Rep. Bruce Braley, the Iowa Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, missed three quarters of committee hearings concerning oversight of the Veterans Affairs administration in 2011 and 2012, including one, the Des Moines Register reports, on the same day Braley attended three fundraisers.

The Register‘s Jennifer Jacobs notes that Republicans are criticizing Braley for missing the meetings during a time when widespread abuses at VA-run hospitals were occuring, delaying care for veterans. The Braley campaign has responded that the four-term congressman was attending a separate committee hearing on the day of the three fundraisers. Jacobs notes that there’s little evidence Braley was active or even present for that hearing: