VA Equal Employment Opportunity Counselor Modernization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I think the key term that Ranking Member Bost used was ``common sense.'' That can sometimes be in short supply around here.

When we found out that the VA has roughly the same number of EEOC counselors today--38--that it had in 1997, you ask yourself the simple question: Well, what else has happened at the VA since that time?

Their workforce has nearly doubled. Since 1997, the VA has become one of the largest Federal agencies, with a workforce of over 400,000 people, which means those same 38 EEOC counselors are handling roughly double the amount of complaints of unfair and illegal discrimination today that they were in 1997.

See, the law placed an artificial cap on the number of counselors, but it did not place a cap on the amount of unjust discrimination in our society. That has continued. If anything, the last year has shown us how deep and intransigent racial discrimination, sex discrimination, and other illegal forms of discrimination remain in our society and how we have to take active steps to dismantle them wherever we find them.

Unfair and illegal discrimination exists at the VA. It doesn't make me proud to say it as a veteran, as a lawmaker, as a public servant, but it exists there just like it exists everywhere else. These folks know how to deal with it. They know how to listen. They know how to make the employees feel like they have a safe place to go and tell their side of the story. They know how to stick up for these employees who are giving their careers to helping our veterans.

All we need to do is lift the cap, and the VA will hire EEOC counselors who can do their job effectively and take care of those who are taking care of our veterans every day.

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