Sanders praises firing of Phoenix VA chief

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday praised the Veterans Affairs Department for firing the director of its scandal-plagued Phoenix VA Health Care System.

On Monday, the VA announced it had “formally removed” Director Sharon Helman after an inspector general investigation concluded she was involved with manipulating data about how long veterans waited to receive care. She had been suspended from her post in May.

{mosads}“Firing Sharon Helman is the latest action by the VA to remove high-ranking officials who have acted dishonorably,” Sanders said in a statement.

He noted that Helman’s dismissal marked the fifth time the agency used new authority granted by overhaul legislation passed by Congress this summer in the wake of revelations of shoddy care from the VA.

Republican lawmakers, such as Sanders’s House counterpart, Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have chastised new VA Secretary Robert McDonald for not moving fast enough to fire managers connected to the scandal over patient wait times.

An investigation in May found that veterans had waited an average of 115 days for initial appointments in Phoenix, and 40 people had died waiting to see a doctor. However, officials could not conclusively link the deaths to the long wait times.

Sanders said, as the department “continues its efforts to change the culture of the department and provide timely access to high-quality care, it must continue to ensure removal actions are supported by strong cases based on the available facts and evidence in order to ensure make certain that firings are upheld on review and bad actors do not return to the VA.”