Obama: To clean up VA

He’ll ‘punish’ misconduct, but Shinseki stays

“We are going to fix whatever is wrong” with veterans care services, President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday at the White House.
“We are going to fix whatever is wrong” with veterans care services, President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday at the White House.

President Barack Obama vowed to punish any officials responsible for covering up delays at Veterans Affairs Department facilities, saying that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki will stay on the job, for now.

Obama said he's awaiting a report from the VA's inspector general on whether some of the agency's facilities, in an effort to cover up failures to meet standards, kept secret waiting lists for veterans seeking care, some of whom may have died while waiting.

"If these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful and I will not tolerate it, period," Obama said at the White House after a meeting with Shinseki and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors, who was dispatched to Phoenix to oversee a review of the system there. In all, 26 VA facilities nationwide are under investigation.

"Once we know the facts, I assure you, if there was misconduct, people will be punished," he said.

The statements from Obama were the first time he has spoken publicly about the matter since he answered a question on the topic during his trip to Asia this month.

Although the White House has maintained support for Shinseki, others have called for his resignation, including the American Legion and Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas and Jerry Moran of Kansas.

Burr, the top Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said Obama's timeline is too slow and that he shouldn't wait for the department's inspector general to finish the review.

Conditions at the VA are a "national embarrassment," as is Obama's response, said Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican. "Tough words just aren't enough when it comes to this issue. We need action."

Obama said Shinseki "has put his heart and soul into this thing and he has taken it very seriously."

"But I have said to Ric, and I said it to him today, I want to see, you know, what the results of these reports are, and there is going to be accountability," Obama said.

Obama assigned Nabors to work with Shinseki and conduct another review of the entire Veterans Health Administration, the unit of the VA responsible for health care. Obama said he expected a preliminary report from Shinseki next week. The final report is due next month.

The Veterans Health Administration provides care to about 6.5 million veterans annually at more than 1,700 hospitals, clinics and other facilities, according to congressional testimony from Shinseki.

An Army veteran, Shinseki, 71, is a native of Hawaii, where Obama grew up. He was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his military service in Vietnam. A four-star general, Shinseki promised during his 2009 confirmation hearing to "transform" the VA.

Arkansans' views

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., said it is premature to tell Shinseki to quit.

"I don't want to join the chorus of those calling for him to resign right now," Crawford said. "I think there are obviously some significant issues at the VA that need to be addressed, but they've been a part of the VA culture for a long time. It just seems to just now have come to a head."

Crawford, a former U.S. Army bomb-disposal technician, said a way to change that culture is to give the VA secretary more authority to fire senior-level employees at VA hospitals.

"Whoever's in charge at the VA certainly needs to be equipped to go in and make the necessary changes, and I think this is a good first start," he said.

The House easily approved a measure Wednesday evening that would give the VA secretary more authority to fire or demote the 450 senior career employees who serve as hospital directors or executives in the agency's 21 regions. The vote was 390 to 33.

Crawford voted for the bill, as did Reps. Steve Womack, Tim Griffin and Tom Cotton -- all Arkansas Republicans.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, sponsored the measure, saying VA officials who have presided over mismanagement or negligence are more likely to receive bonuses or glowing performance reviews than any sort of punishment. He declared that a "widespread and systemic lack of accountability is exacerbating" the department's problems.

Crawford also said his staff members are talking with constituents to find out whether they have had problems with VA facilities.

"At this point that doesn't appear to be the case," Crawford said. "But we're doing a full review."

Womack's staff members did not say whether he thinks the general should resign. Womack retired from the Army National Guard in 2009 as a colonel.

"The information that has come to light about the treatment of veterans in Phoenix and at several VA hospitals across the nation is minimally a breach of competence and is, perhaps, criminal. We need the truth, and I urge VA leadership to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible and hold accountable those who selfishly denied our veterans the health care they earned," Womack, said in a statement.

Griffin, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, called on Shinseki to resign in a May 12 letter. On Wednesday, Griffin said Shinseki should have moved earlier in his tenure at the VA to address the systemic problems that have existed at the agency for many years.

"I respect Gen. Shinseki as an Army general. I respect him as a public servant. I think he is a good man," Griffin said. "I just don't think that he has the boldness to move and do what he needs to do to address this stuff."

