Jodey Arrington: “It is my highest privilege to serve with Chairman Roe and Ranking Member Walz on the VA Committee, and I am grateful for…”

“It is my highest privilege to serve with Chairman Roe and Ranking Member Walz on the VA Committee, and I am grateful for the honor to serve as chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity. I want to thank Chairman Roe for his leadership on an issue that I believe gets at the root cause of many of the problems, maybe most of the problems that plague the Department of Veterans Affairs: the lack of accountability. Where you don't have a culture of accountability in an organization, you have mediocrity; and mediocrity and excellence in service do not and cannot coexist. We are talking about serving our veterans, the men and women who are willing to sacrifice everything for our freedom and security. These folks gave their best to our country, and they deserve the very best from our country. Having almost half a million delinquent disability claims is not our very best; having veterans wait in line for months to see a physician, not our best; having hundreds of billions of dollars in improper payments is not our best; waiting 6 months to a year to terminate somebody for misconduct and poor performance is definitely not our best. People all over this country, hardworking Americans, get up every day; they work hard; they perform; they deliver results; and if they don't, they lose their job. If they are small-business owners, they go out of business.…”