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Wheeling Intelligencer: Firing VA Officials Who Let Vets Down

07/31/15

Since a scandal erupted last year over military veterans being forced to wait excessively long for health care appointments at government facilities, things have changed, U.S. Rep. David McKinley found in looking into the problem.

They got worse, he learned, despite pledges by the Department of Veterans Affairs to do better and even though Congress provided the agency hundreds of millions of dollars to do that.

"Waiting lists at the VA are now longer than when the scandals began breaking, with the number of veterans waiting one month or more up 50 percent," McKinley explained this week.

He did so in explaining why he voted for what clearly is an essential change - a bill allowing the secretary of Veterans Affairs to fire employees at will for misconduct and incompetence.

Apparently that is not possible now. Just two lower-level VA employees were fired because of the wait-list scandal. Only three VA officials lost their jobs.

The bill on firings should be enacted. As McKinley noted, it is long past time VA officials were held accountable.

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