[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8500]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               REFOCUSING ON THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Alabama (Mrs. Roby) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. ROBY. Mr. Speaker, this week marks 1 year since the Veterans 
Affairs Secretary, Eric Shinseki, resigned amid a scandal that shook 
this country to its core. When President Obama
reluctantly accepted Secretary Shinseki's resignation, he had a lot to 
say about his commitment to fix the VA and where the buck stops. He 
said: ``We're going to do right by our veterans across the board, as 
long as it takes.'' And then: ``This is my administration. I always 
take responsibility for whatever happens.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, a lot has happened over the past year, and here 
are some of the highlights:
  Last June, reports emerged that patient scheduling manipulation had 
been particularly egregious inside the central Alabama VA. During a 
meeting to discuss these findings, the director of the central Alabama 
VA led me to believe that appropriate action had been taken to remove 
the employees that were responsible for this. That wasn't true.
  So I began to dig a little bit deeper into the problems, working with 
very courageous whistleblowers and the press to uncover major instances 
of misconduct, negligence, and mismanagement inside the central Alabama 
VA. What we were able to expose was more than 1,000 patient x-rays, 
some showing problems, went missing for months and years. A 
pulmonologist was called, not once but twice, for falsifying more than 
1,200 patient records but somehow given a satisfactory review. An 
employee took a recovering veteran to a crack house, bought him drugs 
and prostitutes, all to extort his veteran's benefits. When caught, 
that employee, as extraordinary as this is, was never fired. Not until 
a year and a half later, when it was reported in the press and exposed 
publicly, did the VA take action.
  What else happened last year? Congress passed a historic VA reform 
law providing unprecedented authority for holding employees 
accountable. The director of the central Alabama VA who lied to me 
became the first manager fired under the new reform law. Other managers 
were also removed, and the southeast regional director quietly retired 
when an investigation into central Alabama VA was expanded at my 
request to include him.
  So again, a lot has happened over the past year. But, Mr. Speaker, 
there is a lot that hasn't happened over the past year.
  Improvement to access for patient care, the one thing that we really 
need for our veterans, hasn't happened. It really hasn't happened 
nationally, and certainly it hasn't happened in central Alabama. In 
fact, VA medical centers in Montgomery and Tuskegee were recently 
identified number one and number two, respectively, the worst hospitals 
in the Nation for extended delays in patient appointment completions. 
The first and the second worst hospitals in the country are in the 
central Alabama VA.
  A workload report at the end of April showed that more than 6,500 
consults over 90 days were still pending, including more than half 
awaiting approval for non-VA care. So not enough improvement has 
happened where it matters most for our veterans.
  Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of the 
progress the central Alabama VA has made. What was a major staff 
shortage is beginning to be filled, and that includes the mental health 
side. I appreciate very much the new acting director of the region, Tom 
Smith, keeping me updated on the latest. I am grateful for him stepping 
into this important role in a difficult situation, trying to rebuild, 
trying to rebuild some of the trust that has been lost.
  As I have told him, the progress isn't enough. One reason I believe 
it isn't enough is that Washington has demonstrated something of a 
short attention span when it comes to these problems. We got their 
attention last year and a lot of nice promises have been made in terms 
of the national VA's commitment to improve in central Alabama, but once 
our problems leave the front page, there hasn't been sufficient follow-
up. Mr. Speaker, maybe that is because we are depending on a broken 
bureaucracy to fix itself. Maybe it is because we have been asking VA 
leaders to intervene rather than requiring them to intervene. Maybe it 
is time that we change that.
  You know, when a public school continues to fail to meet basic 
standards, what happens? The State Department of Education comes in to 
take over and start to turn the place around. It is a process that 
isn't pleasant, but everyone from principals to teachers to students to 
parents, they understand the consequences of the failure of that school 
system to improve. I believe that we need a similar mechanism at the VA 
when medical centers continue to fail our veterans. That is why I am 
preparing legislation that will allow the Washington VA to do that.
  My constituents, my veterans in Alabama, are getting the worst 
healthcare services that this country could provide. They deserve 
better.

                          ____________________