Nothing at all wrong with that.
  But, on August 21, the Secretary took a leap beyond that boundary. In 
that day's message, he launched into his old stump speech about the 
woeful VA budget. About the same time, he also communicated with all VA 
employees by means of a similar message printed on their own personal 
pay stub.
  I ask unanimous consent that these messages be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

Message From Secretary Jesse Brown Printed on a Recent VA Employee Pay 
                                Voucher

       The Administration and the Congress have outlined 
     dramatically different budget approaches designed to balance 
     the budget, reduce taxes, and create a leaner government. As 
     I have been telling the nation's veterans organizations this 
     summer, the Administration's plan is much better for veterans 
     and their families. The President recommended a good FY 1996 
     VA budget, with a $1.3 billion increase, including nearly $1 
     billion for health care. On the other hand, the House of 
     Representatives has approved a plan to increase veterans 
     health care $563 million by taking money from our 
     construction account and preventing us from building badly 
     needed hospitals in Florida and California, hospitals which 
     the President proposed be fully funded. And we will lose some 
     of the money we need to renovate older facilities. The House 
     also voted to stop compensation to some incompetent veterans. 
     This is nothing but a means test that will push some service-
     connected veterans into poverty. We hear a lot these days 
     about making sacrifices. We need to point out that veterans 
     and their families have already paid their dues.
                                                                    ____


             Secretary Brown's Message Sent August 21, 1995

       This is what our veterans' budget future boils down to: the 
     President has proposed a 10-year plan to eliminate the 
     deficit, while protecting critical programs. He has proposed 
     no new cuts in veterans entitlements. Congress has adopted a 
     budget resolution outlining a 7-year plan to eliminate the 
     deficit, which would be devastating to veterans' programs. 
     The President has recommended a $1.3 billion increase in VA's 
     FY96 budget, nearly a billion of which is targeted to 
     veterans' health care. The congressional budget resolution 
     effectively freezes VA funding for veterans' health care at 
     1995 dollar levels for the next 7 years. This means 
     eliminating 61,000 health care positions by 2002 and denying 
     care to more than a million veterans. The House budget would 
     also cancel plans for two badly needed VA replacement 
     hospitals in central Florida and northern California. When it 
     comes to meeting veterans' needs, gratitude and penny-
     pinching don't mix.
                                                                    ____


           Secretary Brown's Daily Message on October 6, 1995

       I am being attacked publicly for telling you through 
     various forums what is going on with our budget. Rest assured 
     I do not intend to stop. I believe VA employees had a right 
     to know about the public and Congressional debate on VA's 
     future and the impact our lawmakers' decisions can have on 
     benefits and services for veterans. Is this a partisan 
     endeavor? Absolutely not! As Secretary of Veterans Affairs, I 
     have a responsibility to keep you informed on issues that 
     affect your careers, livelihood an roles as members of the VA 
     team. And certainly I have the right to let our valued 
     constituency--veterans and their families--know that their 
     programs may be adversely affected. It is important that 
     employees be made fully aware that tens of thousands of VA 
     jobs may be eliminated over the next seven years as a result 
     of current budget proposals. I am not calling on you to act, 
     but I think you have the right to know the facts. Stay tuned!

  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, these messages, and their distribution to 
all VA employees, are highly political, and seem to me to be wholly 
inappropriate.
  They all state a biased, partisan perspective of the Department's 
budget and its implications. This is a perspective with which I 
wholeheartedly disagree.
  Nothing new in that either. Reasonable men can disagree.
  However, my disagreement regarding the effects of the Congressional 
budget for veterans' programs is fully supported by a General 
Accounting Office [GAO] analysis of the budget conducted for the 
Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
  GAO documented that, on the merits themselves, Secretary Brown's 
criticisms of the VA budget which was approved by the Congress are 
indeed ``exaggerated.''
  GAO also points out that if Secretary Brown were to analyze the 
President's budget using the same assumptions he used when he analyzed 
the budget approved by the Congress, he would find that veterans are 
better off under the Congressional budget--than under the President who 
appointed him.
  In short, Mr. President, veterans should not be misled. Veterans are 
better off under the budget that Secretary Brown is attacking than they 
are under the President's budget he is defending.
  Please hear that clearly. The VA knows this. The Secretary knows 
this.
  Secretary Brown complains that the Congress will force him to close 
hospitals. What he doesn't tell us, and what he doesn't tell the VA 
employees who are pretty much compelled to read his daily ration of 
propaganda, is that, using the very same pessimistic assumptions, the 
President's own budget would require him to close 6 additional 
hospitals than he would have to close  

