Veterans Health Care

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this weekend Americans will gather to remember all who have fought and perished so that we might live in freedom. Memorial Day is our chance to honor their extraordinary sacrifices.

Of course, Kentucky has long played a proud and vital role in the defense of our Nation. I am honored to represent so many Kentuckians in the Armed Forces, including those stationed at Fort Knox, Fort Campbell, the Blue Grass Army Depot, and members of the Reserves and Kentucky National Guard.

One of the reasons Memorial Day is so important to me is because it allows Americans to reflect and give thanks for all that we have--to recognize that none of it would have been possible without so many Americans we have never met putting everything on the line for us. That is why the men and women who protect us deserve our full support when they are deployed, when they are training, and when they return home. Most Americans certainly agree with that statement.

Yet as we have recently learned, that is not what is happening. So many Americans now turn on the evening news just to be sickened by the steady drip, drip from the Obama administration's growing veterans scandal. The denial of care to our veterans is a national disgrace and the scandal only seems to increase in scope by the day.

We first heard about 1 hospital in Phoenix, then we heard about 10 medical centers across the Nation, now there are at least 2 dozen VA facilities under investigation. It all leads to an obvious question: How widespread is this failure to treat our veterans?

We need answers from the President and his administration. The White House claims the President didn't even know about the latest scandal until hearing about it on the news, even though a top official testified he knew of inappropriate scheduling practices at VA health care clinics as far back as 2010. It sure raises a lot of questions.

It is a curious thing. President Obama, the most powerful man in the free world, always seems to be the last to know about what is going on in his own administration. From the Obama administration's IRS scandal to its ObamaCare Web site fiasco, just about every time, the President claims to be in the dark until the wrongdoing surfaces on its own--usually in the press. The pattern is incredibly worrying.

If it is true he learns so much through the press--if he knows that little about what is going on in his own administration--then I recommend he get reengaged. Right now. Right now. Because American Presidential leadership is needed today. This scandal appears to be a failure of huge magnitude, and the people we represent are demanding he rise to the challenge.

Our veterans are counting on him to work with both parties to get to the truth and to pursue solutions that can make things better--solutions such as the VA reform bill that passed the House yesterday with strong bipartisan support. That legislation, which I have cosponsored and which Senator Rubio has been the leader on, would make it easier to remove high-level VA employees for performance failures. It is a smart idea. There is no reason for us not to pass it quickly right here in the Senate. The President should call for its passage right away too. That would be one positive step forward for him--a small one, but a positive one, even though, for some reason, the White House has been ambivalent about the bill.

Look, we all remember how engaged the President was when healthcare.gov flopped. He was very engaged. He didn't just send a staffer out to Phoenix; he didn't just give a secretary a stern talking to; he didn't say he wouldn't stand for it. He pulled out all the stops. He made it his No. 1 priority to get that Web site running, even if that is still not done. What I am saying is the President should put more effort into helping our veterans than his attempt to fix a Web site. Only he can work with us to get to the truth. Our veterans deserve it. They deserve answers. They deserve accountability, and they deserve solutions.

As we look ahead to Memorial Day, I hope the President will work constructively with us to give them just that--to prove how grateful we are to the brave men and women who protect us every single day.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

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