Posted on 06/01/2016 7:41:28 PM PDT by jazusamo
Top Republican lawmakers blasted Attorney General Loretta Lynch Wednesday for clearing a legal path for a former Veterans Affairs official at the heart of the waiting time scandal to get her job back.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the decision by Ms. Lynch not to defend in court a portion of the 2014 VA reform law could result in Sharon Helman, former head of the Phoenix, Arizona VA office, going back to work.
“This decision by the Obama administration puts our veterans at further risk,” said Mr. McCarthy, California Republican. “We cannot entrust veterans’ health care to people unwilling or unable to do their jobs and to an agency like the VA that is unable to hold people accountable. The Department of Justice must defend the law as written and signed by President Obama.”
Ms. Lynch notified Mr. McCarthy in a letter Tuesday that her department would not defend the law’s “appointments clause” in a legal challenge brought by Ms. Helman in her effort to be reinstated.
“I note that the scope of this decision is narrow,” Ms. Lynch wrote. “Although the Department of Justice has decided not to defend (VA reform law) against the Appointments Clause challenge in this case, the department will continue to defend the vast bulk of the statute.”
Ms. Helman is arguing that the section of the law is unconstitutional and denies her an important step in the appeals process.
House Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller, Florida Republican, said he is “outraged” by the attorney general’s decision, which he said is “remarkably hypocritical given the fact that President Obama enthusiastically supported this law.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Judge sentences former Phoenix VA Director Sharon Helman to probation
The sooner we get rid of everybody associated with this administration the better. C’mon January 2017.
We are drowning in corruption. Tax revolt. We are funding the corruption.
Absolutely, it can’t get soon enough.
Fixed
Thank you. I am humbled.
That would be about 50 million who voted for him.
Kneel! Kneel before your government employee masters!
Bring them offerings of bribes and bonuses lest they smite you!
The bureaucrats at the VA are organized crime.
Idiot obama’s idiot minions defend idiocy.
Maybe she also sees to it that recently-departed vets turn in an 'absentee ballot'?
Sharon Helman, Ex-VA Chief in Phoenix, Pleads Guilty to Felony Charge
My co-worker was listening to a union meeting about protesting a plan to privatize the VA in a couple of weeks. They will march in front of VA facilities demanding they *not* privatize. You can bet they are also astroturfing for Hillary but what was not said in the meeting overlooked the obvious point. Privatizing the VA would mean kicking out a lot of overpaid underworking union jobs, which is their only real concern.
Ask any of these union slugs if cutting their pay 5% or 10% would guarantee the VA had the resources to fix their problems, would these slugs agree to it? HELL, NO would be their answer. Don’t let them tell you they are protesting for the good of the veterans. They are protesting to protect their cushy jobs.
OK, they're outraged - now what? Strongly-worded letter #522, which will go straight into Lynch's circular file, no doubt. The Obama admin will keep right on doing these things because they know the GOPe are a bunch of loser wimps.
Forget it! We’re screwed!
No.
The best thing to do is take this incident - and all other examples of Obama lawlessness - bundle them into a direct attack on the Obama administration corruption. Tie the whole thing around Hillary’s neck by describing her possible administration as “Obama’s third term.” Link this campaign to her already established sustain for law when it inconveniences her.
A special coda to this campaign should be the DoJ slow walking of the FBI investigation into mishandling of classified material on Clinton’s private email server, refusal to cooperate with the State Department investigation, staffers refusal to give depositions, etc., etc. as demonstrating an ongoing pattern of contempt for the law.
Pillory AJ Lynch for inaction to force her hand. Either way she decides the case damages Hillary but force her to announce something soon then trot out Hillary’s “Nobody is too big to jail” campaign quote and use that to scream about Obama administration blindness to corruption of public officials and favoritism toward her because she is the Democratic Party’s likely presidential candidate.
Turn her “mistake in judgement” into the crime it was.
the only thing GOP lawmakers do is “blast” decisions by the current administration, while never taking any action.
I guess “blasting” raises funds, without ever taking any sort of decisive action.
Correct! And it fools their sheep. They kept me fooled through several election cycles with their, " Elect me and I will abolish obamacare" , or words to that effect slogan.
sustain = distain
SHE HAS ALREADY PLEADED GUILTY TO TAKING BRIBES,INCLUDING A CAR, $5,000 CASH AND BEYONCE TICKETS, AND SHE WANTS HER JOB BACK???
From Arizona newspaper.
Sharon Helman, the former Phoenix VA Health Care System director who was fired in 2014 amid a scandal over patient care, pleaded guilty Tuesday to filing a false financial disclosure that failed to list more than $50,000 in gifts she had received from a lobbyist.
A conviction for that crime carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, but terms of a plea agreement call for Helman to receive probation with no time behind bars.
Helman oversaw the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix from 2012-14, when whistleblowers disclosed to Congress and The Arizona Republic that veterans seeking appointments faced delays of up to a year, and that some had died while on secret wait lists. Subsequent investigations verified that the VA in Phoenix and at hospitals nationwide had “cooked the books,” manipulating wait-time data. The revelations led to the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, as well as nationwide audits, congressional reviews and a $16 billion reform bill.
Neither Helman nor her attorneys could be reached immediately for comment on her plea.
Helman, who denied that patient-scheduling data had been falsified, was fired by the VA over the wait-time issue, for alleged retaliation against whistleblowers, and for failing to report the lobbyist gifts. Her termination on the first two allegations was overturned by a judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board, but the final charge was upheld.
The gifts were provided by Dennis “Max” Lewis, a former Veterans Health Administration administrator who had been Helman’s boss before he became a private consultant.
According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Helman failed to report $19,300 worth of gifts in 2013, including an automobile, a check for $5,000 and tickets to a Beyonce concert. In 2014, prosecutors said, Helman failed to disclose another $27,700 in perks. That included family tickets to Disneyland.
Helman was not charged with unlawfully accepting the gifts, but failing to provide the VA with required information to evaluate a potential conflict of interest.
Lewis, then vice president at Jefferson Consulting Group, was terminated by his employer when the controversy became public in late 2014. Jefferson represented major health-care companies
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