Blake Farenthold: “My amendment is very straightforward. If an employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs has received a work…”

“My amendment is very straightforward. If an employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs has received a work performance review rated as unsatisfactory in the last fiscal year, he will not be able to receive a salary for this fiscal year 2016. Mr. Chairman, there have been all sorts of media reports about how Secretary McDonald has been trying to reform the VA but has been having trouble getting rid of the bad apples. This is one way we could help him do that. For instance, the VA employees in the 27th Congressional District of Texas that I represent and across the Nation continue to provide vital care to our veterans. In the 27th District, our local medical center is well below the national standards for both customer service and phone standards. Mr. Chairman, an official report from the VA inspector general found that about 1,700 veterans were in need of care and were at risk of being lost or forgotten after being kept off official waiting lists. Schedulers for the Veterans Affairs were instructed to change the dates for which veterans had requested an appointment in order to hide delays. At the Phoenix VA, official data showed that veterans waited an average of 24 days for an appointment when in reality the average wait was 115 days. That is absolutely unacceptable.…”