[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6693-6694]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           VA ACCOUNTABILITY

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I came to the floor primarily to talk 
about a very serious matter; that is, our U.S. military and our 
commitment not only to those who wear the uniform of the military--and, 
of course, I am aware of the Acting President pro tempore's long 
distinguished service--but also the solemn obligation we have to our 
veterans once they leave active-duty status.
  They have more than upheld their commitment--in the mountains, in the 
valleys of Afghanistan, in the deserts of Iraq, and in postings around 
the world, from Japan, to Korea, to Kuwait, to Israel, to Germany, and 
all across the globe. Of course, they have joined generations of men 
and women--the ``greatest generation,'' of which my dad was a member, 
the World War II generation; and, of course, then those who fought in 
Korea, in Vietnam, and, of course, the most recent conflicts we have 
had, which I just mentioned, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  My strong conviction is that we owe a moral obligation, not just a 
legal obligation, to those veterans, to keep our commitments to them 
once they separate from military service.
  I am sorry to say the Department of Veterans Affairs has repeatedly 
and outrageously failed to uphold its own commitment to America's Armed 
Forces and our veterans.
  The problem, the way I see it, is we have almost become desensitized 
because we all know as a result of the drawdown of our military after 
our exit from Iraq and now Afghanistan we are getting a large number of 
people retiring from military service, so it is understandable there 
would be more pressure put on the Department of Veterans Affairs to 
process these claims, to process these retirements, but what we have 
learned is there are outrageous examples--for example, in Phoenix, 
where 40 veterans died because their names were taken off of the 
appointment system list in order to make the backlog look not as bad as 
it really was. Many of them had been put on what was called a secret 
waiting list that was designed to conceal the unconscionably long wait 
times endured by up to 1,600 sick veterans.
  So what I mean when I say I think we have become almost desensitized 
to this backlog--where more than half of the claims now made with the 
VA are backlogged, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs' own 
criteria--it takes something like this, where 40 veterans have died 
because they were put on a secret waiting list in order to cook the 
books at the Phoenix VA, to hopefully wake us up and to get us to do 
something about this outrageous situation.
  According to the investigation, high-level officials in the Phoenix 
VA knew about the secret waiting list, and they did nothing about it. 
It is even worse than that. Not only did the Phoenix officials tolerate 
this list, they actually defended it.
  A former Phoenix VA doctor told CNN that the list ``was deliberately 
put in place to avoid the VA's own internal rules.'' That is why I call 
this a case of cooking the books. To avoid accountability, to avoid 
solving the problem, they tried to sweep the problem under the rug, and 
that is outrageous.
  One of the victims of the secret waiting list was a 71-year-old Navy 
veteran named Thomas Breen. In late September, Mr. Breen was rushed to 
the Phoenix VA hospital after he became ill. The doctors diagnosed him, 
knew he had a history of cancer, and they very clearly designated his 
condition as ``urgent.'' That would indicate Mr. Breen should get 
another checkup within a week of his visit to the emergency room. Yet 
Mr. Breen was forced to wait and wait and wait and wait--even as he and 
his daughter-in-law made daily phone calls to the VA asking about an 
appointment and emphasizing the urgency of his medical condition. Each 
time they were told to

[[Page 6694]]

wait just a little longer. Finally, a full 2 months after his initial 
ER visit, Mr. Breen passed away. The cause of death was stage 4 bladder 
cancer.
  A week after that the VA finally called with Mr. Breen's 
appointment--after he died. By then, obviously, it was too late.
  Stories such as Mr. Breen's should be a wake-up call to the U.S. 
Senate. They should be a wake-up call to the White House. They should 
pierce our sense of moral indignation and say: When are we going to do 
something about this backlog? When are we going to hold people 
accountable for cooking the books so that they avoid accountability for 
a backlog that we all know exists?
  So I am suggesting again that the President needs to designate a 
point person who will come in and deal with this on an emergency basis; 
it is that serious. The President needs to treat this seriously--not 
ignore it, not sweep it under the rug--and the Senate needs to treat 
this with the urgency it deserves as well, which is why I hope the 
majority leader, who is the person responsible for such things, would 
designate or ask the committees with jurisdiction to hold emergency 
hearings to get to the bottom of this because we do not know whether 
this just happened in Phoenix. Chances are it did not, and I will 
mention another outrageous example in a minute. We need to know if this 
is just a local matter or endemic to the whole VA disability and health 
care system.
  In Pittsburgh, we know there have been other problems. Six patients 
at the VA hospital died, and more than 20 others became sick, after an 
outbreak of Legionnaires' disease. As in Phoenix, patients at the 
Pittsburgh facility were kept in the dark about what was going on. It 
took ``CBS News'' doing an investigation to bring this to the light of 
day.
  ``CBS News'' concluded:

       An internal memo shows a top doctor at the hospital knew 
     that Legionella--

  Which causes Legionnaires' disease--

     could potentially be in the hospital's water system, and [he] 
     recommended the use of bottled water. Though staff members 
     were told to test patients for Legionnaires' disease if they 
     exhibited certain symptoms, there is no evidence to suggest 
     patients or their families were informed of management's 
     concerns about a potential outbreak.

  In other words, they were kept in the dark.
  It is scandals such as this and a rampant lack of accountability that 
have prompted people such as Senator Marco Rubio from Florida to 
introduce legislation that would give the VA Secretary more authority 
to fire and discipline senior officials for abuses and failures on the 
job. I think that is a smart move, and I am proud to cosponsor that 
bill. Because the lack of accountability leading to the problems I have 
just described is absolutely appalling. It should shock all of us.
  The underlying problem, which we have known about--to which I fear 
Congress and the Federal Government have become desensitized--is there 
are literally hundreds of thousands of U.S. military veterans who are 
waiting to have their disability, compensation, and pension claims 
processed and waiting more than the 125 days the VA calls a backlog.
  According to the VA's own figures, in mid-April there were 602,000 
compensation and pension claims pending nationwide, and a majority of 
them had been pending and in the backlog category.
  For that matter, there are still 51,000 entitlement claims pending at 
just two VA regional offices, in Houston and Waco in my State. A 
majority of those claims are backlogged too.
  I know that Congress has taken steps to address the backlog in 
claims. In the national defense authorization bill from last year, we 
included some of the provisions which authorized State-based veterans 
organizations, like those in Texas, to help the Federal Veterans' 
Administration expedite processing of these backlogged claims. But it 
is not enough. The evidence from Pittsburgh and the evidence from 
Phoenix indicates that it is not enough. So we have to do more.
  This is not partisan politics. This should not be treated as business 
as usual. This should be a call to action on the part of the Senate and 
the Federal Government to live up to its obligations and its commitment 
to our Nation's veterans.
  Just a few concluding words and thoughts about the challenges that 
face our current generation of military veterans. According to a recent 
survey, more than half of those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq 
struggle with some sort of physical or mental health issues stemming 
from their service. Some of them are relatively minor. Some of them are 
very serious, indeed. The serious ones have manifested themselves in 
horrible ways. For example, one out of every two Afghan and Iraq war 
veterans says they know a fellow servicemember that has either 
attempted or committed suicide. As I said a moment ago, those who sign 
up for the U.S. military and our all-volunteer force receive a 
promise--a promise that if they serve their country, if they can do 
their part, their country, our country, will do our part.
  All they are asking for is us to make good on that promise. Serving 
America's veterans is one of the most important responsibilities the 
Federal Government has. The VA's failure to meet its responsibility is 
an ongoing scandal--one that I will continue drawing attention to until 
our veterans get the support they so rightfully deserve.
  I hope my other colleagues, who I know share this commitment to our 
veterans, will come to the floor and urge the majority leader to ask 
the committees with jurisdiction to convene emergency hearings to get 
to the bottom of this, to find out if what happened in Phoenix and 
Pittsburgh are isolated events or if this is a cancer that is eating 
away at our VA health care and disability system.
  I call upon the President once again to appoint a point person to 
make sure that we get to the bottom of this as soon as possible 
because, of course, this is an executive branch function--the veterans 
health care system. I remember when healthcare.gov was rolled out and 
the Web site did not work the way the President expected it to. He 
appointed a point person to help make sure that all hands were on deck 
and we got to the bottom of the problem as soon as possible. I would 
think that this scandal in the Veterans' Administration and the way our 
veterans are being treated would at least equal the same sense of 
urgency and call for the same sort of response as the failure of the 
Web site for healthcare.gov.
  So I hope our colleagues in the Senate can pull together to come to 
the service of our veterans in a way that they deserve. I hope the 
President views this with the kind of urgency that it really deserves 
and appoints a point person who can get to the bottom of this, working 
with Congress as quickly as possible so we can meet our obligations to 
our Nation's veterans.
  I yield the floor, and 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.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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