[[Page S 16654]]

under the Republican Congressional budget. Hear that too.
  Secretary Brown then uses--rather misuses--the power of his fine 
office to scare the wits out of VA employees, and the veterans they 
serve, by asserting that the Congressional budget would ``force'' VA to 
treat fewer veterans.
  What he does not tell them is that under his budget, using these very 
same pessimistic assumptions, again VA would provide 283,000 fewer 
outpatient visits--and treat 12,500 fewer veterans--than VA would be 
treating under the very Congressional budget he is attacking. Hear 
that.
  In short, Mr. President, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs is playing 
plenty fast and loose with the facts in order to divert attention away 
from the tough and necessary budget decisions made by our President. He 
is our President. I find that offensive.
  That is cheap politics and demeans his office. But, it is certainly 
not unheard of in this town.
  What is absolutely unacceptable is his use of taxpayer funded VA 
resources to place his purely political message in the hands of every 
VA employee--and on the screen of every single VA computer when it is 
cranked up every morning.
  What is absolutely unacceptable is his use of the full authority of 
his office, and the latent power of his supervisory position over VA's 
240,000 employees, to add to the weight of his opinions. Stump speeches 
are for out on the road Mr. Secretary, not for the taxpayers' 
computers.
  Mr. President, Secretary Brown has stepped right up to the plate of 
public service and there are now two strikes in the count.
  Strike one is found right there in Secretary Brown's message.
  It is distorted and it is wrong. And the distortions serve a clear 
political purpose. The distortions serve to create the impression that 
this Republican Congress is hell bent on--and is--harming our veterans.
  Strike two is found in Secretary Brown's delivery.
  He piously then states that he is not trying to provoke any action on 
the part of VA employees. He is not ``calling on you to act'' he says, 
in the computer.
  No, not much. He is only keeping his loyal employees informed of what 
is happening in Washington. But let us just think about that a moment, 
Mr. President. These messages are on employee pay slips. What do you 
think the average worker in America would think if their pay slip 
included a message from their boss attacking the Congress?
  I do not know about others, Mr. President, but it does not take a 
rocket scientist to figure out that many employees might take that as a 
pretty good hint to take some action or at least say something to 
somebody. Come on.
  If it talks, walks and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck. And 
Secretary Brown's belated attempt to put some latter invented public 
service label on his inappropriate lobbying cannot pluck the feathers 
from the manipulative and political duck he has hatched out.
  Why do we think Secretary Brown is keeping in such close touch with 
his myriad empire of employees--240,000 of them to be exact? Just being 
a genial communicator of the morning hour? Maybe like Don Imus? Give us 
a break.
  I have been here now for 17 years and I have never seen a VA 
Administrator or Secretary--Democrat or Republican--misuse VA's 
internal communications methods in this blatant fashion.
  It is wrong.
  It should stop.
  The World Series is over, Mr. Secretary, and you already have these 
two big strikes against you. But you should put down your big bat, 
reflect a bit, cease abusing your fine office in this fashion and step 
up to the plate one more time.
  And this time, Mr. Secretary, do not resort to unfortunate distortion 
and childish scare tactics in a desperate attempt to enlist America's 
fine veterans to be used--and that is the word--``used'' as point men 
to try to turn back a historic effort to protect the future of the next 
generation by balancing the budget of those living in this one.
  When you do that, you dishonor yourself and you dishonor the veterans 
you profess to serve. And many of them do not believe you any more. 
That is sad.
  Mr. Secretary, finally, those of us who are veterans served to 
protect the future of our country. I am very proud to have been one. We 
served to provide for a better future for our children and 
grandchildren. The budget you take pleasure in attacking is an honest 
and forthright budget that keeps faith with America's veterans by 
keeping faith with America's future.
  If a balanced Federal budget is to be defeated by the ugly forces of 
reaction and fear, then all that America's veterans fought to achieve 
will also be lost.
  If this very stirring movement for a truly balanced Federal budget is 
turned aside, whether or not you agree with it, then all the sacrifices 
of the servicemembers who died or were wounded in the service of our 
country will have been in vain. It sounds dramatic, does it not? No 
more dramatic than the words the Secretary uses in his standard stump 
speech.
  If we fail to balance this Federal budget, the inevitable collapse of 
the American economy will destroy the future that we American veterans 
wanted to ensure.
  This inevitable collapse of the American economy will also destroy 
the ability of our country to be able to fund the benefits upon which 
many veterans depend.
  So, Mr. Secretary, when you face that third pitch, there is a message 
that you can share with America's veterans on the taxpayer's computers 
linking up with the 240,000 VA employees who are committed to serve 
them.
  You can tell them about the strength of America's commitment to her 
veterans and the willingness of the Congress--Democratic and Republican 
alike--to reinforce that commitment with hard bucks.
  During my own time here in the Senate, I have watched the budget of 
the Department of Veterans Affairs nearly double--from $20 billion in 
1978 to nearly $40 billion now.
  And that growth will only continue. Indeed, even under the rigorous 
budget constraints applicable to us today, the VA budget is anticipated 
to increase by nearly $4 billion more under these evil Republicans by 
the year 2002.
  And the growth in the VA health care budget has been real growth. We 
are not just ``keeping up'' with inflation. In the time I have been in 
the Senate, the number of VA physicians has increased by 9.6 percent.
  The number of VA Registered Nurses has increased by 40 percent.
  The total Veterans Health Administration staff has increased by 10.8 
percent. These are real increases in the real numbers of real health 
care professionals who provide real increased services to real 
veterans. Forget the other hokum the Secretary puts out in the old 
stump speech and remember we are talking about real, real things.
  In contrast to the proposed Congressional, that is Republican budget, 
which protects VA health care spending to the fullest, the President's 
budget proposes a reduction in the veterans' health care account. Hear 
that.
  The Secretary knows that too. And it irritates him greatly because he 
knows the President is on mighty thin ground with many veterans anyway.
  The budget the President has sent to the Congress would actually 
reduce VA health care spending from $16.2 billion in 1995 down to $15.4 
billion at the turn of the century. The Secretary knows that.
  Secretary Brown is caught complaining about a budget with no 
reductions while at the same time ignoring his own President's budget 
which would provide $337 million less bucks than the Congressionally 
approved budget he is continuously and hysterically attacking.
  I have said to Secretary Brown in the past: ``Every man is entitled 
to his own opinion--but not to his own facts.'' These are the cold hard 
unrefuted facts.
  This Nation has been absolutely unstinting in its support of her 
veterans over the years. No Nation on earth has been more generous to 
her veterans. Why is it this Secretary never acknowledges that? He 
should.
  Our own Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD and Independent 
Agencies, so ably chaired by my old 

