In a single sentence, President Obama summed it all up.
“If you engage in an unethical practice, if you cover up a serious problem, you should be fired — period,” he said.
It was that shared belief that helped inspire a rare wave of bipartisanship last week, as Congress approved a bill overhaul the scandal-laden Department of Veterans Affairs. With the president’s signature Thursday, those changes are now the law of the land.
The bill comes months after whistleblower reports unearthed evidence of serious misconduct at the VA, including backlogs in care and attempts to cover up agency data.
“Stories of our veterans denied the care they needed, long wait times covered up, cooking the books. This is wrong. It was outrageous. And working together, we set out to fix it,” the president said before Thursday’s bill signing.
Among other things, the wide-ranging bill increases funding for staffing and infrastructure and gives veterans the option to seek private care if unable to get timely access to VA facilities.
The measure also steps up the level of accountability within the agency, starting at the top. New VA Secretary Robert McDonald will now have the authority to hold agency leaders accountable for poor practices and substandard performance.
“We’ve got to give Bob the authority so that he can move quickly to remove senior executives who fail to meet the standards of conduct and competence that the American people demand,” Obama said.
McDonald, a former Army Ranger and the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble, will begin a tour of VA facilities Friday, starting with the VA hospital at the center of the scandal in Phoenix.
