[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 8258-8259]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               PUTTING A STOP TO MISMANAGEMENT AT THE VA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, in 2014, Congress passed legislation with 
broad bipartisan support to improve access to and the quality of care 
for veterans in response to the nationwide scandal over manipulated 
wait times at the VA.
  The Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and 
Transparency Act created a 3-year program to allow veterans to seek 
care from private providers if they live too far from a VA facility or 
cannot otherwise get an appointment within 14 days.
  It also gave the VA Secretary the authority to fire senior executives 
for poor performance and required a top-to-bottom study of the entire 
Department to be completed within 1 year of enactment.
  When government failure is exposed and legislation aimed at restoring 
accountability is enacted, it makes sense that action would be swift 
and immediate, people would be fired, and wrongs would begin to be made 
right. Unfortunately, that has not been the case at the Department of 
Veterans Affairs.
  While there are as many as 1,000 employees that could potentially 
face disciplinary actions, the VA has punished a total of eight for 
involvement in the scandal. We continue to hear about unacceptable 
patient wait times, unanswered benefit inquiries, patient safety

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concerns, medical malpractice, flagrant mismanagement, infighting, 
corruption, and years of construction delays that total millions of 
dollars.
  Frustration, anger, outrage, Mr. Speaker, these are just a few of the 
words that describe how I and other Americans felt when we read these 
latest stories about problems within the Department of Veterans 
Affairs. The continued ineptitude at the highest levels of the 
Department of Veterans Affairs is simply unacceptable. It is past time 
to put an end to this agencywide pattern of mismanagement.
  Last month, the House continued its efforts to fulfill the commitment 
we have made to those who have served by approving several pieces of 
legislation to further improve accountability at the VA.
  We also passed legislation to increase access to education programs 
for veterans and to encourage small businesses to hire them. While it 
will never be enough, this legislation is a positive step forward in 
meeting our responsibility to America's veterans.
  However, Congress cannot transform the VA alone. It is the 
President's responsibility to ensure changes are made within the agency 
and that employees are held accountable for their actions. 
Unfortunately, that is not happening.
  Every day, we hear only more stories about further misdeeds. 
President Obama must commit to reforming the VA with more than just lip 
service. America's veterans deserve a meaningful, decisive plan to 
right the many wrongs.
  As a country, we are uniquely blessed. We live in a nation where each 
of us has the possibility of nearly limitless fulfillment and 
prosperity in the world's finest democracy. That unparalleled freedom 
and opportunity has been made available to us because of the profound 
sacrifices of those who have fought for and defended our Nation.
  America's veterans deserve better than the inexcusable misconduct and 
neglect that we have seen over the last few years at the VA. It is 
critically important that we provide high-quality, timely care for 
those who have sacrificed so much to our country.
  Republicans are committed to that principle and to the veterans of 
this country.

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