Washington, D.C. – House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) released the following statement on House passage of H.R. 1259, the VA Accountability First Act:
“An invaluable component for success in any organization is the employees. Likewise, employees who are incompetent or neglect their duties can ruin even the best laid plans. Congress has legislated several reforms to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in recent years. Those reforms have had some degree of success. But we cannot fully improve the VA the way our veterans deserve unless we hold all employees accountable. That means providing the leadership at the VA the ability to fire employees who repeatedly fail to do their jobs at the expense of the veterans they are supposed to serve. Employee protections are important, but the patience of this Congress has run out—we must prioritize the mission of serving our veterans, and we should not tolerate any continued incompetence and neglect that results in more hardship and delays for veterans to receive the care and services they deserve.”