Veterans Affairs hopes disciplinary actions will fix its internal problems, but veterans groups are expressing skepticism.
On CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday, VA Secretary Robert McDonald said the agency is taking “aggressive, expeditious disciplinary action, consistent with the law” against more than 1,000 of its 315,000 employees in hopes of fixing longstanding and well-known issues such as long wait times and falsification of records to cover up delays.
McDonald followed up Monday on CNN, telling Wolf Blitzer of new plans for firings and restructuring, as well as plans for a new customer-service office to better communicate with veterans in need.
“This is going to be the largest reorganization of the Department of Veterans Affairs since its establishment,” McDonald told CNN.
The agency has been under harsh scrutiny the past few months after whistleblowers reported on VA facilities falsifying reports to cover up long wait times that led to dozens of patient deaths.
On Monday, the American Legion, a nonprofit representing U.S. war veterans, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that it agrees with McDonald that the VA needs to “take the accountability issues very seriously.”
The Legion expects McDonald to take “decisive action in removing those individuals – whether there are 1,000 or more – responsible for endangering our veterans by forcing them to wait months or even years for medical appointments,” said Verna Jones, executive director of the American Legion in Washington.
Only one of four senior employees at the VA has been fired, a result Jones said has the Legion “quite disappointed.”
Pete Hegseth, who heads Concerned Veterans for America, called today’s actions “not an overhaul” and that “there is no actual fundamental reform of the VA.”
“It’s good to hear [McDonald] talk about it, but he needs to do it,” Hegseth said.
“If VA wants to rebuild its reputation with veterans and the prospective health care employees it says it needs, then it should stop making excuses for the villains of the VA scandal and get serious about purging them from the payroll,” Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said in a statement.
