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FNN: Trump Signs Executive Order on to Help Vets, Improve Veterans Affairs (VA) Dept. - FULL VIDEO
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April 27, 2017
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15:21Now PlayingBrought to you by Desert Diamond
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Thursday creating an accountability and whistleblower protection office at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Trump, who made improving veterans' care a prominent issue as he campaigned for office, was to issue the order while visiting the VA. It will create a new Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection within the department. The eventual head of the office will report directly to VA Secretary David Shulkin.
Shulkin said the purpose is to help identify "barriers" that make it difficult to fire or reassign employees deemed unfit to work at the department and serve veterans.
Another function will be to help shield whistleblowers from retaliation.
The office is a byproduct of a 2014 scandal in which as many as 40 veterans died while waiting months for appointments at the VA medical center in Phoenix.
The House has passed a bill to make it easier for the VA to fire, suspend or demote employees for poor performance or bad conduct, and the Senate continues to work on its version of the measure. Shulkin said Trump's decision to create the office before Congress sends him a bill speaks to his commitment to accountability at the VA.
The government's second-largest department has struggled to improve care for more than 9 million veterans it serves. A Choice program intended to reduce wait times by giving veterans more access to the private sector has suffered long delays of its own, while the VA has suffered staff shortages that has worsened a backlog of disability claims.
The rate of suicide also remains persistently high, with 20 veterans taking their lives each day.
Several senators expressed bewilderment at a hearing Thursday as to why the VA struggles with the same problems year after year. A recent report by the VA inspector general, for instance, found that troubled veterans who called a suicide hotline were often bounced to a backup center. The VA had promised to fix those problems last year.
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