ICYMI: Senator Murray: Trump Must Reverse Firing of VA Researchers Across the Country, Threatens to Decimate Lifesaving Work on Veterans’ Medical Care, Prosthetics, and More
ICYMI: Murray, Colleagues Request Information on Elon Musk’s Access to VA Medical Records
***VIDEO of Murray’s Q&A at nomination hearing AQUÍ**
Washington DC – Today at a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee audiencia on Dr. Paul Lawrence’s nomination to be Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, questioned Dr. Lawrence—who will oversee the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system—on what he will do differently to hold Oracle accountable and get the EHR system right for veterans in Washington state. Murray also pressed him on whether he supports the decision by Trump and Musk last week to fire en masse VA researchers in the middle of research on everything from burn pit exposure to mental health, opioid addiction, and preventing veteran suicide, among much else.
“EHR started in 2018 under President Trump and in 2020, it deployed to two Washington state VA hospitals. Instead of helping to improve our veterans’ health care, the rollout ending up being a complete disaster, and it endangered veteran patients,” Murray said at today’s hearing. “Unfortunately, the system still is not working the way that the VA doctors and nurses need—and veterans are continuing to suffer. Last month, the VA announced that it would be moving forward with pre-deployment activities at the next four sites for this Electronic Health Record.”
“You will oversee the EHR program—so if confirmed, I want to know what you are going to do differently to hold Oracle accountable and to make sure we get this system right for our veterans?”
Dr. Lawrence replied that he would aim to better understand why VA did not listen to employees earlier when they raised issued with the EHR system, and that he would work with the team Secretary Collins plans to convene with “everybody involved” to figure out the best path going forward for EHR. “If confirmed, I want to work on that and figure out what the plan should be in terms of holding everybody accountable for what’s supposed to take place, right, to get the most benefits as quickly as possible to our veterans within the amount of money we have,” Dr. Lawrence said.
“Well let me make this very clear: we have heard that answer from every VA person that’s come before this committee for a number of years now,” Murray pushed back. “Everybody’s looked at it, everybody’s considered it, everybody’s talked about it, everybody’s convened panels. It is not working. So, I need your commitment that it’s not just—convene people and take a look at, but that you are going to make changes to it and demand changes, and get those fixed. Because we have spent, literally, millions and millions of dollars—and worse, veterans are still in jeopardy in their care, and doctors and nurses and VA facilities are really frustrated.”
“I asked you a really important question: what are you going to do differently? The answer you gave me—I understand where you’re coming from—but it is the same one I’ve heard over and over,” Murray dijo.
Dr. Lawrence responded that the Secretary conveyed a “strong sense of urgency that it should be done much sooner than later,” and that, in his previous tenure at VA as Under Secretary for Benefits, he dealt with technology problems around the GI Bill, appeals modernization, and other issues, and implemented technology: “I’ve actually done this, and so that’s the difference I will bring to this. And I understand the frustration, and I pledge to work as best, as hard as I can to get this done,” said Dr. Lawrence.
“Well I don’t want to be sitting here again, two years from now, same conversation, new person,” Murray dijo.
Murray continued her questioning by pressing Dr. Lawrence on Trump and Elon Musk’s unprecedented firings of VA researchers—last week the administration abruptly refused to honor researchers’ three-year “Not to Exceed” term limits (NTEs) by rolling them over as is standard. Instead, the Trump administration immediately dismissing researchers, including at VA Puget Sound, who were in the middle of research on topics including mental health, alcohol and opioid withdrawal, cancer treatments, burn pit exposure, prosthetics, diabetic ulcers, and so much else.
“Last week, my office’s phones were ringing off the hook—as I assume a lot of people’s were—with really panicked calls from researchers at the VA. They had been laid off with ZERO justification, ZERO warning,” Murray dijo.
“And in fact, up until then, the VA had assured them that they were protected from Trump and Musk’s mass firings. VA research shouldn’t be political. And firing VA researchers who are in the middle of a process to find life-saving treatment for veterans with conditions like PTSD, or opioid addiction, or cancer from toxic exposure is really cruel and wasteful. Some veterans are literally in the middle of receiving breakthrough treatment through these clinical trials. What will happen to them and their care when their lead researcher was just fired?”
“Were you aware of the Trump Administration’s decision to fire these VA researchers?,” Murray asked.Dr. Lawrence responded that he was “not engaged” in anything at the Department now.
“Do you support it?,” Murray pressed.Dr. Lawrence replied: “If confirmed, I will look into this to better understand what took place—I don’t have enough information to comment on that.”
“So you won’t commit to restoring these VA researchers’ positions so they can continue that research on PTSD, and opioid addiction, and cancer that was caused by their exposure to toxic chemicals?” Murray pressed again.
“If confirmed, I commit to looking in to understand what happened and why,” said Dr. Lawrence. “Well, I hope that’s not like every other answer we get from people that we are hearing from that they’ll look into it and no action is taken—you’ve just promised to look into it; this is critical,” dijo el senador Murray.
“I understand,” said Dr. Lawrence.
Senator Murray was the first woman to join the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the first woman to chair the Committee—as the daughter of a World War II veteran, supporting veterans and their families has always been an important priority for her. Senator Murray has fought throughout her career for increased benefits for veterans, housing assistance, better access to veterans’ clinics throughout Washington state, and more accountability from the VA.
El senador Murray tiene spoken out forcefully against President Trump and Elon Musk’s mass firing of VA employees across the country. Just yesterday, Murray and her colleagues envió una carta to VA Secretary Doug Collins pressing him to protect veterans, their families, and VA staff from unprecedented access to sensitive information by Elon Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). Earlier this month, Senator Murray sounded the alarm over reports of DOGE at the VA and voted against Doug Collins’s nomination to be VA Secretary, making clear that the Trump administration’s lawlessness was putting our national security and our veterans at risk. Alongside 25 of her colleagues, Murray sent another carta earlier this month to Secretary Collins, demanding that he deny and sever Musk and DOGE’s access to any VA or other government system with information about veterans, and to delete any veterans’ information in their possession.
Senator Murray has been conducting oversight on the flawed EHR rollout in Washington state since the Trump Administration first negotiated the contract with Cerner (later acquired by Oracle), and at every point in the process since then. Murray has consecuentemente empujado VA on its failed implementation of EHR—conducting oversight, holding the administration accountable, y calling on VA to halt deployment of EHR until they get it right in Washington state. In March 2023, Murray introduced comprehensive legislation that would require VA to implement a series of EHR reforms to better serve veterans, medical personnel, and taxpayers. In the Fiscal Year 2024 funding bills, Senator Murray negotiated and passed as Chair of the Appropriations Committee stronger language to hold VA and Cerner accountable for the rollout of the EHR system, and in May 2024, she envió una carta urging VA to consider feedback on the system from providers and veterans in Spokane and Walla Walla and reiterating that VA must not move forward on the rollout of EHR until the myriad issues that have plagued the system in the locations where it has been launched are fixed.
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