Veterans Group Wants Congress To Wait For Trump To Pass More Aggressive VA Reform Bill

weaselzippers



The Department of Veterans Affairs needs a cleansing from top to bottom.

Via Stars and Stripes:

A massive veterans reform bill backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs will face resistance in Congress’ lame-duck session starting Tuesday from a group intent on letting the new Republican-controlled Senate and President-Elect Donald Trump have a say in how expeditiously VA employees can be fired.

With only a couple of months left as VA Secretary, Bob McDonald is making one final appeal to Congress to pass the reform bill that’s the culmination of his two-year tenure. The 400-page Veterans First Act contains dozens of provisions to streamline the appeals process for disability compensation, allow more leeway in disciplining employees and grant VA medical staff the ability to work flexible hours, among other things.

“We worked to design a new law. We’ve given a new law to Congress, and we’ve asked Congress to pass that new law,” McDonald said Thursday during an event at The Washington Post. “I’m hoping it gets passed in the lame-duck session.”

But the legislation has garnered opponents, and one veterans service organization — conservative-leaning Concerned Veterans for America — is planning a major campaign starting Tuesday to thwart efforts to move it through the Senate.

‘Power of the presidency’

The bill was authored by the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and ranking member Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. In the months after its introduction, six large veterans service organizations came out in support of it: Vietnam Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Paralyzed Veterans of America, The American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and AMVETS.

Concerned Veterans for America says the legislation is “watered down.”

With Trump elected president, Congress should wait to pass a stronger bill that would give the next VA Secretary more power to immediately fire employees, said CVA leader Dan Caldwell.

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Thank You Stars and Stripes and Dapandico. 

Obama's had almost 8 years to fix the VA's lethal dysfunction.

It's an utter disgrace.