[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 24281-24283]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             VA WAIT TIMES

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today, after two days of testimony 
by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, to talk about a subject we 
have still heard virtually no discussion of from this administration: 
the impact of this war on our servicemembers and veterans.
  General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have now spent countless 
hours in an attempt to sell both the Congress and the American people 
on the virtues of the President's surge. Their aim is to convince us to 
spend more time, more money, and more lives in Iraq. Yet we have heard 
precious little about the impact of this surge on the men and women who 
are actually on the battlefield fighting.

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  That is a disturbing omission that leaves me--and I am sure thousands 
of military families across the country--deeply unsettled and greatly 
concerned for the future of our Nation's plan to take care of these 
heroes.
  We all know going to war has a profound effect on our men and women 
in uniform, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are no exception. As 
the Iraq war now enters its fifth year, it is clear the fighting 
overseas has taken a tremendous toll on the lives of our troops, who 
have served this Nation so honorably, and on their families, who have 
supported them so fully. Yet, over and over again, in their sales job, 
this administration has either failed to make the cost of caring for 
our wounded warriors a priority or--as we found this week--blatantly 
misled Congress and the American people about that cost.
  Unfortunately, on Monday, just 2 days ago--the same day General 
Petraeus appeared in the House to talk about the results of the surge--
we learned from the VA inspector general that the Department of the VA 
repeatedly--repeatedly--understated the wait times of our injured 
veterans seeking care.
  How can we be expected to trust this administration about the 
continuation of a surge when they continue to cover up the costs of 
this war?
  Administration officials, including Secretary Nicholson himself, have 
repeatedly told Congress and the American people that 96 percent of all 
veterans seeking primary care and 95 percent of veterans seeking 
specialty care were seen within 30 days of their desired appointment 
date.
  Well, this week, the inspector general found that in reality only 75 
percent of veterans have waited less than 30 days. In fiscal year 2006, 
the VA underestimated the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who 
would be seen by 45,000 people. For the current year--fiscal year 
2007--the VA has now been forced to revise its projection up by 100,000 
people. Now the VA is projecting it will see 263,000 Iraq and 
Afghanistan vets in 2008. Yet, I am told by some that the VA should 
actually be preparing to see more than 300,000 returning veterans.
  Frankly, I think it is very important that we do not underestimate 
this number. We have seen the past failures in the VA to accurately 
project the numbers, and I think it is very important this 
administration get those numbers right.
  The VA's fiscal year 2008 budget also assumed a decrease in the 
number of inpatient mental health patients, when all signs everywhere 
we heard and turned to pointed to an increase in need.
  In February of this year, I had the opportunity to ask VA Secretary 
Nicholson, how the President's escalation of the war would impact our 
care for veterans. He told me it would have a ``minimal'' impact. Now, 
not only does that statement fly in the face of reason, it boggles my 
mind.
  I told Secretary Nicholson, when he told me that:

       When the President has proposed a surge in troops to Iraq, 
     when the men and women in uniform are being deployed for 
     their second and third tours of duty, and when more and more 
     of our troops are coming home with [post-traumatic stress 
     disorder] and other mental health care needs, I don't 
     understand how the VA can assume that they will treat fewer 
     patients for inpatient mental health care.

  The VA Secretary's duty is to protect our veterans, not a dishonest 
administration. If the VA had been frank with us about waiting times 
and backlogs from the beginning, we in Congress would have been able to 
invest in our facilities and in allocating our resources properly.
  If we were getting accurate information, and not being served a 
political line, we could do our job and serve the veterans. 
Unfortunately, based on our experience with VA leadership over the past 
several years, I have serious doubts about the level of frankness we 
can expect from a VA that has tried to minimize the cost, both in money 
and in lives, of this war.
  This spring, as our military was surging in Iraq, we learned that the 
VA officials--the officials--had received bonuses, while our veterans 
faced waiting lines and backlogs for benefits. To me, that is plain 
wrong. Senior career officials throughout the VA were getting a 
generous package of more than $3.8 million in payments by that 
financially strapped agency, at the same time as our veterans waited up 
to a year--up to a year--to see a doctor, and at the same time VA 
officials were misleading Congress and the American people.
  This week's IG report found:

     . . . .that schedulers at some facilities were interpreting 
     the guidance from their managers to reduce waiting times as 
     instructions to never put patients on the electronic waiting 
     list.

