VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 5620, the VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act, and I thank the chairman for filing the bill.

H.R. 5620 provides additional resources and flexibility to the Secretary to remove employees for poor performance or misconduct. What is wrong with that?

It further improves the protections of whistleblowers that continue to receive retaliation from simply wanting to do the right thing. I thank the chairman for putting that language in there.

Additionally, this bill improves the veterans appeals process with reforms sought to decrease excessive wait times for those waiting on a disability rating. I thank Representative Titus for that language, as well.

In my district, I still hear veterans waiting too long for a decision to be made, which could take additional years on average in the appeals process--much too long.

Mr. Chairman, this process is broken and needs to be modernized right now. So again, with that, I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

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