Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SULLIVAN. I yield to the Senator from Maryland.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I want to rise to also support my colleagues on the Veterans Affairs' Committee. It is an honor to serve with the chairman of the committee, the distinguished senior Senator from Georgia, and the ranking member from Connecticut, Senator Blumenthal.

One of the great honors about being on that committee is not just serving our veterans but that it is a committee that gets a lot of work done. It is a very bipartisan committee, and that is why so many of us are coming to the Senate floor to talk about this important issue-- accountability for the VA.

I was home in Alaska this past weekend, and as I often do, I ran into veterans. Every State in the Union likes to talk about their veterans and brag a little bit. Well, in my State we have more veterans per capita than any State in the Union. We are very proud of that.

I was talking to a Vietnam veteran on Friday in Anchorage, a combat veteran corpsman. He saved a lot of marines during his time. He had such deep frustration about this issue of accountability with the VA. As a matter of fact, he used to work at the VA. The one issue he raised with me was this: How can we do more with regard to accountability? He reads about it in the paper.

The key here to that conversation and to so many conversations I had with veterans back home is that we must restore the bond of trust between the VA and the veterans that the VA serves because we all know that bond of trust has eroded. Trust is eroded when no one is accountable.

Trust is eroded when no one is accountable. My colleagues have already talked about it, but once again, it is very disappointing to see the VA walking away from accountability as opposed to embracing it.

Senator Tillis did a great job of describing the bill that was signed by the President in 2014, the Choice Act, which had some strong accountability measures. Yet, just recently, the Attorney General of the United States sided with the argument of a former Phoenix VA director who was at the helm when as many as 40 veterans died waiting for health care. The Attorney General of the United States sided with her argument and is not even testing the accountability provisions in this new law that was passed by this body and signed by the President. She just quit and didn't even let the courts declare that this law is unconstitutional. She just quit and sided with that argument. I think that is an outrage. What it does is undermine the issue of trust. It is also a dangerous precedent by allowing the head of the VA and the Attorney General of the United States to substitute the judgment of the Congress of the United States in a law, saying we are not even going to defend this issue anymore. It is a precedent that I don't think anyone in this body would agree with--essentially gutting the accountability provisions in a recently enacted law signed by President Obama and not even trying to defend them. This is exactly the kind of action that further erodes the trust between the VA and our veterans.

Yesterday, in a hearing chaired by the senior Senator from Georgia, we demanded a bipartisan approach and that the Attorney General or her representative get before the VA committee very soon and explain what she is up to, because I don't think anyone in this body is agreeing with the actions they are taking.

While we are waiting for answers from the Attorney General, we are not going to give up on the critically important issue of VA accountability, which is why moving forward on the Veterans First Act, which does focus on accountability, is so important, and why we are on the floor making the case for this.

This bill which I cosponsor currently has 44 cosponsors and has support from multiple veterans service organizations. You have heard about some of the important accountability measures that are in this bill.

I want again to thank the great leadership of Chairman Isakson and Ranking Member Blumenthal on this. What we need to do is move forward on this bill and restore this issue of trust. The best way we can restore trust is to let our veterans know that the leadership of the VA is accountable.

Remember, the leadership of the VA works for our veterans, and when they see people getting away with malfeasance and incorrect behavior, that trust is further eroded.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source