Mark Pocan: “I thank Subcommittee Chairman Dent and Ranking Member Bishop for all of their work on this bill. This amendment is a…”

“I thank Subcommittee Chairman Dent and Ranking Member Bishop for all of their work on this bill. This amendment is a simple amendment to make sure that Members of Congress have access to inspector general reports, should they request one. We recently came across this issue when there was a bipartisan field hearing in Tomah, Wisconsin, regarding the Tomah VA facility. The Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General had a report regarding the overprescription of opiates resulting in multiple deaths in the area. And in this case, the VA Office of Inspector General completed a report that uncovered these practices, and they gave the recommendations to the local and regional manager. However, the report and these recommendations were never reported to the Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald, any congressional committees of jurisdiction, or the public, as the report was administratively closed. What is more, the initial report was requested by a Member of the House of Representatives, and the VA Office of Inspector General failed to even provide the completed report to the Member of Congress. Ultimately, that Member of Congress had to do a Freedom of Information request, a very unusual request, in order to get a copy of that report.…”