[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4633-4634]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      NOMINATION OF MICHAEL MISSAL

  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to 
confirm Michael Missal, the nominee for the Department of Veterans 
Affairs inspector general.
  For far too long, our Nation's veterans have been without a permanent 
watchdog in place to ensure the VA affords them the care that they 
deserve.

[[Page 4634]]

  I have seen the damage that acting leadership in the VA Office of 
Inspector General has done in my own State of Wisconsin. Numerous 
veterans of the Tomah VA facility suffered for years through dangerous 
prescription practices, whistleblower retaliation, and a culture of 
fear. The VA Office of Inspector General, under acting leadership, 
conducted a multiyear investigation of the Tomah VA facility but then 
swept the allegations under the rug--the secret report that was hidden 
from veterans, the public, and Congress.
  Months after the report was finalized and closed, Jason Simcakoski, a 
35-year-old Marine Corps veteran, died of a lethal cocktail of over a 
dozen different drugs at the Tomah VA facility.
  Another Wisconsin veteran, Thomas Behr, died after being treated at 
the Tomah VA facility. Mr. Behr's daughter Candace told me that had she 
known about the inspector general's report, she never would have taken 
her father to the facility and he might be alive today.
  In other words, had the VA Office of Inspector General been 
transparent and published the findings of its investigation, these 
tragic outcomes could very well have been avoided.
  Under acting leadership, the VA Office of Inspector General has tried 
to stonewall my investigation into the tragedies at Tomah VA medical 
facility. Its actions have shown that, under acting leadership, the VA 
Office of Inspector General has become too close to the VA, the agency 
it is charged with overseeing. The acting leadership lacked the 
fundamental tenets of transparency and accountability that all 
inspectors general should have that could literally mean the difference 
between life and death.
  I was forced to resort to a subpoena to obtain the information about 
the investigation of the Tomah VA Office of Inspector General, and 
there are still some documents the acting leadership has refused to 
produce. For over a year, I have urged President Obama to appoint a 
permanent VA inspector general. I was pleased that President Obama 
finally heeded my calls--and, quite honestly, the calls of many of my 
colleagues--when he nominated Michael Missal to the position late last 
year. My committee, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs, moved his nomination after carefully considering 
his qualifications, and we reported him out to the full Senate 
immediately.
  I am hopeful that under Mr. Missal's leadership, the VA Office of 
Inspector General will restore veterans' trust in the inspector 
general's office, protect VA whistleblowers, and forge a new 
relationship with Congress, but above all else, I hope Mr. Missal will 
use his position to help ensure the finest among us receives the high-
quality care they deserve.
  I am confident Mr. Missal is up to the task, and I thank him for 
agreeing to serve in this supporting role.

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