U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today greeted Land of Lincoln Honor Flight veterans at the World War II Memorial.
"Greeting veterans of 'The Greatest Generation' at the memorial built in their honor is always an incredibly humbling experience," said Davis. "We owe everything to the men and women who risk their lives to defend our freedom. That's why this week the House will vote once again to clean up the VA. It's appalling when any misconduct occurs within the VA, but matters are made even worse when the VA fails to hold bad actors accountable. Our veterans deserve the best care we can provide them."
The VA Accountability First and Appeals Modernization Act of 2016 (H.R. 5620), is in response to findings of continued mismanagement within the VA. In response to the 2014 Phoenix patient wait-time scandal, Congress passed a law making it easier to hold bad actors accountable. However, the House has found that the VA has failed to properly reprimand employees who violate the rules. Some of these instances include: a VA employee
participating in an armed robbery; a
VA nurse showing up to work intoxicated and participating in a veteran's surgery; evidence of employees
illegally using purchase cards resulting in the waste of billions of taxpayer dollars; and other incidents of misconduct.
H.R. 5620, which is scheduled to be on the floor this tomorrow, strengthens whistleblower protections, makes it easier to reprimand bad actors within the system, and reforms the appeals process to clear the backlog of disability claims, which has increased to more than 400,000 pending cases. More information about the reforms made by this bill can be found
here.
Photos from this morning's Land of Lincoln Honor Flight:
Central Illinois veterans salute at the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C.
L to R: Jim Kettlekamp (Pana, IL), Davis, and Jerry Redford (Forsyth, IL).
Davis speaks with Bob Nolan (Gillespie, IL).
Davis with Dick Zanettelo (Springfield, IL).
L to R: Gene Mayberry (Edwardsville, IL), Davis, and Larry Wilson (Springfield, IL).
Davis with Ted Curtis (Springfield, IL).
Davis with Dick Hendricks (Carrollton, IL).
L to R: James Gleason, veteran Ben Beard (Springfield, IL), and Davis.
CLICK HERE to download a high resolution copy of the photos above.
