House Committee wants to interview 8 VA officials in harassment probe

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s investigation into harassment claims could now include interviews with VA Department leadership to understand how they responded to whistleblower allegations. 

Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., sent a Feb. 17 letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough asking for interviews with eight current and former VA executives on their knowledge of the harassment allegations within the department’s Office of Resolution Management, Diversity and Inclusion and what steps they took to address them.

“For months, this investigation has had two primary goals. First, to uncover the breadth and veracity of the misconduct allegations within ORDMI that were presented to this committee by whistleblowers,” said Bost in the letter. “Second, to uncover when senior leaders at the agency learned about these allegations and why the department, from the Office of the Secretary to ORMDI itself, universally failed to properly respond to them and treat them with the level of seriousness they deserved.”

Included in Bost’s request for interview availability were the following executives:

• VA Deputy Secretary Tanya Bradsher
• VA Chief of Staff Kimberly Jackson
• Teri McClelland, and any other individual, who has acted as VA Executive Secretary between Sept. 1, 2023, and Jan. 31, 2024
• VA Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security and Preparedness Cassandra Law
• VA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security and Preparedness Jeffrey Mayo
• VA Chief of Staff for Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security and Preparedness Laura Eskenazi
• Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of ORDMI Anne-Marie Duncan
• ORDMI Management Services Director Mary Kay Collins

The allegations have created a firestorm at the VA, both because of the seriousness of harassment claims made against senior leaders in the office that investigates such claims and because of delays in the VA’s response to inquiries from the committee.

Bost first brought allegations he received from two whistleblowers to the VA’s attention in a Sept. 29 email to McDonough requesting information on policies and potential sexual harassment claims within the office, followed by a Nov. 2 letter again requesting the information. 

The secretary testified before the committee on Feb. 14 that he did not recall seeing Bost’s email, which was provided to him in a daily briefing book, but took responsibility for the department’s slow response. 

VA officials are cooperating with the committee — which is continuing its investigation following a separate report from the department’s Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection — and continues to provide documents subpoenaed by Bost, but the chairman said in the letter that the interviews are needed understand VA’s response to the allegations.

“Upon reviewing OAWP’s report, the documents you sent as part of your still incomplete response to my subpoena and the mountain of evidence whistleblowers continue to provide to this committee, key questions that are paramount to ensuring full accountability about which senior leaders knew what, and when they knew it, remain unanswered,” he said.