House Republicans may be forced to subpoena the Department of Veterans Affairs to get an internal report that is thought to list the names of officials in Philadelphia who played a role in the veterans healthcare scandal that has plagued that VA office for years.
The Philadelphia office has completed its Administrative Investigation Board report, but has yet to release it to Congress despite several demands from members. One of those members is Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., who told VA Secretary Robert McDonald in mid-July that if the report wasn’t released by July 24, he’d ask the House Veterans Affairs Committee to subpoena the agency.
Costello warned then that the VA shouldn’t be able to hold up the details of who’s responsible for the various problems at the beleaguered agency. A House GOP aide said many suspect that the VA hasn’t released the report yet because it will lead to calls for accountability for the officials who are named.
“In the event that you do not provide me with a full, complete, unredacted copy of the final AIB report on or before July 24, 2015, I will approach Chairman [Jeff] Miller and request that the committee issue a subpoena for the report,” Costello wrote.
On the last day of July, Costello wrote McDonald again to say he never got any response from the VA. “Therefore, I have respectfully requested Chairman Jeff Miller of the House Veterans Affairs Committee to issue a subpoena for the report,” he wrote.
The committee declined to say this week whether or how soon it might take on Costello’s recommendation, but if the committee does act, it is likely to be when members return from their August break.
Sources within the Philadelphia VA believe the report may be overly defensive of the VA officials involved, and that top officials may be using the last few weeks to give employees fair warning and “due process” if they are named in the report. One official said it the delay smacks of an attempt to defend the VA’s employees, and questioned how good the AIB report could be given the VA’s past reluctance to hold its workers accountable.
“It’s like putting you on a jury to vote the death sentence for your cousin,” one Philadelphia official told the Washington Examiner.
In April, Miller’s committee was compelled to subpoena the VA for personnel files from the Philadelphia VA’s benefits office. That was just the third time the committee has ever issued a subpoena.
