WASHINGTON -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned after revelations of widespread failings in the health-care system for military veterans.
President Barack Obama said he accepted Shinseki's resignation Friday morning after the retired general delivered an interim review that found systemic mismanagement, treatment delays and falsified records in the Veterans Health Administration, the largest health-care network in the United States.
Lawmakers from both parties had called for the secretary's resignation and said the president bore responsibility for mismanagement at the agency that provides care to more than 8.3 million veterans annually.
Shinseki concluded "that he could not carry out the next stages of reform without being a distraction himself," Obama said at the White House. "And my assessment was that, unfortunately, he was right."
Shinseki, a native of Hawaii like the president, is a former U.S. Army chief of staff. He earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam. He left the military with the rank of four-star general.
While lauding Shinseki's service in the military and at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Obama said the department wouldn't be able to fix the system while the secretary was under fire from lawmakers and veterans groups. The internal audit released Friday showed scheduling staff members were instructed to manipulate appointments at 64 percent of VA facilities.
He said VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson will take over on an interim basis. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors will remain on temporary assignment to the VA to assist with the transition and complete his own review, Obama said.
Calls for Shinseki's resignation escalated with Wednesday's release of an inspector general's report that found some VA hospitals kept phony waiting lists to hide health-care delays. Richard Griffin, the department's acting inspector general, said there were repeated instances of altered waiting lists in a review of 42 VA medical facilities.
The Justice Department, working with investigators at the VA's inspector general's office, also is reviewing materials to see whether any crimes were committed, according to a federal law enforcement official familiar with the probe.
Prosecutors are focusing particular attention on whether VA officials made false statements to their bosses or others to cover up problems related to the care of veterans, said the official, who requested anonymity because the investigation is still under way. The official described the investigation as being in its preliminary stages.
Griffin said investigators found that as many as 1,700 veterans at a Phoenix facility were "at risk of being lost or forgotten" when that hospital left them off an official list of patients waiting to see a doctor.
There was evidence of double bookkeeping -- two sets of lists showing how long veterans had to wait to see a doctor. The average wait was 115 days to see a doctor, not the 24 days shown on the bogus lists, Griffin's report said. Some 40 veterans reportedly died while awaiting care in Phoenix.
"It is totally unacceptable," Obama said Friday of the problems within the veterans health-care system. "Our vets deserve the best. They've earned it."
Shinseki Apologizes
Obama said Friday that he regretted Shinseki "has to resign under these circumstances." He said the secretary had expanded services to veterans with mental-health issues and reduced homelessness among the group.
"He has worked hard to investigate and identify the problems with access to care," Obama said. "But as he told me this morning, the VA needs new leadership to address them."
Shinseki, 71, served longer than any other VA secretary since 1989, when the agency became a Cabinet-level department. A disabled Vietnam War veteran who lost part of his right foot to a mine in Vietnam, he had been overwhelmingly supported by veterans groups for the post of VA secretary in 2009.
The first Army four-star general of Japanese-American descent, Shinseki met monthly with the major veteran service organizations. Because of his progress in trimming a disability claims backlog and in reducing veterans' homelessness, many of those groups continued to support him until his resignation
But William Thien, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said his group supported Shinseki's resignation.
"The outside calls for his resignation were overshadowing the crisis in health-care issues veterans face," Thien said in a statement.
Shinseki spoke to a veterans group earlier Friday in Washington where he apologized for the lapses and said he had moved to fire Phoenix veterans' hospital leaders.
"Leadership and integrity problems can and must be fixed now," Shinseki said at the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans' conference.
He said there will be no performance bonuses for senior VA health officials this year and that waiting times will no longer factor into their reviews. Bonuses encouraged hospital officials to manipulate wait lists, lawmakers and VA officials have said.
The VA is contacting each of the Phoenix veterans on the secret list "to bring them the care they need," Shinseki said. He called on Congress to approve a bill making it easier to fire senior VA officials and to fill vacant leadership positions in the department.
