THE RUSS REPORT-Barely a month after news of a scandal at the Phoenix Veterans Administration (VA) broke, where some 40 veterans allegedly died resultant of delayed or denied medical care, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4031, “the Department of Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act of 2014.”
The Bill, authored by Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), Chair of the House Committee on Veteran’s Affairs, was introduced in the House on February 11, 2014 and passed on May 21, 2014, receiving almost unanimous bipartisan support in the House with a vote of 390-33 that included 160 House democrats.
Interestingly, only six House Democrats in California voted against H.R. 4031- George Miller (CA-11), Barbara Lee (CA-13), Henry Waxman (CA-33), Xavier Becerra (CA-34), Linda Sanchez (CA-38) and Maxine Waters (CA-43).
HR 4031 would amend Title 38 U.S.C. to give the Secretary, General Erik Shinseki (photo) , greater authority to remove, or terminate, any employees of the Senior Executive Service (SES) whose performance warrants removal. The bill would require Shinseki to give the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees notice of removal within 30 days of removing an individual.
HR 4031 has the full support of Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) such as The American Legion, American Veterans (AMVETS), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America (IAVA), The Reserve Officers Association (ROA) and the Concerned Veterans for America (CVA).
“Under the current, antiquated and morbidly dysfunctional civil service system, it’s nearly impossible to dismiss or do more than slap the wrists of incompetent, ineffective and wasteful Senior Executive employees,” said AMVETS National Commander John H. Mitchell, Jr. “No matter what ideas and policies the VA Secretary wants to implement, without the ability to remove deadweight executives, his hands are tied.”
Reports from the VA Inspector General over the past 2-3 years have linked serious patient care issues and deaths to widespread mismanagement within VA facilities yet not one person has been held accountable.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross (FL-15) issued the following statement (in part) in support of H.R. 4031: These Veterans who gave their lives in service are now receiving the cold shoulder from the administration's Department of Veterans Affairs. This is how the administration thanks our Veterans? It is unacceptable that this type of behavior is tolerated and occurs throughout the department.”
But the “secret lists” were only the “tip of the iceberg.” In the aftermath of the Phoenix scandal, new allegations that VA hospitals in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, North Carolina, New Mexico and Chicago manipulated appointment scheduling to make it appear that veterans were receiving medical care within the Departments stated goal of 14 days.
Sadly, the escalating problems at the VA, under Shinseki, didn’t start with the Phoenix VA. VA facilities in South Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Washington State have also been linked to delays in patient care or poor oversight. In the past year there have been several preventable deaths of veterans at VA facilities in the nation including Pittsburgh, Jackson, MS and others.
Twenty-six facilities in 9 states are currently being investigated amid allegations that VA employees doctored records to hide waiting times and other issues.
On Thursday, H.R. 4031, passed almost unanimously in the House, should have passed immediately in the Senate, but Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, objected to the Bill and a request by Sen. Marco Rubio to take up and pass the Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act. Sanders said he would hold a “hearing” several weeks later.
Veterans know, all too well, the mantra of “deny, delay until we die” and this is one more tactic, in an election year, to delay much needed legislation that would allow the Secretary to remove deadbeats from the VA system.
In a May 22, 2014 “Message to Veterans,” Shinseki announced that the VA would investigate itself.
“I ordered the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to conduct a nationwide audit of all other major VA healthcare facilities to ensure understanding of, and compliance with, our appointment policy. That audit is being conducted now by more than two hundred senior VHA staff,” Shinseki wrote.
Pete Hegseth, CEO of CVA, said, “The VA has proven that it can’t be trusted to reform itself, and the Obama administration as a whole appears unlikely to do so. That means it’s time for Congress to assert its oversight authority to demand accountability at the Department.”
Miller told the nation on Memorial Day, “The secretary, himself, has got to take ownership of this issue. We have been trying to tell him for over a year that these people are not telling him the truth.
They’ve got to come clean, quit protecting the bureaucrats and start serving the veterans. We have a Department of Veterans Affairs that when we send a subpoena to them, they don’t answer the subpoena. When we send thousands of questions to them that are Oversight responsibility, they don’t respond to our questions. They decide to tell us what people they are going to send to testify at our hearings when we, in fact, asked for other witnesses. Shinseki knows that his people have not been serving him well.”
Shinseki’s acceptance of VA Undersecretary of Health, Dr. Robert Petzel’s resignation just one day after the two men testified in a contentious hearing before the Senate Veteran’s affairs Committee, almost immediately created a new controversy- VA Secretary Eric Shinseki SAID he resigned, but Petzel had announced his retirement last fall and the White House had announced his replacement, Jeffrey A. Murawsky, on May 1st.
Just how long Harry Reid’s Senate will delay a vote on H.R. 4031 is anyone’s guess.
For the time being, Shinseki will remain in his post as Secretary despite a growing number of VSO’s, members of Congress and veterans calling for his resignation. Most importantly, these horrific actions within the VA will continue until those responsible are held accountable.
(Katharine Russ is an investigative reporter. She is a regular contributor to CityWatch. Katharine Russ can be reached at [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 43
Pub: May 27, 2014
