File this under the "You Have Got to Be Kidding Me" section of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) newspaper headline scrapbook: "Report: VA staff left veteran's body in shower nine hours, tried to hide mistakes." My visceral reaction to this story was that this might be the worst story about VA I had read since coming to Congress.

However, after performing a deeper dive into the stories that have been written about VA over the last two years, I was reminded that VA has a sad recent history of disturbing failures that have been met with little to no response from the Obama Administration.

My search for the worst gave birth to my "Top 10 Biggest VA Embarrassments of the 114th Congress." Before I give you the list, I want to make the important point that the vast majority of VA's 330,000 employees are good people who want to do right by our veterans.

In Little Rock we have some of the most dedicated employees you can find (many of whom are veterans themselves); however, the reputation of their entire outfit is damaged each time a small number of those employees are found to be acting outside of the rules for personal gain. In the case of employees manipulating patient data for personal gain, it took intense media scrutiny for the VA to discipline those responsible, as it seemed VA leadership was content to turn a blind eye to these chronic and repeated failings.

Worst VA Headlines

10) VA Drops Millions on Delayed Solar Power Projects (Washington Free Beacon)
Note: Revealed after Senator John Boozman and I called for an investigation into VA's Green Management Program.

9) ‘Budget-Crunched’ VA Has 167 Interior Designers On Staff (Daily Caller)

8) Internal documents show Indianapolis VA offered to ‘protect’ employee after email mocking veteran suicide (WISH Indianapolis)

7)  VA mix-up upends life of Arkansas veteran (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

6) Feds Put Credit Card Felon In Charge of Major VA Purchasing Program (Daily Caller)

5) The Unfinished VA Hospital That's More Than $1 Billion Over Budget (NPR)

4) Exclusive: VA shuffles managers, declares ‘new leadership’ (USA Today)

3) VA Nurse Still On Payroll Despite Charge He Beat 70-Year-Old Vet To Death (Daily Caller)

2) Report: VA staff left veteran's body in shower nine hours, tried to hide mistakes (Tampa Bay Times)

1) Hundreds of Wisconsin VA dental patients possibly exposed to HIV, hepatitis (CNN)

Each of these stories represents a major failure on the part of VA and its leadership. While each one of these stories adds its own unique insight to the problems at VA, one thing that remains consistent in all of them is that no one receives the level of discipline needed to deter future employees from making similar mistakes.

The next VA Secretary needs to understand that unless strict accountability standards are put in place, then VA will not be able to successfully provide the care needed and the negative media attention and congressional scrutiny will only strengthen. 

Sincerely,

Representative French Hill

Progress is vital to the future of any nation, especially one that is in constant competition to maintain its designation as the greatest in the world.

For the last century, America has been the leader in global progress.

Our space program produced the first lunar landing, and our pursuit of that endeavor birthed a generation of unthinkable and rapid technological advancement. Our scientists, doctors, and researchers have developed vaccines, cures, and treatments that have eradicated deadly diseases or turned them into minor afflictions.

This is the mark of a great society. But a society that wants to remain great must always identify its weaknesses and create long-term solutions to move beyond any major roadblock. Tragically, one area where we have failed to achieve much progress over the past few decades is addressing our nation's mental health crisis. The last major mental health reform happened during the Kennedy administration, meaning 50 years of limited advancement in assuring quality access to mental health care for the millions of Americans suffering from mental illness.

Too many Americans have seen someone in their own lives suffer from a debilitating mental illness. The true scope of this crisis is not just in the anecdotal stories told by those who have watched in horror as loved ones fail to get the help they need; the statistical data paint an even bleaker picture for how deeply this problem runs.

One in five Americans struggle with some form of a mental illness. Ten million Americans suffer from a serious mental illness--four million of whom receive no treatment. Making the situation even more grim is that mental illness manifests at young enough ages where rehabilitation and treatment should be attainable.

Our failure in addressing this problem has poisoned the lives of millions of people and robbed them of tools needed to overcome their afflictions and become productive members of society.

In addition, those who suffer from untreated severe mental illness are increasingly more likely to carry out violent crimes. Instead of getting the help they need, so many people end up leading troubled lives, serving time in jail, or dead at their own hands. Local jails house 10 times more people with mental illness than do psychiatric hospitals.

There are over 40,000 suicides annually (nearly 8,000 are our veterans). That is one almost every 12 minutes, and it is one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States.

Two-thirds of gun deaths in this country are suicides. While there are no data to contextualize the percentage of mass shootings carried out by those who are mentally ill, we know that in some of the most horrifying mass shootings in recent American history--Tucson, Sandy Hook, Aurora--the perpetrators suffered from some form of mental illness.

These are sobering statistics that should make us sick to our stomachs and that should activate change.

That isn't representative of the America that put a man on the moon. That is not our shining city on a hill. This is a weakened version of the America we know.

However, last week, as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, Congress repackaged our major mental health reform care bill that addresses many of the shortcomings in our mental health-care system.