"VA has a systemic, totally unacceptable lack of integrity with some of our veterans health facilities," Shinseki said. "That breach of integrity is irresponsible, it is indefensible and unacceptable to me."
In his speech, Shinseki said, "I extend an apology to the people whom I care most deeply about -- that's the veterans of this great country -- to their families and loved ones, who I have been honored to serve for over five years now. It's the calling of a lifetime."
Shinseki said he had been "too trusting of some" in the VA system. He then headed to the White House to offer his resignation to the president during a 30-minute meeting in the Oval Office.
Lawmakers React
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle welcomed Shinseki's decision to quit Friday.
"The denial of care to our veterans is a national disgrace, and it's fitting that the person who oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs has accepted responsibility for this growing scandal and resigned," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said Obama should replace Shinseki with "someone who would get confirmed very quickly" and suggested that person come with experience in business.
Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas said in a statement that it is Obama's responsibility to make sure the systemic failures in the agency are addressed.
"The failures within our VA medical system pose a problem in need of an immediate solution, and the President's ability to manage this crisis to this point has been nothing short of disappointing," the Rogers Republican said.
"The administration must take quick action to regain that confidence, and up to now, a sense of urgency in the White House has been lacking to say the least."
Rep. Steve Womack said firing Shinseki won't fix the entire problem. Womack retired from the Army National Guard in 2009 as a colonel.
"There are tremendous problems plaguing the VA and its ability to carry out one of the most important missions of our government -- caring for our veterans. It's been determined that the VA's problems are systemic, and while I'm encouraged that the administration is beginning to take responsibility for them, Secretary Shinseki's resignation alone isn't going to right the ship," the Rogers Republican said.
Sen. Mark Pryor's office said the Little Rock Democrat met Thursday with Michael Winn, director of the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock, and with Dr. Mark Enderle, director of the Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks, on Friday.
"Secretary Shinseki is a decorated war hero, and there's no question he cares deeply about our veterans after 40 years wearing our nation's uniform. I respect his service to our country, and I respect his decision," Pryor said in a statement. "It's clear there's a lack of integrity within the VA system and we need to fix it immediately."
Pryor had said Thursday that he was still reviewing all the information and wasn't ready to call for Shinseki to resign.
Rep. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle who served in the Army from 2005 to 2009 and is seeking Pryor's Senate seat in November, supported asking Shinseki to resign. His campaign issued a statement Friday criticizing Pryor for not joining the resignation call earlier.
"Secretary Shinseki's resignation is an overdue first step toward the reforms needed to get our veterans the care they deserve. I'm disappointed that, as usual, Senator Pryor stuck with President Obama until the very end, but even the President realized Secretary Shinseki needed to resign," he said.
Pryor's deputy campaign manager, Erik Dorey, said Cotton was trying to politicize the issue.
Rep. Rick Crawford, a former U.S. Army bomb-disposal technician, said in a statement that it was best for Shinseki to resign.
"I believe that Gen. Shinseki put too much faith in the bureaucracy at the Veterans Administration and it was the bureaucracy that let him and countless veterans and their families down," the Jonesboro Republican said.
"While I do not celebrate the General's resignation, I believe he did what needed to be done."
Rep. Tim Griffin, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, said the resignation is a right step.
"Make no mistake, a new leader alone won't cure what ails the VA. The only cure is bold, innovative reform that will undoubtedly receive massive resistance from entrenched defenders of the status quo. But, the best interests of veterans must prevail," the Little Rock Republican said.
Information for this article was contributed by Roger Runningen, Michael C. Bender, Del Quentin Wilber, Derek Wallbank and Richard Rubin of Bloomberg News; by Kevin Frecking, Julie Pace, Pauline Jelinek, Donna Cassata and Jim Kuhnhenn of The Associated Press; and by Sarah D. Wire of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 05/31/2014