Much work remains to correct problems at VA
Pennsylvania is home to many historically significant places in our country's military history. Valley Forge, Lake Erie, Gettysburg and others were the scenes of profound sacrifice for freedom and our nation's defense.
For more than 200 years, our citizens have defended freedom in far-flung battlefields from the Hürtgen Forest to Al Ramadi, Iraq.
Pennsylvania also has a long tradition of honoring our veterans. In August, I was in Boalsburg in Centre County - population fewer than 4,000. Boalsburg is the birthplace of Memorial Day and the home of the 28th Division Shrine.
The Boalsburg legend goes like this: In the fall of 1864, three local women visited the cemetery to lay flowers on the graves of a father and son who had died in the Civil War. As the women left, they agreed to return the next year to remember not only their loved ones but others as well. The following July 4, friends accompanied them. Prayers were offered. Graves were tended. No headstone was left unadorned.
I strive to capture that same spirit in my ongoing commitment to the men and women who fought to defend this country. Since joining the Senate, I have worked to help our veterans obtain the services and benefits they rightfully deserve. I have proposed federal budgets that would have increased total spending for veterans by almost $40 billion and voted for legislation to help veterans find employment.
A few months ago, the American people learned about outrageous examples of mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs that included excessive wait times for needed care; substandard care; dishonest reporting on care; and cutting corners that probably cost veterans' lives.
VA facilities in Pennsylvania and other states are being investigated for failing to provide timely appointments and then cooking the books to indicate otherwise.
The problems at the VA are outrageous and unacceptable. The men and women who served in uniform should be first in line for the best quality medical care in the world.
To address this serious crisis, I introduced legislation to restore accountability by allowing veterans and other patients at VA hospitals to sue the department's employees who falsified and destroyed health records. My bill also would have allowed the VA secretary to fire and revoke pensions of employees who fail to do their jobs.
This summer, I also supported $10 billion legislation giving veterans the ability to use medical providers outside the VA, give the VA secretary authority to fire poor-performing employees, and allow the VA to hire more doctors and nurses.
While not perfect, the bipartisan bill aligns with my long-standing beliefs that veterans should be able to more easily obtain health care from private-sector providers and that the VA needs to be more accountable.
Our veterans deserve these kinds of reforms where lawmakers find common ground, not more partisanship in Washington.
Each of us owes a debt of gratitude to our veterans, to today's service members and to their families. It is a debt of gratitude we can never repay. What we can do, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, is to "care for him who shall have borne the battle."
The mismanagement and unethical behavior at the VA is a profound failure to honor this obligation. While we have enacted into law new reforms that will help, I remain concerned about a bureaucratic culture that fosters unethical behavior and is resistant to change. Much remains to be done.
