[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 66 (Thursday, April 28, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2529-S2531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           VETERANS FIRST ACT

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, this morning at 11 a.m., a big event 
happened in Washington, DC, on the third floor of this building when 
all members of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Republican and Democrat 
alike, introduced what we call the Veterans First Act--a comprehensive 
overhaul of the Veterans' Administration to bring about accountability 
in services to our veterans by the Veterans' Administration. Every 
member of the committee, Republican and Democrat alike, came to that 
press conference.
  I want to start by thanking Senator Richard Blumenthal of 
Connecticut, who is my ranking member on the committee, for his efforts 
and his work over the last 10 months to help make this a reality, and 
each and every member of the committee for the work they did. In the 
end, we adopted 148 provisions of the Senate to amend, reconstruct, and 
hold accountable the Veterans' Administration.
  I don't know about the Presiding Officer, but every morning when I 
wake up in Washington, DC, and turn on the TV, whether it is CNN, FOX, 
or a local station, one of the lead stories is about a tragedy in the 
Veterans' Administration. This morning, in preparing for this press 
conference I didn't turn on the TV until after I read my notes. After I 
read my notes, I turned on the TV, and what, to my dismay, did I see? 
In Chicago, IL, at the Veterans' Administration hospital, they found 
cockroaches in the food of our veterans. What kind of accountability is 
that in the Veterans' Administration? For our veterans to be fed food 
with vermin in it is ridiculous and crazy.
  We all know what happened in Arizona a few years ago when 
appointments were manipulated, so veterans missed their appointments, 
and three veterans died. We know what happened in Atlanta, where we had 
an outbreak of suicide by people who couldn't get to mental health 
services in time. We know what happened when cost overruns went awry in 
Denver, CO. When the costs of the hospital got out of line, the 
Veterans' Administration didn't know how to control it.
  Every time we turn around, there is no accountability in the 
Veterans' Administration, so our committee decided it is our job to see 
to it that our veterans get what they deserve and what they fought for 
for us; that is, a Veterans' Administration that delivers on

