Making Continuing Appropriations During a Government Shutdown

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to say that this compromise is really an excellent example of what Congress can do when we work together to put our veterans first and work toward substantive solutions to the challenges they face.

Passing this legislation this afternoon is a critical step toward addressing some of the immediate accountability and transparency concerns that are plaguing the VA and fixing its deep-seated structural and cultural challenges. Each new report seems to paint a more serious and more disturbing picture of the VA's systemwide failure to provide timely access to care for our Nation's heroes. I am especially concerned by the number of facilities that serve Washington State veterans that have been flagged for further review and investigation. The VA has promised to get to the bottom of this, and I expect them to do so immediately.

However, these new reports are not only consistent with what I hear so often from veterans and VA employees but also with what the inspector general and GAO have been reporting on for more than a decade. These are not new problems, and Congress must continue to take action on them while addressing the inevitable issues that will be uncovered as ongoing investigations and reviews are completed.

I expect this Chamber to come together, as the House did yesterday--twice, in fact--to move this bill forward so we can work on our differences with the House and send this legislation to the President's desk as soon as possible.

As we all know, there are serious problems at the VA that will not be solved through legislation alone or by simply replacing the Secretary. However, I am very hopeful these steps that are in this legislation will spark long-overdue change--from the top down--in order to ensure that our veterans are given the care and support they expect and deserve.

So I wanted to come today to commend the Senator from Arizona and the Senator from Vermont for their commitment to bipartisanship and putting the needs of our veterans first. This is an important compromise, and I urge our colleagues to continue the bipartisan collaboration that made this bill possible. Let's get it passed and in place so these reforms can begin to get started. And then we must keep working to address the management, resource, and personnel shortcomings that we all know exist at the VA.

I yield the floor.

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