[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 101 (Thursday, June 26, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4099-S4100]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            VETERANS AFFAIRS

  Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, as we all know, the Department of Veterans 
Affairs, the VA, is in shambles. Two national reports this week have 
highlighted the fact that bureaucratic ineptitude and incompetence seem 
to be the norm there. Unfortunately, reports that surfaced out of 
Phoenix which led to the resignation of Secretary Shinseki do not seem 
limited to Arizona.
  I wish to talk about where we are nationally with this scandal, and 
also specific instances that have come out of Louisiana I have learned 
about working directly with whistleblowers and working directly with 
families of veterans whom I am very concerned about who are examples of 
this same sort of abuse.
  On Monday, the head of the agency that investigates whistleblower 
complaints in the Federal Government, Carolyn Lerner, sent a blistering 
letter to President Obama stating that the VA Office of the Medical 
Inspector has repeatedly undermined legitimate whistleblowers by 
confirming their allegations of wrongdoing but dismissing them as 
having no impact on patient care.
  Lerner's letter lists numerous cases where whistleblowers reported 
numerous failings at the VA, including examples where drinking water at 
the VA facility at Grand Junction, CO, was tainted with elevated levels 
of Legionella bacteria, which can cause a form of pneumonia, and 
standard maintenance and cleaning procedures not being performed at the 
facility.
  Also, in Montgomery, AL, a VA pulmonologist portrayed past test 
readings as current results in more than 1,200 patient files, ``likely 
resulting in inaccurate patient health information being recorded.''
  In these cases, among many others, VA whistleblowers brought the 
information to the special counsel, an independent Federal entity 
charged with enforcing whistleblower protection laws. The special 
counsel passed it along to the Office of the Medical Inspector, but 
that VA medical inspector concluded the hospital's failings, while 
accurately reported by the whistleblowers, didn't threaten veterans 
health or safety, even when the VA inspector general had concluded that 
similar faults compromised care in other cases.
  This is deeply troubling and severely cripples any belief that the VA 
is in any way capable of fixing its deep-seated problems on its own.
  My colleague, Senator Coburn of Oklahoma, whom I have worked with 
closely in dealing with many of these VA problems, also released his 
oversight report on the Department entitled ``Friendly Fire: Death, 
Delay, and Dismay at the VA.'' To say his report is troubling is quite 
an understatement. Some of the key findings I found most troubling in 
the report were these: the fact that there seems to be a perverse 
culture, his report said, within the Department where veterans are not 
always the priority and data and employees are manipulated to maintain 
an appearance that all is well.
  In many cases it also seems bad employees are rewarded with bonuses 
and paid leave, while whistleblowers, health care providers, even 
veterans and their families are subjected to bullying, sexual 
harassment, abuse, and neglect.
  Senator Coburn's report also highlights criminal activity by VA 
employees, vast amounts of waste at the VA, the fact that the VA 
actually made waiting lists worse, and the VA Committee, led by Bernie 
Sanders, largely ignored these warnings and delay. That committee, 
under Senator Sanders, has only held two oversight hearings in the last 
4 years.
  As I said, this is a national scandal. These are national problems. 
The two reports I alluded to are national reports. But I know from my 
work in Louisiana that they have consequences, and that similar cases 
exist in Louisiana. I have been deeply involved in a couple that I wish 
to highlight.
  First, the Overton Brooks scandal in Shreveport, LA. A whistleblower 
came forward to my office with very troubling information regarding the 
VA hospital in Shreveport called Overton Brooks. The whistleblower is a 
licensed clinical social worker there, and he accused that VA facility 
of the following: maintaining a secret wait list and manipulating the 
official electronic wait list; using gaming strategies to manipulate 
reported wait times--for example, holding appointments without 
scheduling them until capacity opens or entering into the system that 
the patient requested an out-of-date appointment when that just wasn't 
true; providing group therapy appointments to mental health patients, 
and counting these group sessions as an appointment with a primary care 
provider, which they were clearly not.
  These aren't just allegations. I have also personally seen emails the 
whistleblower provided, and that has shown that this secret list could 
contain up to 2,700 veterans. It also seems to confirm that, while 
waiting for appointments, 37 of those veterans died.
  Since hearing these allegations, I have sent a letter demanding a 
full investigation into Overton Brooks to the inspector general of the 
VA, and I have confirmed that that is happening. That absolutely is 
moving forward.
  No veteran who served this country should be put on any secret 
waiting list. At a time when we are learning more and more about 
rampant mismanagement at the VA across the country, any internal 
allegations such as that should be taken very seriously and clearly 
investigated.
  That brings me to the second case I have personally dealt with and 
learned about in Louisiana, this case out of the New Orleans area.
  Gwen Moity Nolan was the daughter of a distinguished veteran. She 
came to one of my recent townhall meetings in New Orleans, and she 
explained to me personally that her dad passed away in 2011 while a 
patient at the VA hospital in New Orleans, allegedly in part due to 
delayed and poor care at the facility.
  She described the medical treatment there as poor, and that her 
father's doctor had a terrible attitude and regularly refused to show 
up at the hospital in key situations.
  She requested that information from the VA, including information 
regarding a supposed investigation into the case of her father, be 
given to her.
  Her dad had passed. What she most wanted was to be sure the VA got 
it--to be sure the VA in New Orleans took some remedial action to 
correct the situation. Her case was done. Her case was done in two 
ways: First of all, tragically, her father was dead. Her father was 
passed. Secondly, she brought a legal action against the VA, and that 
was settled for a substantial sum of money which she received, and she 
is not disputing that or reopening that. That is done. But she wanted 
to know that these problems have been addressed.
  On June 3 I sent a letter to the Acting Secretary of the VA, Sloan 
Gibson, demanding this information and the steps the VA has taken to 
correct what went wrong.
  After the New Orleans VA responded by saying ``patient privacy laws 
prohibit us from discussing specific patient information,'' I sent 
another letter with the pertinent constituent's privacy release form. 
The patient is dead. The daughter will sign any release form they want. 
This was clearly stonewalling to avoid giving us appropriate 
information.
  Unfortunately, the VA responded that they cannot share this 
information with my office unless very specific criteria are met. Guess 
what. They didn't think it was relevant to list the specific criteria 
we need to meet. Again, more pure stonewalling.
  This information is extremely important, and I am continuing to fight 
to get my constituents and myself this information about if and how the 
New Orleans VA fixed these problems. I will

[[Page S4100]]

be demanding a meeting as soon as possible with the head of the New 
Orleans VA hospital so I can answer those questions directly, and that 
person had better not stonewall me to my face. That will have very 
negative consequences. We are setting up that meeting. That meeting 
will happen, and I will be following up on this New Orleans case.
  Similarly, I am following up on the Shreveport case that came to 
light because of the whistleblower. I will be in Shreveport tomorrow, 
meeting with two significant people directly involved in these issues--
one an official at the VA; the second, someone who has come with 
additional information to confirm the fears, claims, and concerns of 
the original whistleblower. So I will be having those meetings in 
Shreveport tomorrow.
  Again, these Louisiana cases that I have been personally involved in 
underscore the serious scandal at the VA. Every community has these 
cases. Every State has these cases. Every Senator--Republican, 
Democrat, Independent--has these cases. We need to fix these to 
properly honor our veterans. We need to ensure that this sort of 
abuse--in some cases, fraud and dishonesty--to the great detriment of 
our veterans never happens again.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________