Senators question Veterans Affairs’ watchdog nominee

By Donovan Slack

Senators got their first chance to question President Obama’s nominee to be inspector general at the Department of Veterans Affairs Tuesday, and most asked how he could possibly fix the agency beset by scandals, from construction cost overruns to falsification of appointment schedules.

Michael Missal, the Washington lawyer nominated by the president last month, assured senators that if confirmed, he would be an independent and aggressive watchdog and wouldn’t hesitate to inform Congress — and the public — when the VA is failing.

“I expect to have a highly communicative office,” Missal said at a hearing of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

He was also asked about a USA TODAY report earlier this year that revealed the previous inspector general completed more than 140 investigations of veteran health care without issuing public reports, including in cases of veteran harm and death.

Also not released was a report completed in March last year about alarmingly high opiate prescription rates at a VA in Tomah, Wis., where a veteran died five months later from “mixed drug toxicity” as an inpatient after another opiate was added to the 14 drugs he was already prescribed.

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