Rep. Jeff Miller, Florida Republican, said Monday that the recent Senate plan to fix the Department of Veterans Affairs is something the House has been supporting for months.
“This great idea that they came up with last week is nothing new, it’s something we’ve been pushing for the Senate to do,” the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee said on MSNBC.
When asked if his committee should shoulder any of the blame for the recent wait list scandal at VA hospitals, he said his committee had been working to get more information on issues like this long before the scandal broke.
“We are the ones that brought this issue to light in a hearing on April 9,” he said.
He suggested the media take some of the blame for only recently paying attention to these hearings, and also pointed fingers to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee for only holding seven oversight hearings over the same time period that his committee held 42 hearings.
The House Veterans Affairs Committee will hold an oversight hearing Monday night where witnesses from the Government Accountability Office, VA inspector general and VA will testify on data manipulation and access to quality care.
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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