Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, first of all, I include in the Record six letters from various veterans service organizations in support of H.R. 5620, as amended. Military Order of the Purple Heart, Springfield, VA, July 14, 2016. Hon. Jeff Miller, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Miller: On behalf of the Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH), whose membership is comprised entirely of combat wounded veterans, I am pleased to offer our support for sections 1 through 8 and 10 of H.R. 5620, the VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016. If enacted, this legislation would establish reasonable accountability measures for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees. The ability to reward good employees and hold poor employees accountable is essential to any high-performing organization. Unfortunately, events of the past two years have made it clear to MOPH that VA lacks the necessary authority to punish, remove, and recoup the performance bonuses of employees who were found to have endangered veterans, misused government funds, and otherwise underperformed in their duties. While we understand that VA cannot simply fire its way to success, we feel that improvements to these authorities made by this legislation are critical to allowing VA to function as it should, while also maintaining veterans' trust in their VA.…”