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Lawmakers Call For Criminal Probe Of Veterans Affairs Facilities

Lawmakers Call For Criminal Probe Of Veterans Affairs Facilities

By Richard Simon, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department should enter the investigation of whether Veterans Affairs employees have falsified records to cover up long waits at VA medical facilities, Democratic and Republican lawmakers said Sunday.

“Only the Department of Justice and the FBI have the resources, the expertise and the authority to do a prompt and effective criminal investigation of the secret waiting lists, potential destruction of documents, falsification of records, in effect, the cooking of books and covering up that may have occurred,” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, agreed. “Department of Justice needs to get involved,” he said on the same program.

The VA inspector general is investigating 26 sites to determine whether employees covered up long waits for medical appointments.

But Blumenthal said the inspector general cannot do the job alone, and only the Justice Department can convene a grand jury, if necessary. The inspector general has said that the investigation could lead to criminal charges.

The chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, meanwhile, signaled that as lawmakers step up oversight of the VA, his committee would look into whether Congress is providing enough funding to the department.

“I suspect we are going to need more funding if we’re going to do justice and provide the high-quality care that veterans deserve,” Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), said on CNN’s State of the Union. Sanders has questioned whether the VA’s goal of scheduling patients within 14 days of desired appointment dates was too ambitious, given its current budget.

But Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, contended that the current controversy is an “issue of manipulation and mismanagement.”

“If money was the issue, this problem would have been solved a long time ago,” he said on CNN.

The VA budget has been increased, but veterans groups have contended that it hasn’t been increased enough, given new demands for services from aging Vietnam veterans and new veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

“When you have 2 million new veterans coming into the system, some with very difficult and complicated problems, I do think we have to take a hard look and see if we have the resources,” Sanders said.

Kinzinger repeated his calls for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign.

“It is really time for a shakeup,” he said. “I haven’t even seen the level of outrage out of him that I think we ought to be hearing.”

But Miller said, “This is much larger than the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.” Still, Miller has grown frustrated with the VA. His committee is due to hold a hearing Wednesday.

“You’ve got an entrenched bureaucracy that exists out there that is not held accountable, that is shooting for goals — goals that are not helping the veteran,” Miller said.

The lawmakers’ appearances on the Sunday talk shows came a day after the VA announced it would allow more veterans to use private medical services to meet growing demands for health care.

Kinzinger welcomed the move but asked, “What took so long?”

AFP Photo/Saul Loeb

It’s Time To Show Our Veterans Some Love

It’s Time To Show Our Veterans Some Love

“I want a love I can see. That’s the only kind that means a thing to me. Don’t want a love you have to tell me about. That kind of loving I can sure do without.” — The Temptations, 1963

A few days ago in an airport restaurant, I saw a scene that has become commonplace in recent years. These soldiers were sitting there talking, waiting for their meal. And this guy on the way out detoured over to them. “Thank you for your service,” he said.

They nodded, thanked him for thanking them. He went on his way and they went back to talking.

“Thank you for your service.” I wonder sometimes how military personnel feel about hearing that everywhere they go.

I mean, I went with my wife once to pick up a nephew, an airman returning home from overseas, and we could hardly get out of the airport for all the people stopping him to thank him. I asked what he thinks of that. He shrugged and said something noncommittal.

“Thank you for your service.”

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve always suspected that if I were a serviceman, I might get a little tired of hearing that. Not that it isn’t earnest and not that it isn’t well meant. It is both. Indeed, a nation that treated homecoming veterans of the last long and controversial war with something less than gratitude seems determined to prove it has learned its lesson. That’s laudable.

But at the same time, in the context of how we actually treat our veterans, the greeting has also come to feel, well … facile. For me, at least, it calls to mind the Motown chestnut quoted above and the distinction between a love made manifest and one that is only words.

What would it look like if we gave our service personnel a love they could see? Well, here is what it would not look like:

It would not look like Veterans Affairs facilities across the country requiring sick and injured veterans to wait months to see the doctor, then falsifying records to make it appear they were actually being seen much more quickly. This, of course, is the scandal that has roiled the White House and put Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki on the defensive.

But look past that. A love they could see would also not look like a backlog of disability claims that peaked last year at more than 900,000, forcing some veterans to wait a year or more for their benefits. Nor would it look like the 2007 Washington Post report about wounded men recovering in a military hospital with rotting walls, creeping mold and vermin sauntering about.

Point being, this new scandal is not new. Rather, it is but a variation on a sadly recurrent theme: the neglect of our veterans.

We’ve heard many excuses: computer systems that don’t talk to one another, lack of oversight, unrealistic expectations, yadda yadda yadda.

But here’s the thing: These men and women volunteer to go into harm’s way, putting body and mind on the line in defense of their nation’s interests. They don’t make excuses, don’t justify or rationalize. They simply do.

And because they do, we have a sacred covenant with them. It is a betrayal of that covenant and a profound national disgrace that they are treated so shoddily when it is time for us to fulfill our part of the bargain, to, as Lincoln put it, “care for him who shall have borne the battle.” So we must confront our government with a simple, bipartisan demand: No more excuses. Fix this, now.

That would reflect a love — and respect — that service personnel could see. And that they richly deserve.

“Thank you for your service” is all well and good. But if we do not put some muscle into that gratitude, if we continue to countenance this shabby treatment, it might be better — or at least, more honest — to just shut up and let our military men and women walk through the airport in peace.

(Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, FL, 33132. Readers may contact him via email at lpitts@miamiherald.com.)

Photo via Wikimedia Commons