John Culberson: “I want to thank General Eric Shinseki for his service to the Nation, as an Army general, as Secretary of the VA, and I…”

“I want to thank General Eric Shinseki for his service to the Nation, as an Army general, as Secretary of the VA, and I am glad that he made the right decision today in accepting responsibility for these terrible systemic problems that we have seen throughout the VA that the inspector general has confirmed extend throughout the entire system of veterans being forced to wait for health care. It is an absolutely unacceptable situation, and General Shinseki has done the right thing by accepting responsibility as the man in charge. I urge him and the mid-level and upper-level leadership of the VA to do the right thing as well and accept responsibility. We need to see these veterans given access to health care immediately. Every one of them is on a waiting list that has kept them from access to doctors, and they need to immediately be put into a private hospital in the VA system as quickly and as humanly possible. The Congress has given the VA all the money they need, all the authority they need, to do their job to make sure these men and women who have served our Nation and defended our freedom get access to the best medical care in the world. I want to make sure the VA understands that the Congress is going to continue to do everything that needs to be done to ensure those veterans are taken care of. ____________________”