New bill aims to protect veterans by making it easier to fire bad VA employees

The Senate last week passed the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, legislation aimed to shield whistleblowers and make it easier to fire VA employees after misconduct.

The VA has been under fire since news broke in 2014 that veterans were being neglected and abused at VA facilities and that veterans were dying while waiting for health care.

Dan Caldwell of Concerned Veterans for America joined Tuesday’s “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson” to explain why it is so difficult to fire VA employees who have abused veterans and to talk about a new bill in Congress aimed at greater VA accountability.

“There are so many loopholes for employees who are engaging in misconduct,” Caldwell said. He described a case where a VA employee was supposedly “working from home” but wasn’t working at all. The agency tends to move employees to other VA facilities after misconduct instead of simply firing them.

In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the VA’s Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection. The new VA accountability bill, which next goes to the House, will be the next step toward rooting out corruption in the federal agency, Caldwell asserted.

To see more from Doc, visit his channel on TheBlaze and listen live to “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson” weekdays 6–9 a.m. ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.