Va Employee Fairness Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOST. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 1948 and the VA Employee Fairness Act.

First, I really think that we need to take a moment to clear up some very confusing things on what this bill does.

Some have said that the VA medical staff are not allowed to unionize. That is not true. That is not true. Today, VA doctors, nurses, and dentists are allowed to collective bargain. Hundreds of thousands of medical staff are unionized.

But they are not specifically allowed to use union grievances procedures for matters of, and I will quote the law, direct patient care, clinical competence, peer review, and pay. These very specific exceptions were made for a reason.

The Secretary is responsible for ensuring veterans receive high- quality and timely healthcare. To do that, he or she must have the authority to make difficult decisions to keep hospitals running safely and to put veterans first. That is the Secretary's first mission, and he or she must continue to provide care even in the worst of times.

However, H.R. 1948 will tie the Secretary's hands, and I worry enactment of this legislation would put patients at risk. Let me say that again. Put patients at risk. The main goal of the VA is to take care of our veterans.

Now, for example, the Secretary may remove a provider from direct patient care because the care they are performing is substandard. I fear this bill would allow a third-party arbitrator to second guess--to second guess from a position that they are not trained in the field that they are trying to second guess--the Secretary's decision to remove that provider from direct patient care.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle will argue that this is not going to happen, yet not one of them can say with 100 percent confidence that that is not the case. In fact, it may happen. Unfortunately, bad actors and subpar providers do exist, and when they harm veterans or pose a risk, they need to be removed from patient care quickly.

It is also not hard to believe that the expanded grievance process envisioned by this bill could paralyze hospitals over the issue of patient care, clinical competence, and pay.

In that scenario, care would be delayed; wait times would increase; critical illnesses would go undiagnosed; costs would go up; most importantly, veterans would suffer.

And the Secretary would fail to carry out the VA's first mission and responsibility to our veterans.

This is exactly why medical staff at major healthcare systems like Mayo Clinic, Kaiser, Intermountain Healthcare, and the Cleveland Clinic are generally not unionized and do not allow arbitration to be used over patient care.

Neither should VA. The care of my fellow veterans must come before everything else.

Now, I am going to tell you this because you need to know. I, myself, was a union firefighter, and I come from a union family, so I believe in our unions, and my concerns about H.R. 1948 do not mean I am blind to issues raised by unions at the VA.

Allegations that the Secretary is abusing his authority are something that I take very seriously. It is the job of this committee to conduct aggressive oversight to ensure veterans get the care that they need, and the VA workforce is treated fairly.

Unfortunately, my friends on the other side of the aisle did not take a critical look at the Secretary's use of his authority; there was no oversight hearing, there were no public investigations, no work to address the allegations made by the unions. Instead, my colleagues have moved forward to pass sweeping legislation to turn over Congress' responsibility to arbitrators. I can't support that.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to put veterans first and oppose this legislation.

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Mr. BOST. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, in response, as we have talked about the concerns we have heard from the employees, how do we really know the bill is needed? Because the Democrats have never, in nearly 2 years of working on this bill, they did not hold one oversight hearing. Not one.

They did not call the Secretary and answer the allegations that the group pushing for this legislation is asking for. They didn't conduct public investigations into those allegations. They simply passed a bill out of committee, on a party-line vote, over a year ago.

Madam Speaker, it is our committee's job to hold the Secretary accountable, and all of the administration, over these employees. I would have gladly worked with the Democrats to do that. Sadly, that is not what happened.

Now, we are coming out here on the 11th hour of our last week or two of being here, and we are jamming through an 11th-hour bill with no clear idea that it does what my colleague says it does.

How can we support legislation like this in the last hour? That is why they call this lameduck. It is because we try to shove things through right at the last.

This has not been vetted. It did not have more hearings. We did not do our job when it came to what our job is on oversight. We could have handled this a different way.

Madam Speaker,

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Mr. BOST. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, in closing, there are several things I will say about this bill. One of the most important things to realize is that these employees have something that other medical employees around this Nation don't have. They have the Committee on Veterans' Affairs to argue on their behalf, if problems occur; that we would give oversight and give guidance and direction to our Secretary.

Now, there are far too many questions that remain unanswered about H.R. 1948:

We can't say for certain this bill won't jeopardize veterans' care-- the primary mission of the VA.

We can't say the Secretary is abusing his authority because the Democrats did not have an oversight hearing on this issue.

We can't say that the bill will really do what my colleagues say it will do.

If Congress can't answer those questions, we are not doing our job. We can't in good faith pass H.R. 1948 without knowing these answers. We owe our veterans and taxpayers that much.

Madam Speaker, I encourage all my colleagues to oppose H.R. 1948, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BOST. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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