A Justice Department decision Wednesday not to enforce part of new laws that were intended to increase accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs has outraged lawmakers.
The Justice Department’s move could help Sharon Helman, former head of the Phoenix VA hospital, return to her previous job by allowing her to appeal the VA’s decision to fire her in 2014.
Helman presided over the Arizona facility when thousands of veterans were placed on secret waiting lists to cover up long delays in care, a scheme that was later discovered to exist at 110 VA clinics around the country.
Dozens of veterans reportedly died while waiting to see a doctor in Phoenix.
But Helman was ultimately terminated for an unrelated reason: accepting more than $50,000 in gifts from a lobbyist. She pleaded guilty in March to taking the gifts, which came in the form of cash, a car and even tickets to a Beyonce concert, according to an Arizona Republic report.
Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he was “outraged” by the Justice Department’s decision.
“Today, the Obama administration sent a message loud and clear to felons and those with felonious tendencies everywhere: You will be coddled and protected at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which even before this decision was routinely tolerating egregious behavior among employees, such as armed robbery participation and wait-time manipulation,” Miller said.
The Florida Republican vowed his committee would “immediately begin exploring legislative remedies to thwart the Obama administration’s blatant advocacy” for VA employees.
Sen. John McCain called the administration’s move “shameful.”
McCain defended the VA reforms that the Justice Department chose not to defend, arguing that decision “not only undermines the law that Congress passed and the president supported, but sends a clear message that for President Obama and Attorney General Lynch, the sanctity of a federal bureaucrat’s job is far more important than the health and wellbeing of our veterans.”
When Obama signed the VA accountability reforms in August 2014, he praised the legislation for giving the VA “more authority to hold people accountable.”
“If you engage in an unethical practice, if you cover up a serious problem, you should be fired. Period. It shouldn’t be that difficult,” Obama said at the time.
Concerned Veterans for America also expressed concern about the Justice Department’s “surrender to special interests and entrenched bureaucrats,” calling its statement Wednesday an “insult.”
“The administration’s refusal to fully and completely defend this law opens the door for ethically challenged, even criminal, individuals … to regain their jobs and put veterans’ lives in jeopardy once again,” said John Cooper, spokesman for the veterans’ group.
Helman is presently engaged in a lawsuit aimed at reclaiming her old job, according to CNN, which first reported the Justice Department decision.
