Improving Safety and Security for Veterans Act of 2019

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 3147, the Improving Safety and Security for Veterans Act of 2019.

This bill was drafted in response to a tragic incident at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, where a former VA nursing assistant killed at least seven veteran patients by injecting them with lethal doses of insulin while they were under her care.

As a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, I personally grieved the loss of those veterans. I cannot fathom the pain that their loved ones must feel. My heart is with them, especially during this holiday season.

Congress must act to ensure that no other veteran, family, or community experiences such tragedy ever again.

Passing S. 3147 today will help us do that, Mr. Speaker. The bill would require VA to report to Congress on the Department's efforts to assess, monitor, and improve patient safety and quality of care throughout the VA healthcare system. It would also require the VA to report to Congress on the series of events surrounding the Clarksburg murders and the actions taken in Clarksburg and nationwide, for that matter.

We need to ensure that we learn from this tragedy and that it never, ever is repeated.

This bill is sponsored by Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia and is the companion to a House bill in the House by my good friend, a great member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and I know he supports veterans, David McKinley, who I will yield to in a second. David is from West Virginia.

I appreciate Senator Manchin's and Congressman McKinley's efforts to ensure that veterans in West Virginia and across the country receive care that is timely, safe, and of the very highest quality. Again, we have to thank them for their service to our country, and they are entitled to this quality of care, Mr. Speaker.

Every veteran deserves to feel confident that they will be well cared for when they walk through VA's doors. While nothing can bring back the veterans who were ruthlessly murdered in Clarksburg, I hope that the passage of this bill today will restore some of the trust that has been lost due to this heartbreaking chapter in VA's history and ease other veterans' fears that they may have about their own safety seeking care through the VA healthcare system.

Mr. Speaker, I urge every one of my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill today.

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