Marco Rubio: Senate Needs to Back VA Reform, Obama Needs to Be Pressured

The U.S. House passed the U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller‘s, R-Fla., “Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Accountability Act of 2015" on Wednesday and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., now wants the Senate to follow suit.

Rubio is the chief sponsor of the bill, which gives the VA secretary more power to fire or demote incompetent employees, in the Senate. 

“I applaud the House for passing this commonsense reform to end the culture of incompetence at the VA and provide our veterans with the medical care they deserve,” Rubio said on Wednesday. “I am especially grateful for the efforts of House VA Committee Chairman Jeff Miller in getting this accountability bill passed with bipartisan support. I strongly urge my colleagues in the Senate to follow suit and quickly pass this measure. And I urge the president to drop his veto threat and start holding people accountable for failing our veterans.
 
“Last year we were able to enact a law to give the VA secretary the authority to terminate or demote senior managers based on bad performance,” Rubio added. “But with only a handful of employees fired since that time and veterans facing even longer wait times for care, it is clear that additional accountability measures are needed and more pressure needs to be put on the Obama administration to stop dragging its feet on implementing these important reforms that affect our veterans.”