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Floor Speech
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Mr. TUBERVILLE. This included waste, fraud, and abuse in our Federal Government, over all Agencies.
The VA is a perfect example. Under President Biden, the VA increased its staff 80,000 employees in 4 years.
Let me repeat that: Under President Biden, the VA increased its staff 80,000 people.
You would think that this would mean that we would increase the efficiency of our VA 80,000 percent. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Despite the Biden administration ballooning the size of the Department, the VA has nothing to show for it. In fact, wait times and backlogs have gone up. It hasn't worked. So these cuts are not warranted. They are completely necessary.
By reducing the numbers of employees, these savings can be redirected to actually providing veterans healthcare and benefits, while still protecting the VA's mission-critical jobs, like doctors, nurses, and claims processors, to do the job it was meant to do. And phasing out nonmission-critical jobs like DEI officers and interior designers, for just a few, is necessary to get this job done.
Now, I don't want to oversimplify this. I know these problems at the VA exist. They always have existed. Since 2015, the VA care has been on the Government Accountability Office's list of high risk. That means it has been audited: Are they doing their job? Not very good reviews.
We have to do better for our veterans.
I come from a military family and have spent many hours in the VA. Some are good; some are not so good. Let's stand up for our veterans.
The VA challenges across the board, from overseeing simple things like safety and access of care, are essential. And it is not--not--by having more people. It is by having better people.
The VA is not supposed to be a massive bureaucracy. That is not what it was meant to be. It was created to serve our veterans.
This resolution being put forward would directly prevent President Trump from carrying out his mandate that the American people gave him. The American people have spoken, and the days of business as usual are over. The VA is going to get better.
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