[[Page S 16655]]
friend Senator Kit Bond, recently reported out an extremely generous 
budget for veterans--to include a $285 million increase over fiscal 
year 1995 for veterans' health care.
  Items eliminated from the budget, as originally requested in it, 
include hospitals in East Central Florida and Travis Air Force Base, 
CA.
  In a consensus document expressing the views and estimates on the 
administration's budget proposal, the Senate Veterans' Affairs 
Committee expressed its own reservations about the need for this 
additional construction of infrastructure at a time when the veteran 
population is declining at a rate of 2 percent per year. The GAO 
recently reported to Congress that with the veteran population 
declining--even in Florida--there is no documented need whatever for 
another VA hospital there. We take awfully good care of our veterans. 
We should--those who bore the battle and their widows and orphans.
  So let it be recorded that I personally was incensed, as I know some 
VA employees were, to see the partisan political message the Secretary 
sent out to his troops on August 21. I consider it grossly wrong to use 
employee's pay vouchers or access to the VA computer system to 
circulate that type of hoorah.
  Secretary Brown may--and I think often does--perceive his mission to 
be a purely political one, to toe the line for this President. But he 
steps over that line when he uses his access to, and his control over, 
the taxpayer provided resources of the Department of Veterans Affairs 
as a means to preach a political message to his civil service 
subordinates. It is wrong and he knows it is wrong.
  Mr. President, Secretary Brown owes it to the veterans he serves, to 
the Congress, and to the Department he leads, to change his course away 
from a path of politicized, distorted and exaggerated rhetoric on the 
stump speeches and toward a course of statesmanlike and steady 
leadership.
  Mr. Secretary, you are now headed toward treacherous shoal waters and 
it is long over due time for a change in course. Many of us will be 
watching more closely than ever before.
  Save the politics for when you no longer serve in this type of 
position of trust.
  I thank the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gorton). The Senator from California is 
recognized.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mrs. Feinstein pertaining to the introduction of S. 
1389 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed 
to speak as in morning business for 3 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________