POLITICO: Coburn: ‘I Wasn’t Surprised At All’ About VA
Coburn: ‘Wasn’t surprised’ about VA
By LAUREN FRENCH & BURGESS EVERETT
The Department of Veterans Affairs may not be the most tainted federal agency Sen. Tom Coburn has ever investigated, but he says it’s not far from the top.
The embattled agency is reeling from reports that uncovered extensive wait lists for medical treatment, drug and sexual abuse and at times an outright disregard for veterans’ health at facilities across the country.
“I wasn’t surprised. I was trained in a VA hospital, I wasn’t surprised at all,” Coburn told POLITICO during an interview in his office in the Russell building.”The culture in the VA should be people working for veterans not for the VA, [but] the culture right now is that I work for a system … and the requirements are so low.”
As the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, Coburn released a scathing report of his own this week detailing incompetence that resulted in veterans dying and the government paying out millions in malpractice lawsuits. And the Oklahoman is one of more than a dozen members of a House-Senate conference committee ironing out differences over a VA reform bill.