Rounds Encourages Colleagues to Pass Veterans First Act

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, spoke on the Senate floor to encourage his colleagues to pass the Veterans First Act, of which he is an original cosponsor. The Veterans First Act is a comprehensive, bipartisan bill to improve accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and enhance care and benefits for veterans. It includes major provisions of two pieces of legislation Rounds introduced, the Veterans Choice Equal Cost for Care Act and the Veterans Health Administration Spending and Transparency Oversight Act. 

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTQvPueoiM

Rounds’ remarks, as prepared for delivery:

South Dakota is home to more than 72,000 veterans who have selflessly and bravely served our country.

 

I am honored to work on behalf of them on both the Senate Veterans’ Affairs and Armed Services Committees.

 

But tragically, many of our nation’s heroes aren’t receiving the quality of health care they have been promised due to decades of mismanagement and ongoing problems at the VA. This is unacceptable.

 

In fact, of all the calls we receive in my state offices asking for help with a federal agency, well over half of those calls are from veterans seeking help with the VA.

 

These veterans in South Dakota – and across the entire country – continue to experience problems with health care delivery at the VA, including backlogs, long wait times and frequent billing errors.

 

As we seek to address these issues within the entire VA system, accountability is as important as ever.

The Veterans First Act takes meaningful steps to hold the VA accountable and – in turn – improve care for our nation’s veterans, which is the most important priority of all.

This legislation truly puts the needs of our veterans first by addressing the lack of accountability at the VA.

Unfortunately, the administration last week announced it would not defend a provision of the Veterans Choice Act, which was passed with strong majorities in both chambers of Congress in 2014 and was signed by the president.

 

In response, the VA announced last week it would no longer use its expedited removal authority to hold VA senior executives accountable, given this Justice Department decision.

Regardless of the legal arguments surrounding this issue, the fact is that as a result of the VA’s decision, we are now back to pre-Phoenix scandal accountability at the VA.

We owe it to our veterans to make certain they receive the best care possible, and not have the agency responsible for that care refuse to remove non-performing or even criminally acting officials from important positions as Congress granted the VA the right to do in the Veterans Choice Act.

 

This is also important given that until recently, the VA didn’t have a permanent Inspector General, or IG, in more than 2 years.

 

Inspectors General are impartial and independent units within most federal agencies whose duty is to provide this accountability and oversight to combat waste, fraud and abuse within the government.

 

During that same timeframe, the VA has been plagued with some of the worst scandals and mismanagement in the agency’s history, and our veterans have paid the price. Some, have even died.

 

While I am glad IG Missal is now in office and can begin to address some of the VA’s fraud and waste allegations, it is too little, too late.

 

That is why the bipartisan Veterans First Act is so important. Our bill will take strong, definitive, immediate steps to hold VA employees accountable for their actions.

 

Some examples include:

 

• Shortening the grievance process, making it easier to dismiss VA officials that breach the trust of the veterans they are supposed to serve;

 

• It will remove the “Merit Systems Protection Board” from the appeal process for senior executives; and

 

• It expedites, when necessary, the removal of any employees at the VA – executives and rank-and-file employees alike.

 

Don’t take my word for it, listen to the words of Secretary McDonald himself. 

 

• On Monday, he stated that “The answer to the whole thing in my opinion is the Veterans First Act.  The provisions that Senator Isakson and Senator Blumenthal have put in the Veterans first Act WE ALL SUPPORT.  VA supports them.  The Republican Party in the Senate supports them.  The Democratic Party in the Senate supports them.  We really think that is the ultimate answer. I’m hoping the Veterans First Act will get passed soon.”

 

The bill also includes a number of provisions I have offered to improve accountability and care at the VA, such as:

 

•  The Veterans Choice Equal Cost for Care Act – which amends the Choice Act by eliminating the “secondary payer clause” to make certain veterans do not pay more for private care under the Choice Act than they would if they were seen at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facility.

 

• Veterans Health Administration Spending and Transparency Oversight Act – this legislation requires the Veterans Health Administration, or VHA, to produce an annual report to Congress detailing the cost of the health care it provides.

 

• Having accurate cost accounting by the VHA will help Congress identify legislative options aimed at better health care for our nation’s veterans.

 

I’m proud to be an original cosponsor of the Veterans First Act, and I thank the members of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, especially Chairman Isakson and Ranking Member Blumenthal and all the other members here today, for working together to produce meaningful, bipartisan reforms at the VA.

 

Our nation’s veterans, who have selflessly defended and protected our freedoms, deserve that same commitment from the country they so proudly fought and defended.

 

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