Political Quotes

“I thank Mr. Takano, Chairman Miller, and Chairman Benishek for their efforts to improve the quality of care and services delivered to our veterans. Mr. Chairman, the Benishek-Sinema amendment is a commonsense amendment that will bring accountability to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The amendment, based on a bill that Dr. Benishek and I introduced, the Demanding Accountability for Veterans Act, requires the VA to address problems identified by the VA Office of Inspector General, and it ensures that individual managers are held accountable if issues remain unresolved. Our amendment requires that, in each covered VA inspector general report, the Secretary of the VA assign specific managers who will be responsible for fixing specific problems identified within the IG's report. The Secretary must give the responsible managers appropriate counseling and plans of action to resolve each covered issue. Bonuses cannot be paid if a covered issue remains unresolved, and how a manager responds to the challenge will be included in that individual's performance evaluation. It is unacceptable that issues raised by the VA inspector general over and over, from wait times to medical staffing, remain unresolved by the VA. This amendment will hold the VA Secretary and senior management accountable for ensuring these warnings are not ignored again.…”