The Florida Republican in charge of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee is calling out the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as two VA officials came back to work after more than a year and a half on paid leave.
Last week, reports emerged that the VA was reinstating Lance Robinson and Brad Curry, two employees who had been at the center of the scandal that rocked the department in 2014 as reports emerged about altered waiting lists being used at VA medical centers across the nation, including in Phoenix, Arizona. Dozens of veterans who were on those altered wait lists died awaiting treatment.
The scandal cost VA Sec. Eric Shinseki his job back in 2014. Both Robinson and Curry worked in the Phoenix VA Health Care Systems and their names were both connected to the altered waitlists there. The VA looked at both officials and insisted there was “inconclusive” evidence on their role with the altered waiting lists.
With Robinson and Curry headed back to work this week after their time off, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the chairman of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee, called out the VA for bringing them back as well as keeping them paid over the last year and a half.
“The fact that the department took 19 months to reach the conclusion that employees collecting pay checks should be required to work is simply mind boggling,” Miller said on Friday. “Right now, VA leaders owe the public an explanation for why they wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars paying these employees to sit at home while apparently taking almost no action to investigate the allegations against them.”
During recent efforts to reform the VA Department, Miller led the charge in the House to give the VA secretary more authority to fire underperforming and incompetent employees.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