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the promise of good health care, good benefits, and the appreciation of 
a grateful country for the sacrifice each of them made.
  To begin with, we want to make sure the Secretary of the VA can fire 
somebody and make it stick. A few months ago, the Merit Systems 
Protection Board overruled the firing of two Philadelphia employees of 
the Veterans' Administration and reinstated them with pay with no 
reason except they didn't like the way in which they were fired.
  If we go around the country, we find out that the Veterans' 
Administration's best way to discipline somebody is to move them from 
one city to another, from one hospital to another, or from one location 
to another. Moving problems around doesn't solve problems. They just 
give the problem to somebody else. It is time that if somebody deserves 
to be fired for their lack of performance or their poor performance, we 
put our veterans first and make sure they are getting the attention 
they should get. If somebody is not willing to do their job or cannot 
do their job, then they are terminated.
  We don't want to go through and take the rank-and-file, good 
employees of the Veterans' Administration and tell them ``We don't like 
you, we don't appreciate you, and we don't trust you,'' but we want to 
tell those who don't want to be held accountable, those who are not 
doing their job, that we are watching.
  We are going to encourage whistleblowers to tell us where the 
problems are. We created an independent office in this act for 
whistleblower status within the VA, so the VA itself is soliciting 
input within its own organization to point out those who may not be 
doing a good job. We need the VA to have a culture of support for our 
veterans, not a corruption of our veterans. It is critical that we do 
that.
  We took a lot of other issues that have been big problems in the 
United States of America for our veterans and we addressed them.
  Opioids. We have a major section on opioids to try to get medicines 
to our veterans that counteract the addiction of opioids and don't 
treat pain with opioids but instead treat it with the appropriate type 
of medicine.
  We did a great job in terms of caregivers. I don't know about the 
Presiding Officer, but I am a Vietnam-era guy. I remember Vietnam. I 
remember the sacrifice of our troops there and the 58,000 men whom we 
lost in Vietnam. A lot of our Vietnam veterans came home with multiple 
disabilities. In fact, 22,000 of them are living with disabilities 
today, but they have never been covered by caregivers. Our post-9/11 
veterans have been covered by caregivers but not our Vietnam-era or 
Grenada veterans or our Panama veterans. This bill makes them eligible 
as well, so a family member--a loved one who is giving care at home to 
a veteran who fought and was injured for our country--can get the same 
type of stipend and benefit that someone who has fought in Iraq or 
Afghanistan gets. It is only fair to see to it that they get the same 
benefit and the same treatment.
  It is also only fair to see to it that Secretary McDonald himself can 
be held accountable. Bob McDonald is a good Secretary. He has done a 
good job. He has tried his best, but he hasn't had the tools he needs. 
Well, we want to give him those tools. We want to give him the chance 
to have discipline. We want to give him the chance to find the people 
he needs to put in place. One of the provisions in this bill allows the 
Secretary to hire physicians, directors, and hospital administrators 
who are capable of doing the job and pay them what the market will 
bear. Why not have good people who can do the job rather than temporary 
people who don't want to do the job? Right now in the Veterans' 
Administration, fully a third of its leadership is temporary, not 
permanent. We need a permanent commitment to our veterans that they are 
going to get the services they deserve and the services they need.
  I could go on and on about this legislation, but the important thing 
to understand is that we are finally putting our veterans first. We are 
telling the Veterans' Administration: We appreciate the good job you 
do, but we want to make sure it is 100 percent of the time, not just 85 
or 90 or 95 percent of the time.
  We want to make sure they are putting our veterans first. We want to 
make sure that somebody who makes a mental health call to a veterans 
hospital doesn't get a busy signal or a wrong number. We want to make 
sure that when somebody makes an appointment and then shows up, there 
is somebody there to meet them for that appointment. We want to make 
sure that the services veterans earned, fought for, and in many cases 
sacrificed for, are available to them.
  I thank the members of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. I thank this 
Senate in advance for what I am sure it will do later this year: put 
our veterans first.
  When we return from our break next week, I am going to do everything 
I can to get this bill before the Senate before Memorial Day, to see to 
it that we get it to the House of Representatives so we can conference. 
The House has passed their bill. They have passed a good bill, and we 
have passed a good bill. We need to find common ground to put those two 
together because one thing is for sure: What has happened in the VA for 
the last few years is inexcusable and indefensible, and I, for one, am 
not going to be a chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee who did 
not try to make it right. I am going to use every strength that I have, 
every power that I have, and every ability that I have to bring people 
together to say: We owe our veterans everything.
  The Presiding Officer wouldn't have his job, I wouldn't have mine, 
and our families wouldn't live in peace and security today in this 
country had millions of Americans not volunteered to fight and risk 
their lives so that we could be free, so that I could speak freely on 
the floor of the Senate about what I believe and the Presiding Officer 
could speak freely about what he believes and we could go home and 
assemble and gather together. All of those are guaranteed by our 
Constitution--a document which is preserved and memorialized not by the 
paper it is written on but by the veterans who sacrificed and risked 
their lives to see to it that it was preserved.
  I am very proud to be chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. I 
am proud to have served with Richard Blumenthal as ranking member and 
all the members of the committee whose contributions to this 
legislation have made it a great piece of legislation--one that we 
should pass. I hope we do so before Memorial Day, so on the day we 
honor those who have fought for us and sacrificed, we send them the 
signal: We have got your back and we are putting you first. We are 
putting America's veterans first.
  I want to pause for a second at the end of my remarks and thank some 
people for all the efforts they have made over the past 10 months to 
make this a reality. As the Presiding Officer knows, legislation 
doesn't just happen. We Senators make a lot of speeches. We are full of 
a lot of hot air. But the hard work that goes on is done in the back 
rooms of the Capitol, in the committees, by the people who do the 
research to find the pay-fors, to make the decisions that have to be 
made to see to it that a piece of legislation works and is not just a 
hollow promise.
  I thank Tom Bowman, my chief of staff on the Veterans' Affairs 
Committee, for the work he has done. I thank Amanda Meredith, Maureen 
O'Neill, Adam Reece, David Shearman, Gretchen Blum, Jillian Workman, 
Leslie Campbell, Lauren Gaydos, Tucker Zrebiec, Tommy Reynolds, and 
Chris Bennett. I thank the members of my staff: Jay Sulzmann, my chief 
of staff Joan Kirchner, Ryan Evans, and Amanda Maddox. I also thank 
everybody on Richard Blumenthal's staff for all the contributions they 
made to make this happen.
  Today we opened up a new day for the Veterans' Administration in 
America and a new day for America's veterans. We put America's veterans 
first today, and we are going to keep them first. They put us first 
when they sacrificed for us; it is time we did the same for them.
  I urge each Member of the Senate during this break to get the 
information we send to your offices about the Veterans First Act, read 
and study it, and then come back and let's pass a bill that tells our 
veterans: We love you. We appreciate you. And never again will you have 
an appointment broken or not receive the services you need from the 
Veterans' Administration of the United States of America.

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  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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