Last night three VA officials, Assistant Deputy Undersecretary for Health and Clinical Operations Thomas Lynch, Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs Joan Mooney and Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs congressional relations officer Michael Huff were called to Capitol Hill to testify at a rare evening hearing before the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
As usual with government officials operating in massive bureaucracy, and specifically under the Obama administration, Lynch, Mooney and Huff didn't have many answers to the questions being posed by lawmakers.
#VA Dr. Lynch “Not sure who authorized the #SecretList”
— Cong. Tim Huelskamp (@CongHuelskamp) May 29, 2014
Further, Congressman Tim Huelskamp expressed frustration over the Department's stonewalling of document requests surrounding the scandal.
FACT: #VA office of General Counsel has not turned over documents to @HouseVetAffairs
— Cong. Tim Huelskamp (@CongHuelskamp) May 28, 2014
President Obama has said he wants to wait until an Inspector General report is released about the scandal before taking further action. In other words, as usual the President is trying run out the clock and the attention span of the American people, which won't work this time.
"Until the VA understands that we're deadly serious, you can expect us to be over your shoulder every single day," Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said at the beginning of the hearing.