  Well, that obviously results in ``gaming'' of the procedure. So a 
veteran calls in, asks for an appointment, and instead of putting them 
in line, they are told to call back in a month or 2, before they get on 
the waiting list. That is the wrong way to treat our veterans.
  I have to ask, were officials receiving bonuses for cooking their 
books on wait times? Well, in light of this week's report, it seems to 
me to be a fair question.
  The inspector general's report on the VA's failure to provide an 
accurate account of how long our veterans are waiting for care is a 
frustrating reminder of that agency's need for honesty and leadership. 
Whether the VA's numbers were intentionally skewed or incompetently 
reported, the result is the same: Our veterans pay the price.
  Now, I have long said the VA provides excellent care to our 
veterans--once they get in the door. The VA has a long-term focus on 
patients, it has a great integrated delivery model, and it has a first-
rate health IT system that provides distinct advantages over our 
private sector care. We have to keep it that way.
  But too often, for our veterans, getting in the door is the problem. 
Every one of us has heard at home from veterans who have waited months 
to see a primary care doctor. Some of those veterans have had to wait 
years to get surgery. For too many years, under this administration, 
veterans have been last in line, and we in Congress have had to fight 
this administration tooth and nail to meet their needs.
  It is clear that 5 years into this war--5 years into this war--the VA 
is still not on a wartime footing to deal with this problem. It is far 
past time for the VA to put an end to the pattern of dishonesty that 
has plagued them. From exaggerated reports of success, to failures to 
present their real funding needs, to poor conditions at our facilities, 
the VA is not coming clean with the American people. And every time the 
VA tries to save political face, do you know who it ends up costing? 
Our men and women who have served us honorably overseas, our veterans.
  No matter how anyone in this country feels about the war, Americans 
support our veterans. Everywhere I go, people stand up and say to me 
that they do not support the war, but they will be there with their 
pocketbooks and their hearts to make sure our veterans are taken care 
of when they get home.
  In order for us to do that--and everyone here wants to do that--we 
need to have an honest assessment from this administration about what 
the costs are or we cannot provide the support that Americans want us 
to provide.
  The President of the United States has a responsibility now to send 
us a nominee to fill the soon-to-be-vacant position at the VA. We need 
a new nominee, a new Secretary, who is going to be an honest advocate. 
We need a new VA Secretary who is going to fill the needs of our 
current veterans and future veterans and who will honor their sacrifice 
with superior service.
  I am looking forward to the President finding and sending to us 
someone who will fill that position that we can finally trust, who will 
bring about a culture of change, who will bring us accurate 
information, who we do not have to second guess, and, most importantly, 
who will be willing to stand up and be honest with the American people 
about the cost of war when it comes to the men and women who are 
fighting for every one of us.
  If we are just being told a happy picture all the time, and not 
getting the reality of what is out there, we in Congress cannot do our 
job to make sure

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our veterans get what they need. The men and women who have served in 
the military have borne significant burdens. They have assumed great 
risk for our country, and they have sacrificed their lives and their 
limbs to protect all of us and our freedoms. They have done their job. 
They have done what this country has asked. They have done it 
honorably. It is time this administration helps us keep a promise to 
them to fulfill their needs. Our Nation has a moral obligation to care 
for those who have served this country in uniform, and that begins by 
an honest assessment of the cost.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I share some of the feelings of the 
distinguished Senator from Washington about our veterans. There is no 
question about it, we need to do more for them, and we will.

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