Today, U.S. Representative Gary Peters released the following statement after the initial findings of the Department of Veterans Affairs audit were announced:
"Our service men and women deserve the best care, but today's audit shows that the Department of Veterans Affairs is failing to meet its main responsibility--delivering accessible, quality health care. The scope of these problems is appalling, and I urge the VA to move swiftly to fix the problem, deliver to veterans the benefits they have earned, and put necessary reforms in place to prevent this from happening in the future. I hope that the audit's finding will mark a new step toward increased transparency and put the VA on a path toward providing the health care and benefits our nation's veterans truly deserve."
The son of a World War II veteran, Peters served in the U.S. Navy Reserve for more than a decade, becoming a Seabee combat warfare specialist and rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. After 9/11, Peters volunteered to serve again.
Peters believes that leaders in Congress and the Administration need to maintain a focus on the real issue at stake -- the health care of American's men and women in uniform. The health and benefits of our nation's veterans must never be politicized or used as a pawn in partisan games.
To ensure that veterans in Michigan were receiving adequate services from VA healthcare centers, Peters held a roundtable discussion in May at the Michigan Veterans Foundation in Detroit to hear about their experiences, challenges and their reaction to the reports about the VA medical crisis. Peters also voted in favor of the Veterans Affairs Management and Accountability Act, a measure to increase accountability at the VA by enhancing the Secretary's authority to rapidly remove employees of the Senior Executive Service, based on their performance, from government service when their actions warrant dismissal.