Cotton also said Shinseki should step down, calling the VA's problems systemic.

Cotton served in the Army from 2005 to 2009, rising to the rank of captain.

"We've now learned that they go beyond mistakes or incompetence and into potential criminal misconduct. Secretary Shinseki should resign for these failures, but responsibility ultimately lies with President Obama. He's known about the problems at the VA since 2008 and said they were a priority, but he's done next to nothing," Cotton said in a statement.

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor's staff members did not say whether he thinks Shinseki should resign.

"Secretary Shinseki is a decorated war hero with more than 40 years of service, so there's no question he cares deeply about our veterans. I want answers about what happened so the right people are held accountable," Pryor, D-Ark., said in a statement.

Staff members for U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said he hasn't called for a resignation yet either.

"Sen. Boozman is extremely concerned about the egregious failures at the VA. He is pressing for answers from the secretary about wait times Arkansas veterans are facing for medical care at VA facilities and assurances that the data is not being manipulated," spokesman Patrick Creamer said.

U.S. 2nd District Congressional District candidate Patrick Henry Hays called on Obama to demand Shinseki's immediate resignation.

"We already know there are unacceptable problems with the quality of care at several VA facilities and you have to hold people accountable," the North Little Rock Democrat said in a statement.

A spokesman for Hays' Republican opponent, Little Rock banker French Hill, declined to comment on the issue.

'Ineffectual response'

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona called Obama's remarks on Wednesday "wholly insufficient in addressing the fundamental, systemic problems plaguing our veterans' health-care system."

"This administration's ineffectual response has created a crisis of confidence in our veterans community," McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam conflict, said in a statement. McCain ran for president in 2008 against Obama.

Paul Rieckhoff, chief executive officer and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said Obama is "dithering" in his attempt to fix the VA's problems.

"Our membership is tremendously disappointed," Rieckhoff said in an interview taped Wednesday for Political Capital with Al Hunt. "There's no real action. There's no real plan."

Rieckhoff said Obama should have offered more than an investigation. "What we'd like to hear him say is how he's going to get to the bottom of the VA mess," he said.

The Iraq War veteran stopped short of calling for the resignation of Shinseki, even while criticizing him.

"Shinseki has lost the confidence of America's veterans and of the American people," Rieckhoff said.

Obama said the trouble at the VA has been festering for decades and the system has had to deal with an influx of veterans from the conflict in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan.

The president, who sat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee as a senator, said he'd welcome the bipartisan help of Congress to tackle problems at the agency.

"It is important that our veterans don't become another political football, especially when so many of them are receiving care right now," he said.

For now, Obama said, the thing that's most disturbing is "the possibility that folks intentionally withheld information that would've helped us fix a problem."

Obama defended his administration's efforts to work on broader challenges in the department. He said officials had reduced waiting times for getting benefits, even as they have expanded the number of veterans who can get access to benefits for different conditions.

CNN, citing a retired VA doctor and other unidentified people, reported in April that managers at a VA center in Phoenix covered up long wait times for care and that as many as 40 veterans died while on the list. Obama said at the time that he ordered Shinseki to investigate and that there was a probe being conducted by the VA's inspector general.

The current director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, Sharon Helman, has been placed on leave while the VA's inspector general investigates the claims raised by several former VA employees. Investigators probing the claims say they have so far not linked any patient deaths in Phoenix to delayed care. A report is due in August.

Last year, Helman was awarded a $9,345 bonus in addition to her $169,000 annual salary. Shinseki rescinded the bonus on Wednesday, the VA said. A spokesman said the bonus had been awarded through an administrative error.

Two Republican senators have introduced legislation to prohibit payment of bonuses to employees at the Veterans Health Administration through next year. Burr, the senator from North Carolina, and Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., said the VA should focus its spending on fixing problems at the agency, "not rewarding employees entrenched in a failing bureaucracy."

Information for this article was contributed by Roger Runningen, Angela Greiling Keane, David Lerman, Greg Giroux and Kathleen Hunter of Bloomberg News; by Michael D. Shear and Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times; by Julie Pace and Matthew Daly of The Associated Press; and by Sarah D. Wire of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A Section on 05/22/2014

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