Political Quotes

“My amendment has one goal: to ensure that rural America is very much a part of the conversation on improving the Veterans Administration. This very good, bipartisan bill that is before us will help the VA improve its ability to recruit, hire, train, promote, and retain physicians and other employees at the VA, but it could be slightly changed to help veterans in rural America. And, by the way, a significant number of veterans are in rural America, including Vermont. My amendment would add two provisions. First, the underlying bill requires the GAO to conduct a study on succession planning at the VA. That is intended to try to better understand the problem the agency has to have a pipeline of qualified candidates to assume critical roles that are open. My amendment would require the GAO to study and analyze succession planning and hiring in rural areas. The vast majority of our country is rural, so we have got to put an emphasis on that. The challenges in rural America are different than in the urban areas. Second, the underlying bill also requires the VA to collect information on hiring effectiveness: the time it takes to fill a vacant position, the attrition rate, the reason staff leaves, investment in training and development, and other barriers to recruitment and training. My amendment would require that study to focus on the rural challenges that are different, significantly, than in the urban areas.…”