Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, veterans continue to be one of
the most neglected groups in our country. These men and women have
sacrificed their lives to ensure that our values and principles remain
true; yet we still have people within the VA system who neglect these
sacrifices and who disregard these men and women.

As my colleague from Arizona mentioned, this flawed guidance from the
VA headquarters is wrong and completely disrespectful to our country's
veterans. The memo that was issued by the VA, commonly known as ``Fast
Letter 13-10,'' was a deliberate attempt to make VA bureaucrats appear
as if they were delivering services and benefits to veterans faster
than they really were. Through these internal actions, some VA offices
were ``eliminating'' the backlog of benefit claims with a stroke of a
pen.

Just because you lie about the details does not make the problem
disappear. With one memo, the VA managers disregarded every performance
measure that had been put in place to protect our veterans and their
benefits. Mr. Chairman, I believe this brings up a large point--the
problems within the Federal civil service and, as an employee within
the VA stated, the dysfunctional culture of management corruption.

For the time being, we must address this issue. I join my friend from
Arizona in offering this amendment. We must ensure that VA managers
care for our veterans in a timely and effective manner. I urge my
colleagues to support this amendment.

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