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Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, as we know, inspectors general in our Federal Agencies--and every Agency has one--have a really unique role in our Federal Government. They are responsible for rooting out waste and fraud, uncovering wrongdoing. They are supposed to be fearlessly independent advocates of integrity, completely nonpartisan, and above the political fray. And that is the role they have performed in our government: saving millions--perhaps billions--of dollars in taxpayer money, ending corruption at the highest levels, and performing a vital experience for our democracy.

One of the very best of our inspectors general has been Mike Missal. He was responsible for recovering more than $37 billion during his tenure at the Veterans' Administration. He was the inspector general at the VA under both Republican and Democratic administrations, widely respected by both sides of the aisle. Republican colleagues have worked with him, I have, and so have my colleagues on this side of the aisle. He was performing with extraordinary excellence and integrity, until he was fired without any cause, without any reason, by President Trump.

And he was not alone. In fact, the President illegally fired 18 inspectors general. I say ``illegally'' because they are protected by statute. They can't just be fired willy-nilly without cause. And that litigation will continue, but in the meantime, those 18 inspectors general have been deprived of the opportunity to save us money, end corruption, and protect the integrity of our democracy--18 of them, nonpartisan, independent public servants.

Today, we consider Mike Missal's replacement, a woman named Cheryl Mason, who, unfortunately, is one of the most partisan and least independent of the nominees for inspector general positions that we have seen in recent years.

We need now, more than ever, independent oversight in the VA. And so to my friends, to veterans of America who may be wondering why I am standing here urging a ``no'' vote on Cheryl Mason, just consider the role of inspector general in the VA for you as veterans. When you have a complaint about a VA facility--it has failed to give you appointments on time for care--if you have a complaint against some VA claims processor blowing you off, if you have a complaint about the system, about the failures to provide compensation and care, the inspector general is the one who vindicates justice for you.

Ultimately, we have an oversight function here in the U.S. Congress. I am going to fight for you as your Senator, if you are from Connecticut--or anywhere else. There are lots of different points where oversight and advocacy can occur on your behalf.

But the inspector general is inside the VA and has access to all of the documents, all of the information that are necessary to protect the integrity of this Agency. And that person should be fearlessly independent.

As a matter of fact, Cheryl Mason served on President Trump's transition team, and then she has been, for the last 6 months, senior adviser to Secretary Doug Collins, who himself has been a partisan, who has dismantled the VA workforce, who has canceled contracts and endangered care and compensation from the VA.

She was senior adviser when Secretary Collins illegally fired thousands of VA employees, a quarter or a third of them veterans. He fired them, and she was his senior adviser.

As adviser, we have to presume she aided him in implementing policies that are expected to drive at least 30,000 public servants out of the VA by the end of the year, while refusing to fill 40,000 vacancies that have existed before he took that position.

Those 30,000 who will be out of the VA by the end of the year include 1,720 registered nurses, 600 doctors, 1,150 medical support assistance, 200 police officers, 80 psychologists, and more than 1,000 claims examiners. Maybe we should be grateful the number isn't 83,000, which was his plan, and she was his senior adviser for that plan.

She was a senior adviser when Secretary Collins began the process to cancel or end more than 1,600 contracts providing direct services to veterans or support for critical VA operation, including for suicide prevention and mental health treatment, cancer registry, and inspection of VA healthcare facilities. She was his senior adviser when Doug Collins wanted to end the veterans' suicide crisis line, which epitomized the cruelty and stupidity of those cuts in workforce, hiring freezes, ends in contract.

And despite a formal request from myself and Senator Peters, the Republican chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs refused to hold a hearing on the Mason nomination. A hearing is customary for the nomination of inspectors general, particularly one this controversial.

But we did have a hearing in the VA, and it was highly illuminating-- not for what we learned but for what she denied doing. Listen to her. She continually avoided giving committee members any specific information about her role in realigning the senior executives at the VA or her role in the firing or reorganization or her role in requiring employees to sign nondisclosure agreements or any of the substantive work she has been doing as a political appointee. She denied any role in the freezes, the firings, the elimination of contracts.

I said to her: Well, what have you been doing?

And we got no straight answer. She was evasive, and her evasiveness was illuminating. She refused to commit to conducting any investigation of employee terminations that were found illegal by the courts. She refused to condemn President Trump's illegal firing of her predecessor and other inspectors general.

She has a conflict of interest here. She served as a senior adviser for 6 months while policies were devised and implemented that now she will have to review as a supposedly independent inspector general.

When you, my fellow veterans, have complaints, that is not the kind of advocate that you need. That is not the kind of investigator of corruption or waste that the country deserves, and that is not what we need from an inspector general in the VA. Veterans and taxpayers deserve an independent, nonpartisan inspector general who will conduct investigations free from interference and any collusion from the administration. Someone who is accountable and transparent, someone who comes forward candidly and forthrightly with the truth, not evading questions that are posed by Senators or the public.

We simply cannot have faith that she is going to be the kind of inspector general that our veterans deserve and the country needs at this moment. We can't have faith that she will be unbiased in her judgment relating to President Trump or Secretary Collins.

She is supposed to be judging them, but she is beholden to them, and she has been part and parcel of the policies and actions of this administration that have been so dangerous and damaging to the VA in these past months.

Our veterans deserve better than a political loyalist who is going to be rubberstamping those policies. Her confirmation, in fact, will diminish the credibility of the office of inspector general at the VA and in other Agencies as well.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this nomination. We can do better. The country needs and deserves better. And maybe, most important, our veterans need and deserve better.

(Mrs. BLACKBURN assumed the Chair.)

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