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Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I rise, sadly and reluctantly, to oppose Richard Topping as the next VA Financial Officer, and I say ``sadly and reluctantly'' because the VA really needs leadership now at a time of mass firings, freezes on hiring, cuts, and the kinds of chaos that we are seeing at this great institution that serves our Nation's heroes. We need a really experienced, steady, principled financial leader. And, unfortunately, Richard Topping is not that person.

He is not the kind of accountable and transparent leader that the American people and veterans across the country expect at the VA.

When I questioned him at his nomination hearing--just to give you one example--about a government audit that found extreme errors in his judgment while he was CEO of a company called Cardinal, he blamed the Democrats; he blamed others for his own shortfalls. That is not leadership. That is not what our veterans identify as leadership.

He has never been the chief financial officer of any company. He has never been CEO of a public company--that is to say, an institution responsible to shareholders or to the public--and he lacks essential qualifications in his educational background as well as in his experience.

The VA's 2025 budget request is for $370 billion. It is second only to the Department of Defense. It needs someone who not only is loyal to President Trump--in fact, more than loyalty to President Trump--it needs someone with the objective qualifications and experience. His main qualification is, in fact, his fealty to Donald Trump.

That is not the qualification that should count here. What we need is someone who will do the job with the excellence and integrity that veterans have a right and need to expect. I urge my colleagues to vote against this nomination.

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