Cramer Calls on Senate to Act on VA Reform Legislation

Press Release

Today Congressman Kevin Cramer called on the U.S. Senate to join the House of Representatives in passing accountability reforms for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) amid the mismanagement scandal affecting the health care of veterans nationwide.

"It's been a couple weeks now since we passed legislation that would reform the VA, but we haven't seen any action in the Senate while news reports of malpractice are widening daily," said Cramer. "These stories of mistreatment of our veterans are unfathomable to the vast majority of North Dakotans, and certainly to me, and we need to demand immediate action on their behalf. Majority Leader Harry Reid should bring this bipartisan legislation to the Senate floor so we can begin repairing the damage done to our veterans' health care system."

The VA Office of Inspector General announced last week the probe into malpractice at the department has widened to 26 different medical facilities nationwide. The investigations include a case in Arizona where the director of the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system deceived the public with two sets of records while hundreds of veterans waited months to receive medical treatment, some of them dying on the waiting list. It was announced yesterday at least 1,700 veterans waiting for health care at the Phoenix VA facility were left off the wait list, and the average wait time for a first appointment was 115 days.

Employees associated with the malpractice were part of the Senior Executive Service (SES), a government-wide corps of federal agency managers who cannot be removed or demoted without a cumbersome, multi-step process. In 2012, only one of 435 SES employees at the VA received a negative performance review despite widespread mismanagement and preventable deaths in the national VA system.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act of 2014 gives the Secretary of Veterans Affairs direct authority to remove or demote senior executives by submitting a notice of removal along with a reason to the House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affairs. It passed the House of Representatives on May 21 with a vote of 390 to 33.

Cramer is also a cosponsor of the Veterans Access to Timely Medical Appointments Act, which requires the VA to schedule primary care appointments within 7 days and specialty care appointments within 14 days. The bill was subject to discussion at a March 27, 2014 Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Health hearing.

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