House passes compromise Vet bill
The House voted 420-5 to pass a compromise bill on veterans’ care. I don’t know how much good it will do since all it does is throw $17 billion at the problem and make it easier for the new VA Secretary to fire department executives, according to the Washington Times;
Lawmakers approved the plan to cut down on wait times 420-5, signaling that the eagerness to care for veterans outweighed the almost $17 billion price tag — $10 billion of which would be tacked onto the deficit, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate.
“There’s no doubt that the Department of Veterans Affairs as we know it today is in crisis and our veterans are suffering,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, Florida Republican and co-author of the bill, on the House floor. “The conference committee report we’re considering today is the first step.”
The bipartisan deal would let veterans who have been waiting more than 30 days for an appointment or who live more than 40 miles from a facility seek care outside the VA. It would also give newly-confirmed Secretary Robert McDonald more power to fire poor-performing senior executives.
I don’t know how Congress can actually vote to lessen wait times. But, at least they feel like they “did something” and they can feel good about themselves – and isn’t that really all that matters. The good news is that some veterans can now take advantage of care outside the system if they meet the geographic preconditions. That should reduce wait times somewhat. the problem at the VA is a cultural problem, though and can’t be legislated away, you know, like most problems in this country.
The problems go deeper than a few executives, though. The Senate (Bernie Sanders, specifically) protected their union base and the real problem employees are still safe, irrespective of how they do their jobs. I wish Mr. McDonald all of the luck in the world, and I wish those veterans who have been left out of the system all of the luck in the world, but I don’t have much hope.
Category: Congress sucks, Veterans' Affairs Department
Until they empower the VA to cut the dead weight, enable them to hold people accountable, and have easier means of replacing people who are part of the problem, this is nothing more than a feel good, lets throw more money at the problem to show they did “something”. I agree, while I wish the new VA Secretary good luck, I’m not all that optimistic.
Concur. I’d also say that it has never been a financial problem. The VA has more than sufficient money to do what needs to be done. The problem is in the corruption and mis-application of resources, including money for bonuses, redecorating, conferences, etc.
Hold people to account and things will start to quickly improve.
Agreed. Until there is power over the unions to perform or be fired, there will not be much change. Unions protecting, dead weight is a huge problem. If the vet can’t get past the protected dead weight, only looking for 5PM and the next pay check, it makes no difference how many doctors, nurses and better administrators are hired.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Now they can say ‘Well, we funded it, so that’s all we had to do’ and they can go have another civic banquet with speeches.
It was congressional pressure to reduce wait times before that resulted books being cooked. We don’t need more money to fix the problem. We need to take the VISNs who are performing well and adopt their best practices system wide. Plus work on changing the culture at the VA…veterans think they get shot on by VA employees? You should see what they do to one another. Good old boy networks are super strong in the VA and some of the worst are veterans as well.
To some extent, I think you do need the extra money to get the wait list time and the services time down to what it should be. Private businesses will get bogged down and have to hire temps or outsource to get the problem back under control.
At the same time, you have to be addressing what caused the problem. There were and are far too many people who caused this mess to occur and need to be gone from their current positions.
It is a problem that if it occurred in the private sector could be worked and solved rather easily. As it occurred within the government and government bureaucracy, it won’t and can’t be easy because there are too many people trying to make a name for themselves rather than dealing with the issues.
Congress: “Rest assurred America that your elected officials have taken a vote and we have agreed that wait times for Veteran care are too long. There we the Congress have done soemthing about it and now we will move on to more important issues requiring our attention, such as “Why must we pay a greens fee at the Capitol Hills Golf Course when we are already members? —-Break—– Boy I sure am relieved that Congress is doing something about this and I am positive heads will roll(sarcasm)
I don’t think I have seen this on this board before, but this is the type of thing where someone has to go. They have to be fired. Such level of incompetency cannot be allowed at a fry station at McDonalds much less when people’s lives are at stake.
Veteran unable to walk, talk told by VA he should go to work
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) –
A Vietnam veteran battling cancer and suffering from heart and lung problems from exposure to Agent Orange was denied full disability benefits from Veterans Affairs and told in a letter they can see no reason he can’t go back to work.
Ken Moore’s wife, Judy, said because of complications from his health problems, he can’t walk or talk.
http://www.wsmv.com/story/26097850/veteran-unable-to-walk-talk-told-by-va-he-should-go-to-work
Go read the story on how this vet provided medical proof he was disabled and some pinhead at the VA decided he wasn’t.
After a local news station got involved, magically his benefits were granted in an expedited review.
That fixes this vet’s problem (or at least addresses it) but what happened to the person who repeatedly denied the disability claim in the first place?
You cannot fix incompetency unless you first get rid of those who are incompetent.