David Jolly: Obama Doing Too Little to Clean Up VA

President Barack Obama met with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki on Wednesday and vowed to punish department officials if they altered data on wait lists for VA medical centers -- but thats not enough for one Florida congressman.

U.S. Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., waded into the issue on Wednesday, insisting Obama was doing little to help solve the problem.

The VA Health Care System is experiencing a historic crisis and yet our president suggests the solution to this crisis can be found in business-as-usual bureaucracy, Jolly said. The president did nothing today to ensure we, as a nation, immediately address the systemic problems in portions of our veterans health care system, nor the threat to human life that has been created by bureaucratic incompetence within the administration. The president spoke rhetorically about unacceptable wait times for veterans to get needed health care but did nothing to address the American peoples wait time for this administration to solve this problem now. It has been 23 days since allegations of death arose and today we heard no urgency from the president.

What the president announced today was more bureaucracy, more investigations, more studying of the issue, and ultimately a continuation of business as usual within the VA until the president and secretary choose, on their timeline, when to actually take decisive action, Jolly continued. He spoke of holding personnel accountable, but he never once spoke of terminations of the personnel responsible for the loss of human life, nor whether alleged negligence within the department has criminal implications. The president is out of touch with every American on this issue.

Jolly pointed to a bill from U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., which is expected to pass this afternoon. Millers bill would make it easier for the secretary to fire or demote VA officials.

This afternoon the House will pass a bill that I have co-sponsored to give the administration authority to expedite the removal of anyone who presided over this mismanagement and negligence within the VA, Jolly said. I hope the presidents administration quickly uses this authority and then swiftly enacts the necessary institutional changes within the VA. The president should personally attend to this matter each day until sufficient institutional changes are made to ensure this never happens again. The presidents comments today do little to suggest he will actually do so.