The office of Representative Pete Sessions (TX-32) submitted the following message from the congressman regarding legislation that will help veterans:
Texas is home to 1.6 million of our nation’s finest heroes. These 1.6 million brave men and women fought day in and day out to protect our nation and defend the freedoms that we hold near and dear to our hearts. When our veterans return home, they should have a Veterans Affairs system that gives them the care and services that they need and rightly deserve, yet our veterans have to deal with a system plagued with mismanagement and dishonesty.
Over the past year, report after report has shown that while most VA employees strive to serve our nation’s veterans to the best of their abilities, there is a systemic problem that has trickled from the very top of the chain to employees at VA hospitals around the country. Just last week, a report showed that the VA has misspent $6 billion a year in violation of federal contracting rules, wasting hard earned taxpayer dollars and putting veterans lives at risk. This is absolutely unacceptable – our nation’s heroes deserve better than this.
As the son of a Korean War veteran and a staunch supporter of our men and women in uniform, I refuse to stand idly by and watch our nation’s veterans fall by the wayside. I believe that we must attack these problems head on and fight for those who have bravely sacrificed so much for us. That is why this past week I supported legislation that helps our nation’s veterans by addressing the failures of the VA and providing them with more opportunities for success. H.R. 1038, the Ensuring VA Employee Accountability Act, requires VA employers to keep all files regarding reprimands and misbehavior to hold VA employees accountable for their actions.
Currently, these files remain in an employee’s record for less than three years, which skews a manager’s ability to review the employees actual record and get a true picture of their history of performance. For far too long, employees at the VA have been able to hide their failures and this bill ensures that they can no longer hide under the guise of mismanagement. In addition to increasing transparency in the VA, we also passed bills aimed at helping our veterans economically. H.R. 1382, the Boosting Rates of American Veteran Employment Act, encourages small businesses to hire veterans, while H.R. 474, the Homeless Veterans’ Reintegration Programs Reauthorization Act, provides grant money for job training programs to community organizations that serve homeless veterans. These strong, bipartisan measures provide accountability and transparency in the VA, improve access to health services, increase job training opportunities, and encourage more small businesses to hire more veterans.
I proudly voted for these necessary bills to provide the 1.6 million Texas veterans and the additional 8.7 million veterans across the country the opportunities and the support that they deserve. I believe it is critical that we support the brave men and women who have selflessly served and protected our great nation and I will continue to fight to ensure that our nation’s veterans are taken care of.
Congressman Pete Sessions fights for veterans
