[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3328]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS FAILURES

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Veterans Administration failed to 
contact thousands of veterans who submitted applications for health 
care. Apparently, those applications were incomplete, but the VA did 
not tell the vets to correct the applications and resubmit them; so the 
applications were left pending on a shelf with no action by the VA and 
no health care for the veterans. Reports state that nearly 300,000 
veterans died waiting for a resolution from the VA.
  Of course, the VA blamed the veterans. This is a farce. The veterans 
never even received a follow-up call to finish their supposedly 
incomplete applications.
  These mistakes are that of the VA, not the veterans. The VA should be 
ashamed. Government bungling stood in the way of these warriors 
receiving health care and broke a promise the Nation gave to them.
  The VA's dysfunctional bureaucrats need to be removed, and veterans 
should be allowed to have a voucher that gives them the privilege to go 
to their own doctors, doctors who are more concerned about health care 
than paperwork.
  And that is just the way it is.

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