VA scandal yields reform deal
The U.S. Senate is expected to move quickly on a bipartisan Veterans Affairs reform compromise announced Thursday by Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, raising hopes that the chamber can come to terms with the House on a bill that could go to the president.
The new Senate measure combines elements of rival VA bills introduced by Sanders, a left-leaning independent and chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, and McCain, a Republican, in response to the VA health-care scandal related to manipulated wait-time records.
It would allow veterans who face long wait times for medical appointments or live more than 40 miles from a VA health-care center to seek treatment outside the VA system. It also would make it easier to fire incompetent or dishonest VA bureaucrats and provide for construction of new or expanded VA medical centers in 18 states and the hiring of more doctors and nurses.
"I think this is going to move quickly next week," said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who was a co-sponsor, with Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., of McCain's Veterans Choice Act.
Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the deal forged by McCain and Sanders has a much better chance of surviving in the Republican-controlled House than Sanders' farther-reaching Restoring Veterans' Trust Act. The House in May voted 390-33 to pass a Miller bill that would make it easier to fire VA officials.
"I'm glad that the Senate is finally looking at a potential legislative fix," Miller, R-Fla., told The Arizona Republic. "Senator Sanders for a long time has focused on a very broad piece of legislation that would have been impossible to move through the House. We are now at a point that it appears that we are looking at bipartisan pieces of legislation that can, in fact, be passed by both houses and enacted quickly."
Sanders and McCain negotiated for two days before taking the Senate floor on Thursday to announce their bipartisan VA breakthrough.
In his Senate floor remarks, Sanders stressed that the bipartisan legislation won't deal with every unmet need of veterans but rather is focused on addressing the immediate crisis.
"We live, as everybody knows, in a politically divided country and a divided Congress," Sanders said. "Reaching agreements is not easy and, quite frankly, does not take place very often here in the Senate.… But in this process, Senator John McCain of Arizona and I have tried our best to come forward with an agreement, which I'm sure he is not 100 percent happy with and I can assure you that I am not 100percent happy with."
McCain took to the floor after Sanders, imploring their Senate colleagues to act quickly on the compromise.
The proposal to give veterans more flexibility to seek medical treatment outside the VA system under certain circumstances came from McCain's Veterans Choice Act. It would be a two-year trial program under the Sanders-McCain deal, and the veteran would remain "under the strict supervision of the VA," Sanders said.
"The top priority for me for many years has been to give the veteran a choice," McCain said. "... Where if they're outside of 40 miles from the nearest VA facility, if there's a wait time which is unacceptable, then they should be able to go to the health-care provider right near their home, not have to get into a van and ride for two or three hours for routine medical care."
The Sanders-McCain bargain takes from Sanders' bill provisions that would allow for the construction of new, refurbished or expanded VA facilities for 26 locations in 18 states. It also would use $500million in existing VA funding for the hiring of more doctors and nurses.
Republic reporter Paul Giblin contributed to this article.
