Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise to oppose H.R. 1994, which seeks to transform 300,000 VA personnel to what we call at-will employees, capable of being fired based on anything, including their beliefs and not their merit necessarily. It effectively destroys the civil service as it is and as we know it at the VA. Now, some jaded colleagues of mine would look at this bill and say it is just a clever attempt to drive a wedge between our Nation's veterans--all of whom we ardently support on both sides of the aisle-- between those veterans and the civil servants who serve them at the VA and the unions that represent them. This bill strips due process rights away from every nonmanagement VA employee, including over 100,000 veterans. That is the key, is that there are 100,000 veterans themselves affected by this bill; and they will lose rights as a result if this bill passes. Now, H.R. 1994 will have a chilling effect on those willing to speak out, and that has been addressed amply heretofore, but I am here to say it goes beyond whistleblowers. Whistleblowers in this country have a lot of protections. This goes beyond whistleblowers because, remember, a lot of the bad actors at the VA that have led to the Phoenix situation and the others that we have seen are management people. Think of it.…”