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How Can we Trust the VA: Fails to Explain Misleading and False Statements

Press Release

Date: April 10, 2015
Issues: Government Operations Veterans

During a March 16, 2015 House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, Congressman Tim Huelskamp (KS-01) demanded a written response explaining four major false and misleading statements from the VA. An unprecedented three weeks later, the VA still has not explained how and why they made these misstatements, nor how they plan to restore the resulting loss of trust by Congress and the American people.

"Ignoring these false and misleading statements by top VA officials will not make them go away, nor will it restore the faith of the American people. It is time for the VA to provide a straight-forward explanation of how and why they made these statements -- and provide convincing assurance that these were not intentional attempts to mislead. Until these breaches are filled, I seriously doubt that Veterans and the rest of the American people will find have reason to trust the VA."

As of April 10, 2015, out of the four false VA misstatements identified by Huelskamp, he has only received a partial response regarding Secretary McDonald's inaccurate statement about firing 60 people due to wait times. (There were only four individuals in the entire VA system actually fired for this.) Additionally, three false statements remained unexplained:

1) In April 30, 2014, former VA Under Secretary for Health Robert Petzel said there was "no evidence of a secret list" in Phoenix. That statement turned out to be false.

2) In a May 23, 2014, former Phoenix VA Director Sharon Helman and current Phoenix VA Chief of Staff Darren Deering denied there was a secret list in Phoenix. Those statements turned out to be false.

3) In a Dec. 15, 2014 report, the VA Inspector General documented how VA officials have misled Congress and the press regarding deaths related to delays in VA medical care.

4) Lastly, as referenced above, in a Feb. 15, 2015 appearance on Meet the Press, VA Sec. Bob McDonald said VA had fired 60 people due to wait time issues. That statement was false.


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