V.A. Announces Massive Shakeup; Interview with VA Secretary Robert McDonald
CAMEROTA: Today we honor our veterans as officials try to turn around the agency that is supposed to care for vets when they return from the battlefield. The V.A. was rocked by a scandal that exposed egregious weight times for health care. The new head of the V.A. says he is shaking up the department and demanding accountability. Joining us now is the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald. Mr. McDonald, nice to see you.</s>ROBERT MCDONALD, SECRETARY, VETERANS AFFAIRS: Good morning, Alisyn. Happy Veterans Day.</s>CAMEROTA: And to you, as well. And it seems particularly relevant to be speaking to you today on this Veterans Day about how you plan to radically improve the health care of our returning veterans. So where do you begin?</s>MCDONALD: Well, we're already making progress. In the last four months we've had a million more plus veterans get appointments in our system. We've had -- we've reached out to 300,000-plus of our veterans to get them into our system. We've driven down disability claims by 60 percent. Driven down homelessness by 33 percent. This reorganization is really meant to set the long-term course for the department. It's the biggest reorganization our history. And it's going to be focused on focusing on the veteran, being veteran- centric.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>MCDONALD: We're going to stand up a customer service organization to really help navigate veterans through our complex department while simplifying the department.</s>CAMEROTA: And that sounds wonderful, and that, of course, will be music to the ears of any veteran. But of course, we're also talking about accountability for all the problems that went wrong with the V.A.. On "60 Minutes" this weekend, you said that you had a list of 35 senior leaders that you wanted to fire immediately. Has that process begun?</s>MCDONALD: Yes, it has. In fact we've worked very hard. Listen, we can't change this department unless we change the culture. And primary to changing the culture is holding people accountable when they violate our values. Our values are represented in the acronym, "I care." It's the pin I'm wearing now. And "I" stands for integrity. If somebody has violated our value of integrity, we're going to go after and seek their dismissal and separation. As I -- as you pointed out, we've got a list of about 40 names, 40- plus names that we report to Congress. Each week. We've got another list over 5,000 names of people who are seeking disciplinary action either against or have done over the last year. Over the last year, about over 5,000.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Let me read to you what Congressman Jeff Miller has said about your plan. He, by the way, is the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. He says, "I'm disappointed that instead of fully embracing the new firing authorities Congress and President Obama gave the V.A., the department has shied away from them and even added more bureaucratic red tape, such as additional appeals and interminable stints on paid leave." Have you actually fired any of those 40 people?</s>MCDONALD: Of course we have. Does that statement make sense to you? Very simply, the new law that chairman Miller is talking about, the only change it creates is to shorten the appeal time by half. So we're following the law. We're holding people accountable as expeditiously and aggressively as possible. And if members of Congress would like to us do something different, they need to write a new law. Because we are following the law.</s>CAMEROTA: So Congressman Miller is wrong when he says that instead of people being fired, they're actually just on interminable paid leave?</s>MCDONALD: We are following the law. And we are taking disciplinary action against people. There are people on leave right now. The way the system works for senior executive service employees of government is you have to propose a disciplinary action. This is the law. And while we're proposing the disciplinary action and before the adjudicating judge makes a decision, we put the people on administrative leave. Because we don't want any harm created to our veterans. So administrative leave is the first step while the process goes on. We file the disciplinary procedure. And then the judge decides. The most important thing to us in this process, Alisyn, is we've got to make sure these things stick on appeal. Because undoubtedly, many of them are going to be appealed. So we've got to follow the law rigorously, and that's what we're doing. That makes sense, thank you so much for explaining all of those distinctions to us. Very quickly, Mr. McDonald, what do you have to say to veterans who are returning from the battlefield, about how you will insure that they'll get the health care they need?</s>MCDONALD: Well listen, Alisyn, I'm a veteran. I went to West Point. I served in the 82nd Airborne Division. Over 30 percent of the people in the Veterans Affairs department are veterans. We care about each other. If you ask veterans who they care most about, it's other veterans. We served together; our lives depended upon each other. That's why I took this job. There's no higher calling than caring for the veterans of our country. So what I'm telling our veterans is we're going to improve the system. We're going to make sure every veteran gets their needs met. At the same time, we're also going to represent the taxpayer. We're going to follow the law in distributing, for example, disability payments. And we're going to make sure we are good stewards of the taxpayers' money.</s>CAMEROTA: Mr. McDonald, thanks so much for joining us. Best of luck to you in your new endeavor.</s>MCDONALD: Thank you, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Pleasure. Let's go over to Chris.</s>CUOMO: So Ted Cruz has been a thorn in the side of the president. But now it may be fellow Republicans feeling the prick of the thorn from the far right. John King will explain the politics going on, on "Inside Politics." And then this story for you: the idea of losing your family to a killer is too hard for most of to us even imagine. Well, Patrick McStay has had to live that horror. And now, in a CNN exclusive, he tells us the person to blame may not have been a stranger. The unbelievable twist ahead.