◼ Calls for VA reforms have fallen on deaf ears in the Obama administration. Fortunately, members of Congress are stepping up to demand change. - Pete Hegseth/Washington Examiner
Both Republicans and Democrats on veterans' affairs committees in both houses have explicitly challenged VA’s leadership. For VA’s management and senior leadership cadre, these challenges are no doubt unwelcome and even unpleasant. But they are absolutely necessary if a sense of accountability is to be restored at the department.
That's the core principle behind the VA Management Accountability Act of 2014, recently introduced by House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
In contrast to VA’s current “see no evil” approach to management, the Miller-Rubio bill would empower the VA secretary to fire underperforming managers. That much-needed reform would be in line with basic principles of effective management and conform to the lesson in leadership I cited above: Managers must perform or risk being replaced. This type of accountability has a tendency to ripple throughout an organization, which is the point.
Replacing poor managers and employees isn’t the only reform needed at VA. But it’s a first step to fixing this broken department and renewing its commitment to serving the needs of veterans and their families.
