[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13015-13016]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 FAILING VA MEDICAL CENTER RECOVERY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Alabama (Mrs. Roby) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. ROBY. Mr. Speaker, it has been almost a year since the director 
of the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System was fired after 
numerous reports of mismanagement and malfeasance surfaced--the missing 
patient x rays, the falsified records, the employee who took a veteran 
to a crackhouse, and the utter lack of discipline and order.
  The removal was possible under new authority granted under the VA 
reform law that we passed last year, and I was hopeful that this action 
was indicative of a new VA leadership that finally got it, that was 
willing to cut through the bureaucracy and make the decisions necessary 
to turn around failing medical centers.
  I did hear a lot of nice promises--commitments to work through the 
system to make sure that the problems

[[Page 13016]]

were fixed--but, Mr. Speaker, the problems were not fixed.
  Communication and coordination between various levels of management 
are still badly out of sync at a time when we can least afford it. It 
seems like, every time I think we are in a position to make real 
progress in central Alabama, something falls through the cracks, the 
ball gets dropped, an opportunity is missed. Every time, the VA 
leadership can point to the various layers of bureaucracy for why these 
problems exist--promises, excuses--but not action.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe the problem is that we have been depending on 
a broken bureaucracy to fix itself. I believe the problem is that we 
have been asking the VA leaders to intervene in this troubled system 
rather than requiring them to. I believe it is time to change that by 
breaking through the bureaucracy to get results on behalf of our 
precious veterans.
  What happens when a public school continues to fail to meet basic 
standards? The State Department of Education steps in to take over, and 
it takes charge of turning the place around.
  It is a process that isn't pleasant, but everyone from principals and 
teachers to students and parents understand the consequences of the 
failure to improve. I believe we need a similar mechanism at the VA 
when medical centers continuously fail our veterans.
  Today, I am filing legislation to compel the Department of Veterans 
Affairs officials to intervene and take over failing VA medical 
centers. It is called the Failing VA Medical Center Recovery Act.
  It offers the VA new tools to turn around the worst of our healthcare 
centers, and it puts the responsibility for doing so squarely on the 
Secretary of the VA. The VA needs a team of leaders who is equipped 
with the expertise to identify solutions and the authority to execute 
them.
  Under my bill, the VA will recruit teams of the best managers and 
medical professionals who can rapidly deploy to failing medical centers 
to take over and take charge. These takeover teams would be managed 
through the newly authorized office of failing medical centers and 
would have the new legal tools needed to make a difference at each 
location.
  This is an antibureaucracy bill. This is the team that no complacent 
VA employees want to see coming because they know that the status quo 
is about to get shaken up.
  Just like a failing school, this can serve as a motivation to keep 
performance from dropping off. Also very important is that the 
determination of a failing medical center will be based on data, not on 
the Secretary's whim or what media attention it is garnering. My bill 
sets up an automatic trigger that compels the VA to act under the law.
  I am glad the Secretary used his authority to take control of the 
situation in Phoenix--but why not Montgomery? Why not Tuskegee? Why not 
come and take control of the worst and the second worst situations in 
our country, especially after we have repeatedly asked and have pleaded 
for him to do so? I am tired of asking, and that is why my bill 
requires the VA to step in and take charge.
  Mr. Speaker, some might misperceive this as an attack on the VA, and 
it is not. It is actually a gift. Entrenched bureaucrats might hate 
this plan, but reform-minded leaders at the VA should welcome new tools 
and new resources to fix medical centers and help veterans access care.
  I have spoken to many of my colleagues about this bill, and I am 
pleased as to how well it is being received. I look forward to working 
with Chairman Miller and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
move this legislation forward.
  Let's have a real conversation about getting results on behalf of our 
veterans.

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