We Must Keep Faith with America’s Veterans

It has now been nearly a year and a half since President Obama accepted the resignation of former Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Eric Shinseki with the promise “to do right by our veterans across the board, as long as it takes.”  Unfortunately, the President and the VA continue to fail by most measures. The scandalous neglect VA of its health care system still looms over this year’s annual remembrance of the service of our veterans – Veterans Day 2015.

In recent years, the VA has been struggling to reduce a stubborn and utterly unacceptable backlog in benefits claims. Despite full funding from Congress, the department’s efforts have yielded limited success.

We all were alarmed by revelations about VA management.  The dereliction of duty to our veterans had led, not only to long wait times for veterans, but also to serious health care problems, and even deaths, data manipulation, and patient harm. 

This shameful activity is occurring in an era of increasing resources for the VA. Funding levels have increased by well over 60 percent since 2009. This year, the House seeks to increase the VA budget by another $4.1 billion above current levels. It is clear that management, not funding, is at the root of the VA's problem.

When veterans who have put their lives on the line for this nation die or get sicker because of delayed or improper care from the VA, we are right to be outraged.  But anger is not enough.  Whether it is the claims backlog, the secret lists, preventable deaths, or the ongoing electronic health records debacle, it is crystal clear the problems at the VA represent a system-wide crisis.

Of course, the vast majority of VA employees and clinicians are hard-working individuals with a passion for serving those who have served our country. But, like the veterans they serve, they have been betrayed by their leadership.  This epidemic of neglect reflects a broken bureaucracy that protects the very people who should be held accountable, too often giving them bonuses rather than a pink slip. 

As you will recall, the House and Senate took action to help bring real accountability to the VA, passing the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act (H.R. 3230) which was signed into law last year.

The House also passed legislation earlier this year to increase access to job training and encourage small businesses to hire more veterans.  These bipartisan measures represent another step in our ongoing effort to address the problems at the VA, improve access to services, and increase opportunities for our veterans.  With the enactment of the Clay Hunt SAV Act, helping prevent veterans’ suicides, the House has demonstrated that this is an area of common ground where we can make a real difference in the lives of our nation’s heroes.  However, only the administration can change the VA’s culture from within.

The mission of the VA is immortalized in brass at the entrance to the Department’s headquarters: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle….”  Those words, from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, are a solemn commitment we have made, as a nation, to those who served.

Tomorrow, on Veterans Day 2015, the VA is failing to properly care for America’s veterans and thus, failing at its fundamental reason for existence.  Over a year after these failings came to light, major, systemic change is still needed at the VA.  It must come from the top and it must start right now.