HARTFORD—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) released the following statement regarding the resignation of Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki:
General Shinseki has rendered incredible service to our country spanning decades both on the battlefield and off. We owe him a debt of gratitude for that service. There are big problems at the VA, and I made it clear to both the Secretary and the Department that I expect them to follow through on plans to continue to reduce wait times and address reports of fraud in local VA facilities. Secretary Shinseki’s resignation alone will not solve these problems—our focus must be on fixing them to better serve our veterans. I am encouraged by the recent audit of Connecticut’s VA that showed that our state uses best practices and generally has wait times for care that are within acceptable standards. Connecticut’s VA can always be better, but compared to VAs in other parts of the country, ours is on the right track.