{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://roby.house.gov/press-release/termination-proceedings-begin-va-director-roby-reacts", "Termination Proceedings Begin for VA Director; Roby Reacts", "2014-10-06", "2014", "2014-10", "Republican", "House", "AL", "Martha Roby", "R000591", "roby.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "MONTGOMERY, Ala. \u2013 The proposed termination of Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System (CAVHCS) Director James Talton is a necessary and important step toward instilling accountability at the VA and building trust within the veteran community, U.S. Representative Martha Roby (R-AL) said Monday.\u00a0\nSecretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald announced Monday that he had exercised his newly-codified authority to begin termination proceedings of former CAVHCS Director James Talton. Talton and CAVHCS Chief of Staff Dr. Cliff Robinson had previously been placed on administrative leave with pay. Talton\u2019s termination is among the VA\u2019s first known use of accountability enhancements included in the\u00a0recent VA reform legislation.\u00a0\n \n\t\u201cNumerous instances of misconduct,\u00a0negligence\u00a0and cover-up within the Central Alabama VA led to our system becoming one of the nation\u2019s worst,\u201d Rep. Roby said.\u00a0\u201cSecretary McDonald\u2019s decision to begin termination proceedings for the director who presided over this troubled system is a major step toward instilling accountability at the VA and building trust\u00a0with\u00a0Alabama veterans.\u00a0\n \n \n\t\u201cCongress acted to give the VA Secretary special authority to swiftly fire senior managers for misconduct or poor performance, and we have been eager to see him use it. Many have understandably worried that, despite the new law and public outrage, \u00a0nothing would really change at the VA. Today\u2019s action is a positive sign that the new VA leadership is committed to removing bad actors and improving the\u00a0healthcare\u00a0system.\u201d\n \nRep. Roby thanked the whistleblowers who provided the inside information that led to the exposure of myriad problems within CAVHCS.\u00a0\n \n\t\u201cThis action would not have been possible without those who, risking their jobs, reached out to let me know what was really happening inside the Central Alabama VA. We have kept their identities confidential and will continue to, but it is the whistleblowers who really deserve the credit for making sure misconduct and mismanagement did not get swept under the rug. I want to thank our brave whistleblowers and the journalists who told their stories.\u201d\n \nIn May, the VA\u2019s Office of Inspector General\u00a0confirmed numerous allegations of rampant abuse and mismanagement at a VA health care facility in Phoenix, Arizona. Rep. Roby said the Phoenix revelations, particularly the scheduling fraud, \u201csounded familiar\u201d compared to the many complaints she received from veteran constituents.\u00a0\nIn June,\u00a0it was reported\u00a0that CAVHCS employees had engaged in particularly egregious scheduling manipulation. And, even with the artificially inflated numbers,\u00a0CAVHCS had some of the longest wait times\u00a0for veterans patients in the country.\u00a0\nDuring a meeting to discuss the troubling findings,\u00a0Talton led Rep. Roby to believe disciplinary action, including the removal of employees, had been taken against those responsible for misconduct within Central Alabama.\u00a0That was not true, Rep. Roby soon learned by talking with multiple whistleblowers who contacted her office with special knowledge of CAVHCS.\u00a0\nAfter what she called this \u201cbreach of trust,\u201d\u00a0Rep. Roby and her staff began digging deeper to find out what was really happening inside CAVHCS. She joined with U.S. Senator Richard Shelby to\u00a0call national attention to the problems within CAVHCS, including disturbing instances of malfeasance and cover-up. Continued exposure of misconduct\u00a0led to action being taken in late August to place Talton and Robinson on administrative leave\u00a0and install new leadership.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://roby.house.gov/press-release/termination-proceedings-begin-va-director-roby-reacts"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4026849530637264, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}