Martha Roby: Breaking the bureaucracy
This week the U.S. House passed H.R. 1994, the VA Accountability Act, to empower the Secretary of Veterans Affairs with the legal authority to swiftly remove problem employees at all levels. You may recall that Congress passed a bill last year similarly empowering the Secretary to remove bad actors, but that legislation only authorized him to fire senior officials. Under this law, the former Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System (CAVHCS) director became the first official terminated, but as I said at the time, blame for all of the misconduct and mismanagement did not rest with one person alone. This bill is important in solving some of the broader problems the VA has had with accountability nationwide. However, more acute problems still exist at particularly troubled VA facilities that I believe require more specific action. While the director in Central Alabama was rightly removed this past August, the system has continued to struggle. Recently, VA medical centers in Montgomery and Tuskegee were identified as worst and second worst, respectively, in the nation for delays in patient appointment completions. Communication and coordination between various levels of management are still badly out of sync at a time when we can least afford it. And, VA leadership continues to point to the various layers of bureaucracy for why problems persist. That’s why this week I introduced legislation that would break through the bureaucracy and require top VA leaders to come in and take over failing systems, like Central Alabama. My bill, H.R. 3234, the Failing VA Medical Center Recovery Act, compels top VA leadership to send a “rapid response team” to take over our worst facilities and turn them around. This is the anti-bureaucracy. This is the team no complacent VA employee wants to see coming because they know the status quo is about to get shaken up. Much like the threat of a “takeover” of a failing school by the state superintendent, this puts VA medical centers on notice that we will no longer tolerate their incompetence on behalf of our veterans. Under my bill, determination of a failing facility would be based strictly on data — not media coverage or the opinion of the Secretary. And, the takeover trigger would be automatic, not optional or based on the whims of Washington. The House was right to empower the VA Secretary with the authority to enforce greater accountability. Now, we need to require him to use it to intervene at our worst performing facilities. That’s what the Failing VA Medical Center Recovery Act does, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to advance this legislation in the coming weeks and months. Martha Roby represents Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. She is in her third term.
U.S. House of Representatives: July 27-31
The U.S. House of Representatives came back in session Monday for its final week before a month-long August recess. On Monday, the House is in session and will consider a whopping 17 bills under suspension of the rules. Over half of these bills come from the Homeland Security Committee. A full list of bills can be found here. While not a part of the official House schedule this week, looming in the legislative shadows of Capitol Hill is the pending expiration of federal highway programs and funding. Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed an extension bill to provide highway funding through Dec. 18 in order to provide more time for the two chambers to come to an agreement on a full highway bill. However, last week and over the weekend, the Senate took under consideration a multiyear highway bill, putting the upper chamber at odds with the lower chamber as the debate over how to extend funding for the program, and for how long persists. The current authorization expires on Friday. Other legislation on the floor for a vote this week includes: H.R. 427: the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. This bill aims to increase transparency in the federal regulatory process. The bill would modify the federal rule-making process by preventing “major rules” — those generally having an annual economic impact greater than $100 million — from being implemented unless Congress enacts legislation approving them. This legislation passed the House previously both in 2011 and 2013, but has no chance to pass the Senate and is strongly opposed by President Obama. Alabama co-sponsors: Rep. Bradley Byrne (AL-1), Rep. Martha Roby (AL-2), Rep. Mike Rogers (AL-03) Rep. Mo Brooks (AL-5) H.R. 1994: the VA Accountability Act. The bill expands the ability of the Veterans Affairs (VA) Department to fire or demote VA employees based on performance or misconduct. It also includes provisions to protect VA whistleblowers against retaliation by supervisors Alabama co-sponsors: Rep. Martha Roby (AL-02) H.R. __: VA Budget and Choice Improvement Act. This legislation has yet to be assigned a bill number, but is written to address a $2.5 billion gap in the VA budget. The shortfall is the result of higher-than-anticipated demand for veterans health services and a lack of flexibility to shift money within the overall VA budget, according to the VA. To cover the gap, the VA has asked Congress to allow the VA to divert $3 billion from the “Choice Program,” an emergency fund set up in the wake of last year’s wait-times scandal to subsidize non-VA care for veterans and help reduce the time it takes to get medical appointments. FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). While not officially on the schedule, there has been time set aside to consider a potential conference report that House and Senate conferees are currently working on as differences in the two chambers respective NDAAs remain unresolved.
