Veterans Affairs 'Should be Begging' for Oversight, Lawmakers Say as They Fight Congressional Office Evictions

The Department of Veterans Affairs is in the process of evicting several Florida Congress members from having small, part-time offices at local medical facilities, prompting the lawmakers to go on the offensive Friday and demand the agency allow them to retain their office spaces in order to provide constituent services and more adequate oversight.

"As painful as that might be, to have that increased oversight for the VA or any federal agency, they should be begging for it, if it means making that a better agency—especially what serves our nation's veterans," Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) told a small group of reporters at a press conference in the U.S. Capitol.

Out of 535 members of Congress, Mast and five of his House colleagues—Democrats Alcee Hastings, Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel, Stephanie Murphy and Darren Soto—are the only lawmakers who currently have office spaces at VA facilities anywhere in the country. But that number will soon be reduced to zero.

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie has said he no longer wants them at the department's hospitals, a move that has sparked outrage among the group of Sunshine State representatives. Wilkie has stated that the spaces should be used for medical treatments, it's not legally required for lawmakers to be provided an office within VA facilities and cited plans to fit the small rooms for a "smoking cessation program."

"Without spending one additional dollar, we provide veterans with more access to care, more services and more oversight, without—in any way—negatively affecting anybody in spaces smaller than the size of the stage that we're sitting on," Mast said, flanked by Murphy and Soto.

A double amputee who lost both his legs in 2010 from an IED blast while serving in Afghanistan, the Florida Republican described the office space their staff members use at VA facilities as the size of a large storage closet—or about 100 sq. ft—that's just big enough to fit a small desk and a few chairs. Staffers of Mast, Hastings, Deutch and Frankel operate on rotating schedules to share an office at the VA hospital in West Palm Beach while Murphy and Soto share one at the VA in Orlando.

Soto described the reaction from local officials as "dumbfounded" when they learned last week that Wilkie was putting a quash by the end of this year on the office agreements they had with the local VAs. An invitation has been extended to Wilkie by Soto to visit the Florida VA hospitals and to see the work the Congress members' offices do firsthand, but it's unclear whether the secretary will accept.

A VA spokesperson, responding to an inquiry from Newsweek, ignored a question about whether Wilkie will accept. They said the department's position on evicting the lawmakers was not open for reconsideration.

"If a veteran leaves the VA with a bad experience, oftentimes, they never come back. And these are benefits that were earned through defending our country," Soto said, and described one instance when his office was successful in even preventing a suicide. "That's one of the biggest critical pieces to why you need an office there throughout rather than just office hours every, you know, month, because we're losing veterans who may have gotten lost in the shuffle."

Last week in a letter to Mast from Wilkie, in which Wilkie accused Mast of making false accusations regarding transparency and why they were being booted from their offices, the secretary wrote that he'd consider allowing monthly mobile office visits. That would be inadequate, the lawmakers said Friday, with Mast suggesting a potential solution could be to allow them access to conference rooms for designated days and times.

In a conversation with VA officials this week, Murphy said she was told that rather than having an office, they could do tabling or host town halls—also proposals that were rejected.

"Let's be clear, this decision came from Washington, not Orlando or West Palm Beach. Our partners in our local hospital see the value that we offer," Murphy said. "This is a bureaucratic decision that's coming from Washington. We didn't demand to have an office there, we asked, and we were welcomed."

Mast labeled the claim by Wilkie that spaces inside the VA should only be used for medical treatment as a "red herring," pointing to the other government agencies that setup shop in VA medical centers to assist veterans without providing medical treatment, in addition to the various gift and coffee shops that operate.

He also said Wilkie's decision to evict them and his claim lawmakers aren't legally permitted to retain an office in VAs is another reason why he's introduced a bipartisan bill that would force the VA to allow members of Congress to have offices and provide constituent services at local facilities across the country.

The measure has yet to advance from the House Veterans Affairs Committee, but Chairman Mark Takano (D-Cali.) has visited the office space at the Orlando VA hospital and has "expressed an interest in hearing the bill," according to Soto.

"Taking care of veterans isn't a partisan issue, whether you're Democrat, Republican or Independent. You want to make sure that after people serve this country, that you have their backs and you take care of them," Murphy said. "And that's what we're all seeking to do."