Blumenthal Statement On Resignation Of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki

(Hartford, CT) – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today released the following statement after General Eric Shinseki resigned as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs:

“I deeply respect Secretary Shinseki’s decision to resign after concluding that his continued service would be a distraction from the urgent and necessary overhaul  from top to bottom of a health care system that is failing our veterans. The immediate challenge is not replacing one person, but fixing what is desperately wrong at the VA. The next VA secretary needs to show the American people a sense of urgency and passion with specific decisive action to correct decades-old delay and failings in health care delivery. Such action must include better information systems, more doctors, more efficient patient care, and other far-reaching reforms that change the culture as well as the practices. We should also hold accountable anyone who acted criminally in doctoring documents, destroying documents, and making full statements – in effect cooking the books and covering it up. The stark, tragic fact is that VA employees lied to Secretary Shinseki and the American people and gave him false and fraudulent information. Firing them should be made easier by legislation pending in the Senate, which should be passed immediately. Our priority must be to give our veterans first class, world class medicine, which they need and deserve.”