He's Fired...

Dear Friend:

As friends and families are traveling and gathering this weekend to celebrate and observe the Easter holiday or Passover, I appreciate you taking a moment to read this short update.

As a Marine Corps combat veteran, a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and as your representative, I have focused much of my attention on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The problems that have plagued the construction of the new VA medical center in Aurora are just one of the reasons I have done so. The VA matters to us all, because with over 377,000 employees and a budget of nearly $187 billion, it’s the first line of defense in providing our veterans with the necessary medical care they deserve and have earned through their military service. Considering this, Congress must ensure the VA not only meets our nation's obligations to the men and women who have served us in uniform but that they spend our tax dollars wisely.

Rep. Mike Coffman on ‘Next’ with Kyle Clark on 03/28/18

The VA, under former Secretary Dr. Shulkin's leadership, failed on both counts. Dr. Shulkin has refused to clean house by removing the calcified layer of bureaucrats at the top whose failures are documented year after year in Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the recent VA's Inspector General report.The situation was so bad that the individual responsible for the construction management failures at the hospital project in Aurora was not only allowed to keep her job, but Dr. Shulkin was actively trying to promote her to be in charge of both construction management and acquisition for the VA, two areas that waste billions of tax dollars that could be spent caring for our veterans.

For these reasons, for the past several weeks, I have repeatedly called for the Veterans’ Affairs Secretary, Dr. David J. Shulkin, to either resign or be fired by the President. My multiple calls for Dr. Shulkin to go were based on his inability to clean up the VA by getting rid of the bureaucratic deadwood at the top and his misuse of taxpayer dollars for travel and then lying about it to ethics investigators after the fact.

So, the day after the Denver Post published my Op-Ed once again calling for Dr. Shulkin to go, the President, relieved him, and announced that he was nominating U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, Ronny Jackson, for confirmation, to serve as the new VA Secretary.

I look forward to meeting Admiral Jackson and I hope that once he is confirmed that he will laser focus on correcting many of the deep-seated problems in the VA. Most significantly, I believe the VA has become too bloated and bureaucratic. I will stress to Admiral Jackson the importance of removing the calcified layer at the top of the department’s leadership that for too long has inhibited reforms from taking place at the VA. The VA has many thousands of dedicated nurses, doctors and staff who truly look out for the welfare of our veterans but it also has too many processes, rules, and administrators to operate effectively or efficiently.

The Congress is in recess next week. This means I get to spend the week here in Colorado visiting with constituents, both large and small employers, and community leaders to discuss the rest of the 2018 legislative agenda. I encourage you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date as I continue to work on your behalf in Washington.

I wish you and your family and friends a great Easter weekend or Passover.