Unfortunately, 12 months later, the VA has made little progress in addressing its failures, despite the passage of the VA reform bill last summer that enhanced accountability for senior VA employees.  Fresh revelations continue to emerge from the department, revealing blatant corruption, rampant waste and the continued inexcusable abuse of veterans. 

Clearly, more needs to be done to address the VA’s failures, which is why Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, introduced the VA Accountability Act.  This legislation would allow the VA secretary to swiftly remove any VA employee found guilty of misconduct (not just senior managers) and greatly shortens the amount of time an employee has to appeal a removal.  Giving the VA secretary this power (and his actually using it) is essential to removing scores of bad employees from the VA, thereby actually making progress in reforming the VA. 

The VA Accountability Act already has more than 50 bipartisan co-sponsors in both the House and Senate.  In addition, almost every major veteran service organization has endorsed the legislation, including the American Legion, Veterans for Foreign Wars, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.  Yet despite the broad and bipartisan support for the VA Accountability Act, Washington special interest groups are trying to stop this important piece of legislation through a campaign of misinformation.