VA Wait Times

Floor Speech

VA WAIT TIMES

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today, after two days of testimony by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, to talk about a subject we have still heard virtually no discussion of from this administration: the impact of this war on our servicemembers and veterans.

General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have now spent countless hours in an attempt to sell both the Congress and the American people on the virtues of the President's surge. Their aim is to convince us to spend more time, more money, and more lives in Iraq. Yet we have heard precious little about the impact of this surge on the men and women who are actually on the battlefield fighting.

That is a disturbing omission that leaves me--and I am sure thousands of military families across the country--deeply unsettled and greatly concerned for the future of our Nation's plan to take care of these heroes.

We all know going to war has a profound effect on our men and women in uniform, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are no exception. As the Iraq war now enters its fifth year, it is clear the fighting overseas has taken a tremendous toll on the lives of our troops, who have served this Nation so honorably, and on their families, who have supported them so fully. Yet, over and over again, in their sales job, this administration has either failed to make the cost of caring for our wounded warriors a priority or--as we found this week--blatantly misled Congress and the American people about that cost.

Unfortunately, on Monday, just 2 days ago--the same day General Petraeus appeared in the House to talk about the results of the surge--we learned from the VA inspector general that the Department of the VA repeatedly--repeatedly--understated the wait times of our injured veterans seeking care.

How can we be expected to trust this administration about the continuation of a surge when they continue to cover up the costs of this war?

Administration officials, including Secretary Nicholson himself, have repeatedly told Congress and the American people that 96 percent of all veterans seeking primary care and 95 percent of veterans seeking specialty care were seen within 30 days of their desired appointment date.

Well, this week, the inspector general found that in reality only 75 percent of veterans have waited less than 30 days. In fiscal year 2006, the VA underestimated the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who would be seen by 45,000 people. For the current year--fiscal year 2007--the VA has now been forced to revise its projection up by 100,000 people. Now the VA is projecting it will see 263,000 Iraq and Afghanistan vets in 2008. Yet, I am told by some that the VA should actually be preparing to see more than 300,000 returning veterans.

Frankly, I think it is very important that we do not underestimate this number. We have seen the past failures in the VA to accurately project the numbers, and I think it is very important this administration get those numbers right.

The VA's fiscal year 2008 budget also assumed a decrease in the number of inpatient mental health patients, when all signs everywhere we heard and turned to pointed to an increase in need.

In February of this year, I had the opportunity to ask VA Secretary Nicholson, how the President's escalation of the war would impact our care for veterans. He told me it would have a ``minimal'' impact. Now, not only does that statement fly in the face of reason, it boggles my mind.

I told Secretary Nicholson, when he told me that:

When the President has proposed a surge in troops to Iraq, when the men and women in uniform are being deployed for their second and third tours of duty, and when more and more of our troops are coming home with [post-traumatic stress disorder] and other mental health care needs, I don't understand how the VA can assume that they will treat fewer patients for inpatient mental health care.

The VA Secretary's duty is to protect our veterans, not a dishonest administration. If the VA had been frank with us about waiting times and backlogs from the beginning, we in Congress would have been able to invest in our facilities and in allocating our resources properly.

If we were getting accurate information, and not being served a political line, we could do our job and serve the veterans. Unfortunately, based on our experience with VA leadership over the past several years, I have serious doubts about the level of frankness we can expect from a VA that has tried to minimize the cost, both in money and in lives, of this war.

This spring, as our military was surging in Iraq, we learned that the VA officials--the officials--had received bonuses, while our veterans faced waiting lines and backlogs for benefits. To me, that is plain wrong. Senior career officials throughout the VA were getting a generous package of more than $3.8 million in payments by that financially strapped agency, at the same time as our veterans waited up to a year--up to a year--to see a doctor, and at the same time VA officials were misleading Congress and the American people.

This week's IG report found:

. .....that schedulers at some facilities were interpreting the guidance from their managers to reduce waiting times as instructions to never put patients on the electronic waiting list.

Well, that obviously results in ``gaming'' of the procedure. So a veteran calls in, asks for an appointment, and instead of putting them in line, they are told to call back in a month or two, before they get on the waiting list. That is the wrong way to treat our veterans.

I have to ask, were officials receiving bonuses for cooking their books on wait times? Well, in light of this week's report, it seems to me to be a fair question.

The inspector general's report on the VA's failure to provide an accurate account of how long our veterans are waiting for care is a frustrating reminder of that agency's need for honesty and leadership. Whether the VA's numbers were intentionally skewed or incompetently reported, the result is the same: Our veterans pay the price.

Now, I have long said the VA provides excellent care to our veterans--once they get in the door. The VA has a long-term focus on patients, it has a great integrated delivery model, and it has a first-rate health IT system that provides distinct advantages over our private sector care. We have to keep it that way.

But too often, for our veterans, getting in the door is the problem. Every one of us has heard at home from veterans who have waited months to see a primary care doctor. Some of those veterans have had to wait years to get surgery. For too many years, under this administration, veterans have been last in line, and we in Congress have had to fight this administration tooth and nail to meet their needs.

It is clear that 5 years into this war--5 years into this war--the VA is still not on a wartime footing to deal with this problem. It is far past time for the VA to put an end to the pattern of dishonesty that has plagued them. From exaggerated reports of success, to failures to present their real funding needs, to poor conditions at our facilities, the VA is not coming clean with the American people. And every time the VA tries to save political face, do you know who it ends up costing? Our men and women who have served us honorably overseas, our veterans.

No matter how anyone in this country feels about the war, Americans support our veterans. Everywhere I go, people stand up and say to me that they do not support the war, but they will be there with their pocketbooks and their hearts to make sure our veterans are taken care of when they get home.

In order for us to do that--and everyone here wants to do that--we need to have an honest assessment from this administration about what the costs are or we cannot provide the support that Americans want us to provide.

The President of the United States has a responsibility now to send us a nominee to fill the soon-to-be-vacant position at the VA. We need a new nominee, a new Secretary, who is going to be an honest advocate. We need a new VA Secretary who is going to fill the needs of our current veterans and future veterans and who will honor their sacrifice with superior service.

I am looking forward to the President finding and sending to us someone who will fill that position that we can finally trust, who will bring about a culture of change, who will bring us accurate information, who we do not have to second guess, and, most importantly, who will be willing to stand up and be honest with the American people about the cost of war when it comes to the men and women who are fighting for every one of us.

If we are just being told a happy picture all the time, and not getting the reality of what is out there, we in Congress cannot do our job to make sure our veterans get what they need. The men and women who have served in the military have borne significant burdens. They have assumed great risk for our country, and they have sacrificed their lives and their limbs to protect all of us and our freedoms. They have done their job. They have done what this country has asked. They have done it honorably. It is time this administration helps us keep a promise to them to fulfill their needs. Our Nation has a moral obligation to care for those who have served this country in uniform, and that begins by an honest assessment of the cost.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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