(Republished with permission from Change.org)
When Iraq War veteran Chris Neiweem made an appointment at Washington, D.C.’s VA hospital, he was told he could not see a doctor for nearly 60 days. Chris is one of many members of our organization, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), who depend on quality and timely VA health care – yet they’re still not getting it.
Just one year ago, Americans learned how bad things were at VA hospitals. Reports of secret VA wait lists, whistleblower retaliations and veteran patients dying while waiting to see a doctor rocked the country. But few VA employees have been held accountable for their negligence. Not only has no one gone to jail, only two employees have been fired over their role in the VA scandal.
This is why we support legislation to give the VA the tools necessary to remove employees who are not meeting the standards of service that our veterans deserve.
Please click here to sign our petition and ask Congress to hold VA employees accountable.
VA Secretary Bob McDonald needs the authority to remove any VA employee based on performance or misconduct, and protect whistleblowers who expose mismanagement within the Department. We also need a shortened appeal period for those employees to bring an end to what appears — in the view of too many veterans — to be a never-ending removal process that does not hold people accountable and, even worse, puts veterans at risk.
There are commonsense policies that should already be in effect – but they’re not.
In June 2014, IAVA called for the creation of a new Marshall Plan for Veterans: a bold, comprehensive effort to restore confidence in the VA. As part of that plan, IAVA called for full criminal investigations of those bad actors who ruined the reputation of the VA and harmed its veteran patients. Passing this bill is the next step to protect our veterans.
Thank you,
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America