Sex­u­al mis­con­duct at Vet­er­ans Affairs facil­i­ty is ‘dis­turb­ing and dis­gust­ing,’ House com­mit­tee chair­man says

Inves­tiga­tive doc­u­ments shared with a con­gres­sion­al com­mit­tee revealed “dis­turb­ing and dis­gust­ing” sex­u­al rela­tion­ships and mis­con­duct among work­ers at a Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs (VA) facil­i­ty in Ten­nessee, the com­mit­tee chair­man said Wednes­day.

Rep. Mike Bost, R‑Ill., chair­man of the House Com­mit­tee on Vet­er­ans’ Affairs, has been look­ing into alle­ga­tions of sex­u­al harass­ment, sex­u­al assault and inap­pro­pri­ate inter­per­son­al rela­tion­ships at the Moun­tain Home VA Med­ical Cen­ter in Ten­nessee since the alle­ga­tions sur­faced in July.

On Wednes­day, the VA shared cer­tain doc­u­ments from its inves­ti­ga­tion with the com­mit­tee that showed sex­u­al mis­con­duct did occur on VA prop­er­ty in Moun­tain Home.

“The sex­u­al mis­con­duct, harass­ment, and inap­pro­pri­ate inter­per­son­al rela­tion­ships that were allowed to per­sist at the Moun­tain Home VA facil­i­ty are dis­turb­ing and dis­gust­ing,” Bost said in a state­ment on Wednes­day. “If these alle­ga­tions are ver­i­fied, with­out ques­tion, these men and women have no busi­ness serv­ing vet­er­ans in East Ten­nessee, and this should have nev­er hap­pened.” 

VETERANS’ PTSD SYMPTOMS COULD IMPROVE WITH HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY, STUDY SHOWS

Con­cerns about sex­u­al mis­con­duct among staff at the facil­i­ty were first raised in July, and lat­er con­firmed by whistle­blow­ers, accord­ing to the com­mit­tee. Since July, Bost has sent three let­ters to VA Sec­re­tary Denis McDo­nough inquir­ing about the alle­ga­tions of “a seri­ous cul­ture prob­lem” and request­ing an inves­ti­ga­tion.

The VA told Fox News Dig­i­tal in a state­ment that the depart­ment has “zero tol­er­ance” for sex­u­al mis­con­duct, and the “employ­ees involved in any wrong­do­ing are no longer with the VA.”

“As soon as alle­ga­tions of mis­con­duct at this facil­i­ty were uncov­ered, VA report­ed the mat­ter to the prop­er author­i­ties, began our own inves­ti­ga­tion, and informed Con­gress,” a VA spokesper­son said. “We con­tin­ue to ful­ly coop­er­ate with all prop­er author­i­ties in this mat­ter, and we hold our employ­ees account­able to the high­est stan­dards of care and respect. When­ev­er employ­ees fail to live up to those stan­dards, we take imme­di­ate action – as we have done in this case.”

TRUMP NOMINATES FORMER REP. DOUG COLLINS FOR SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

The com­mit­tee on Wednes­day said that though the VA’s inves­ti­ga­tion remains ongo­ing, to their knowl­edge, the senior lead­er­ship at Moun­tain Home, who were aware of the “sex­u­al­ly explic­it activ­i­ty,” were still employed by the VA.

Fox News reached out to the VA Moun­tain Home health care facil­i­ty but has not yet received a response. 

Bost said he’s com­mit­ted to find­ing those ulti­mate­ly respon­si­ble for allow­ing the behav­ior to occur at the facil­i­ty and hold­ing all those involved account­able.

“As we con­tin­ue to get more infor­ma­tion from the Depart­ment on why this behav­ior was allowed, who com­mit­ted these actions, whether those involved are still col­lect­ing a tax­pay­er-fund­ed pay­check from VA, and who is ulti­mate­ly respon­si­ble, I will con­tin­ue to fight tooth and nail to urge the Biden admin­is­tra­tion to hold every­one involved account­able,” Bost said.