Following President Obama’s press conference today regarding the ongoing nationwide scandal at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care facilities, U.S. Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota) issued the following statement:
“While I’m glad the president finally acknowledged the VA scandal, it’s completely unacceptable that it took several weeks for the commander in chief to publicly comment on the widespread delay or denial of care to our nation’s veterans. Instead of dispatching a single staffer to review select VA facilities, I’m calling on the president to require the VA’s inspector general to conduct a nationwide review. We have to understand the full scope of this crisis if we’re going to ensure that it truly gets fixed. Tough words by the president aren’t enough.”
Last week, Thune introduced legislation that would greatly expand the current limited inspector general (IG) investigation of certain VA facilities and require a nationwide VA IG review of the wait times veterans are experiencing.
