[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 97 (Wednesday, June 7, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S3325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS ACCOUNTABILITY AND WHISTLEBLOWER 
                             PROTECTION ACT

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, yesterday the Senate adopted the 
Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower 
Protection Act. This legislation facilitates the process of terminating 
nonperforming VA employees by eliminating certain due process 
protections that are currently part of the system. The Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs says he needs this authority to reform the system. The 
Senate, by voice vote, honored the request. However, in Alaska, we have 
a different problem which is not addressed in the legislation, and that 
problem is filling vacant positions within the VA. The major challenge 
facing VA leaders in Alaska is recruitment and retention.
  The Wasilla community based outpatient clinic, CBOC, serves veterans 
in the fastest growing community in the State. The last permanent 
physician at this CBOC resigned in May 2014, citing ``excessive 
workload.'' A number of temporary physicians have rotated through 
since, and some have considered VA employment, but ultimately said no. 
The fact remains that, for the past 3 years, the VA has not been able 
to recruit a single physician to permanently staff this CBOC, a 
facility that, given demand, requires a permanent staff of two--or 
possibly three--physicians. Wasilla is hardly the most remote place in 
the State. Actually, it is one of the least remote. Moreover, it is one 
of the most desirable places in Alaska to live. For example, Mat-Su 
Regional Hospital, the community hospital down the road, has no problem 
retaining medical professionals. Staffed with 160 physicians in 28 
specialties, including primary care, it was recently highlighted by 
Becker's Hospital Review as one of the 150 best places to work in 
healthcare for 2017. By comparison, the VA has been unable to recruit a 
single physician to permanently tend to the needs of our veterans in 
the Mat-Su Valley.
  That suggests to me that the VA has a second problem. The VA is 
simply not regarded as an employer of choice among potential recruits. 
Removing due process protections for VA employees may well exacerbate 
that problem. Over the past 14 years, I have spent time with a great 
many VA employees, and the fear that a supervisor may now have greater 
latitude to target an individual on a trumped up charge because they 
are seen to be rocking the boat or because they just don't like them is 
a real one. We have very good management in the Alaska VA healthcare 
system now, but the faces of managers change with some frequency and 
with those charges can come wide swings in management philosophies.
  At a recent hearing of the MILCON-VA subcommittee, my friend from 
Florida, Senator Rubio, asked Dr. Shulkin, ``In your time at the 
Veterans Administration, have you ever seen or do you have any evidence 
of any instance in which supervisors targeted individuals for dismissal 
because they just don't like them and were going to make something up 
in order to get rid of them?'' While the official transcript is not yet 
available, we do have the CQ transcript. That transcript indicates that 
Dr. Shulkin did not directly answer the question. He responded that the 
VA has seen cases of documented whistleblower retaliation.
  But not every employee who faces inequity in the workplace becomes a 
whistleblower. Some just go out and find a new job which offers better 
working conditions and in some cases better money than the VA pays.
  To his credit, Dr. Shulkin went on to say, ``But, I want people to 
understand, I am not seeking this and I do not support your legislation 
so that we can willy-nilly fire employees, or allow supervisors to 
abuse our employees. This allows due process. I believe it's very 
important that our employees have due process, the right to pre-
decisional appeals, and the right to be represented by the union or 
their attorneys.''
  I hope that he is right about how this will work out on the ground, 
but the VA is a highly decentralized system with a great many seemingly 
autonomous decisionmakers. In asking for this new authority, Dr. 
Shulkin must accept the responsibility for ensuring that it is not 
abused and must also accept accountability in the event that it is, but 
the larger question is whether all of the energy we have put into 
legislating VA accountability does anything to make the VA a more 
attractive employer to in-demand healthcare professionals. I would like 
to see the VA devote as much energy and creativity to addressing this 
challenge as it has to the issue before us yesterday.

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