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Friday, November 8, 2019
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Departing vets committee chairman hopes partisan divisions won’t overwhelm VA policy work
Military Times: Departing vets committee chairman hopes partisan divisions won’t overwhelm VA policy work
By Leo Shane, deputy editor
Sen. Johnny Isakson doesn’t believe that the Department of Veterans Affairs will ever be “fixed,” no matter what lawmakers do.
“VA is always going to be a work in progress,” the chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee said in an interview with Military Times. “You’re
always going to have new challenges. Right now we’re dealing with Blue
Water Navy benefits (from Vietnam) … and new caregivers benefits from
the recent wars overseas.
“So it’s
constantly changing, and you need to learn from the past how to make
progress. Because if you don’t, you’re going to get a backlog of
problems, and you’ll have a mess. And that’s what we’ve been dealing
with for the last few years.”
For almost five
years, the senior Georgia Republican has been at the center of those
reform efforts, acting as a gatekeeper for legislation to dramatically
expand VA community care programs, employee accountability rules and an
expansion of GI Bill benefits.
Now the former
Georgia Air National Guardsman is preparing to step aside from that
role. He’ll leave the Senate at the end of this year, citing “mounting
health challenges” including a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
His departure comes
at a key moment for the committee and the department. With a
presidential election looming next year, maintaining any focus on
veterans issues could be a significant struggle. Keeping the committee’s
work from collapsing into political infighting could be even more
difficult.
And Isakson insists
that despite some recent negative headlines, VA is in better shape now
than at any point in the last five years.
“VA is going to have to work better in the future than it is working now, but it is working now,” he said. “A lot of people have perceptions that VA is only what you read about in the newspaper, and it’s not.”
Isakson became
chairman only a few months after the 2014 wait times scandal that forced
the resignation of then VA Secretary Eric Shinkseki and shook public
confidence in the department.
That set off nearly
four years of debate over the role of VA hospitals in an evolving
American health care landscape, culminating in the passage of the VA Mission Act last summer.
The bill dramatically
increased availability of outside care options for veterans enrolled in
department medical coverage, and has prompted political fights over how
much taxpayer money can be sent outside the department without
“privatizing” key federal promises to veterans.
The 74-year-old
Isakson was a central figure in crafting that legislation, navigating
the bill between Democrats worried about private-sector creep into VA
care and conservatives who wanted an even freer hand for veterans to
choose their providers. The chairman said he is pleased with the results
he has seen from the compromise over the last few months.
His work as chairman
over the last few years has been part cheerleader, part chief critic for
the department. He has praised VA Secretary Robert Wilkie for his work
over the last year but also criticized the before him, White House
physician Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, as a mess.
He also has publicly
taken issue with President Donald Trump’s past comments about the late
Sen. John McCain, calling the commander-in-chief’s attacks on the former
POW unseemly, unfounded and not helpful to the veterans’ community.
Still, Isakson said
the turmoil surrounding veterans issues in recent years has produced a
silver lining: more people are paying attention to veterans issues and
the $200-billion-plus department’s programs.
“We had a lot of scrutiny of VA in a confined period of time,” he said. “Because of that, we did a lot of reforms we might not have done otherwise. We had a lot of work to do, but we got a lot done.”
Among the accomplishments he lists during his time leading the committee are sweeping, multifaceted legislation like the Forever GI Bill (an expansion of post-9/11 GI Bill benefits), the VA Accountability Act (which
eased rules for firing department employees accused of wrongdoing), an
overhaul the VA’s appeals process and veterans suicide prevention
efforts.
All of the bills were
passed with bipartisan support and coordination, something Isakson
hopes will be remembered as part of his 20-year legacy in Congress,
especially as tensions on Capitol Hill continue to rise.
“The way you legislate is you set goals and you include people, not exclude them,” he said. “A lot of times in Congress, it’s a matter of attrition. But I always wanted to get Democratic votes.
“The Senate now,
it’s a new day every morning. I don’t know where we’re going right now
on the atmosphere. It’s pretty unpredictable. We’re getting to the point
where we have to change something.”
That work will be
left to the next chairman, still to be named by Republican leaders.
Isakson said he is also hopeful the committee in the next year will
finish work on expanding benefits for veteran caregivers and for “blue
water” Vietnam veterans, two major issues he was unable to see to
completion this year.
Isakson’s departure
will also leave another hole in the declining number of older veterans
in Congress. Of the 20 current lawmakers who served in the military
before 1970, four — including Isakson — have already announced they’ll
leave Capitol Hill next year.
The former national
Guardsman has spoken more frequently in recent years about his personal
connection to the veterans’ committee work. Although he never served
overseas in Vietnam, Isakson said that “I lost a lot of friends there. They were my age … That hurts a lot, when you see 5,800 people dying over there.”
He hopes that his
successor can keep that kind of focus on the work at hand, even as much
of the public’s direct connection to the military dwindles.
“Less than 1
percent of the country today are defending the world for peace and
prosperity, representing the United States of America,” he said. “That is unbelievable. It tells us how much we can be thankful for, that small a percentage can carry out that big a mission.
“They can because
of the quality of our people, the quality of our equipment, and the fact
that we as a country are committed to peace, tranquility and economic
prosperity for all. We need to remember that.”
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For a full list of Isakson’s accomplishments for veterans, click here.
On Thursday, a video was
released featuring VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and more than a dozen Republican and Democrat
colleagues praising Isakson’s leadership and commitment to veterans.
###
The Senate
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is chaired by U.S. Senator Johnny
Isakson, R-Ga., in the 116th Congress. Isakson is a veteran himself –
having served in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966-1972 – and has
been a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs since he
joined the Senate in 2005. Isakson’s home state of Georgia is home to
more than a dozen military installations representing each branch of the
armed services as well as nearly 700,000 veterans.