[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7387]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           VA ACCOUNTABILITY

  (Mr. BOEHNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BOEHNER. My colleagues, next week marks the 1-year anniversary 
since General Eric Shinseki resigned as the Secretary of the Veterans 
Affairs Department.
  At the time, the President promised reform. He said: ``The number one 
priority is making sure that problems get fixed.''
  Instead of a new day at the VA, the American people are still seeing 
more of the same. Last year, Congress gave the VA Secretary new 
authority to fire employees. While some 110 VA facilities kept secret 
lists to hide their wait times, just one person has been fired--one.
  What the hell happened to the rest of them? Some got to retire with 
their benefits, some got transfers, some got paid leave, some got a 
slap on the wrist. All of them went on collecting checks from 
taxpayers. If only the Veterans Administration did half as good a job 
of taking care of our veterans as they do the bureaucrats, we would be 
in a lot better shape.
  Congress also gave the VA more than $16 billion to improve care and 
to shorten waiting times, yet the number of patients facing long waits 
is about the same. The number of patients waiting more than 90 days has 
doubled. At this point, the VA can't even build a hospital. Just about 
every project ends up years behind schedule and hundreds of millions, 
if not billions, over cost.
  Last week, the public learned that the VA is spending $6 billion a 
year illegally. An internal report exposed examples of overspending on 
conferences, improper gifts, inappropriate purchases, and promotional 
items--again, if only VA bureaucrats did as good a job taking care of 
our veterans as they do themselves.
  The author of the report at the VA wrote, ``doors are swung wide open 
for fraud, waste, and abuse,'' and that these actions ``may potentially 
result in serious harm or death to America's veterans.''
  That is their own expert saying this.
  This isn't run-of-the-mill incompetence. It is arrogance; and it is 
arrogance that allows our veterans to be lied to, ignored, and, 
frankly, left to die.
  My colleagues, it is almost Memorial Day. This is when we slow down 
and reflect on the debt of gratitude that we owe to our heroes.
  I commend Chairman Miller and all of the members of the Veterans 
Affairs' Committee for striving every day to fulfill this obligation. 
Congress will continue to pass legislation to hold the VA accountable, 
but only the administration can change the culture from within.
  The President owes the American people a real, long-term plan to fix 
the VA--not a promise, not a pledge, not rearranging the chairs on a 
deck--a real plan to clean up this mess.
  I will keep coming back to this podium until the administration 
produces such a plan.

                          ____________________