U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson started his day July 20 with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution – always a good decision – and was startled by a front-page headline: "VA problems mount as missteps continue; Internal report says some hospitals may have to close."
The prospect of shuttered hospitals is something the chairman of the Committee on Veterans Affairs would like to be aware of before it hits the press. The perpetually congenial Georgia Republican was steamed.
So Isakson, his committee’s top Democrat and their House counterparts sat with Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald for four hours to work out a plan.
The Department of Veterans Affairs got its wish last week, when both chambers easily passed a bill to allow the agency to take billions of dollars from a new program allowing veterans to get care outside the VA system in order to bail out its own hospitals.
“That’s a manufactured problem,” Isakson said. “The reason the VA is so low in their approval ratings is because of stuff like that. People read that and say, a veteran says: ‘They’re running out of money for me. They didn’t run out of money for bullets when I was taking hits in Vietnam or in World War II.’ ”
Isakson, who took over the committee chairmanship this year, maintains he has not lost his confidence in McDonald, the former head of Procter & Gamble. McDonald last year replaced Eric Shinseki, who fell on his sword amid a series of scandals about VA employees covering up veterans' interminable appointment wait times. Isakson's patience stems from recognizing McDonald's challenge in dealing with a workforce that's roughly triple the size of P&G.
But skepticism of McDonald is growing on Capitol Hill. Witness Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., in a disappointed dad kind of voice, floating the idea of bringing in an outside agency to manage VA’s finances.
"Mr. Secretary," Miller said in a hearing about the budget shortfall, "I'm disappointed about the slow, painstaking revelation of this crisis by the department that's led by you."
McDonald said he had asked Congress multiple times this year for funding flexibility.
“My worst nightmare is a veteran going without care because we have money in the wrong pocket,” McDonald told lawmakers.
The dispute comes from a law Congress passed by overwhelming margins in the wake of the wait-time scandals. The VA Choice program allows veterans who cannot quickly get an appointment at a VA hospital to go to an outside doctor, who then is reimbursed by the VA. Congress handed the program $10 billion, the pot of money the VA now can drain to keep its hospitals open.
The idea is to take some burden off of a strained system, which is dealing with a surge of post-9/11 veterans along with a big population of aging Vietnam-era veterans. But it was met with hostility.
“Veterans service organizations, a year ago, they despised Choice because they thought we were going to close their VA hospitals,” Isakson said.
But Isakson said rank-and-file agency employees no longer fear losing their jobs and realize the benefit of the program – as well as the fact that Congress is not backing off of it.
“What’s been a headache for all of us, in terms of some of their recalcitrance in embracing it, is over,” Isakson said.
For his part, McDonald told Congress “the idea propagated in the media that somehow we’re against the Choice program or we’re gutting the Choice program is false.”
Good thing, because the big thing on Isakson’s vets agenda this fall is a bill to make the Choice program permanent.
Insurrection? Not so much
As the House was set to leave town for its August recess, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., dropped an unexpected stink bomb: a motion to boot John Boehner from the speaker’s chair. The vote was delayed, meaning town hall audiences across America will get to grill their legislators about the speaker’s fate.
All of Georgia's Republicans voted for Boehner on the floor in January and got varying degrees of hell from the conservative base for it. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Cassville Republican, said he'd review the Meadows motion but was concerned about if the vote succeeds: "Then what?"
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Coweta County Republican, was less diplomatic toward the gentleman from North Carolina.
“This is the stupidest political move that I have ever seen,” Westmoreland said, rattling off political winners like Iran that Republicans would rather talk about over the break.
“They had an opportunity in November of last year — nobody ran against Boehner,” he continued.
“They had another opportunity in January – that was ill-conceived, in my opinion – and now they’re trying to ruin their chances of electing anybody in leadership in 2016 because they’re doing nothing but alienating some of the people.
"And I say they – he's not doing anything but alienating some of the people he associates with. This is just nuts."
Vote of the week
The U.S. Senate voted, 65-34, Thursday to pass a six-year transportation policy bill that would replenish the highway trust fund for three years. The bill now goes to the House.
Yes: Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.
No: Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga.
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