May 22, 2014

House VA Committee Ranking Member Mike Michaud Takes New Steps to Address VA Shortcomings

Washington, D.C.  – Congressman Mike Michaud, Ranking Member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, this morning voted to authorize the issuance of an additional subpoena to VA officials should they fail to respond to an invitation to appear before the Committee by mid-next week. The Committee has early indications that the three VA officials will appear before the full committee on Wednesday. Today’s motion provides for a subpoena to be automatically issued should the officials not appear as requested.

Congressman Michaud issued the following statement:

“It is time for officials from the VA to engage directly with our Committee and answer many of the very serious questions we have regarding the failures in access to care: questions about how these lapses were allowed to occur and, more importantly, what we can do to ensure our veterans receive the highest-quality care possible in a timely manner. It is very frustrating to me that the VA so far has not fully complied with our Committee’s initial subpoena in a timely manner. Our committee is united in bipartisan agreement on this, and I expect that the VA will use this time wisely to ensure that next week, we can have a frank discussion about where we go from here.”

The VA individuals slated to appear next week are Joan Mooney, Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs; Dr. Thomas Lynch, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Clinical Operations and Management; and Michael Huff, Congressional Relations Officer. If Mooney, Lynch and Huff fail to appear as requested, the subpoena will be triggered and will require them to appear next Friday, May 30.