Shinseki had pledged to hold any employees found to have engaged in misconduct accountable following the conclusion of the investigations, but he also is defending the VA and care it provides to 8.9 million enrolled veterans, and commended the “hard work and dedication of the vast majority of our VA employees, many of whom are veterans themselves.”
Shinseki pointed to recent milestones including a 24 percent reduction in veteran homelessness, and a long-overdue opening to care for exposure to Agent Orange, for combat-related PTSD, and for Gulf War Illness – or chronic multisymptom illness, thought to stem from overexposure to nerve gas, pesticides, oil well fires and other toxic materials.
The VA has also decreased the disability backlog by over 50 percent in the past 14 months – partly as a result of mandatory overtime even while other agencies were furloughing employees — and Shinseki noted that every VA medical facility is accredited by the Joint Commission, an independent, non-profit organization that ensures the quality of healthcare, and that it receives consistently high rankings on the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
