
Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said claims of sexual harassment and intimidation at the department’s Office of Resolution, Management Diversity and Inclusion were not covered up or ignored.
In testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday, McDonough said VA is strengthening its policies, procedures, personnel, training and structure to improve its handling of sexual harassment allegations and help eliminate sexual harassment in the future.
“I assure veterans and this committee that we have treated these allegations of wrongdoing at ORMDI with seriousness,” he said.
ORMDI is the office charged with preventing sexual harassment and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within VA.
A VA ORMDI whistleblower used the committee’s whistleblower portal last September to submit allegations of ORMDI senior leadership committing sexual harassment and misconduct. A second VA ORMDI whistleblower then informed the committee that they received numerous unwanted sexually suggestive and aggressive messages from multiple VA employees, including their senior manager, over the course of a year.
The committee notified VA leaders about the complaints in September, a few weeks before they were filed with McDonough’s office. Although VA began an investigation into the complaints in October, McDonough did not respond to the committee until November.
Since then, the assistant secretary responsible for ORMDI, Gina Grosso, and Harvey Johnson, VA’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for ORMDI, have left VA. In addition, ORMDI Chief of Staff Archie Davis was moved into another position.
The committee voted 22-1 to subpoena numerous documents from VA in January. Thus far, VA has provided thousands of pages of documents and transcripts from 40 interviews to the committee.
Reporters also received a heavily redacted report on the allegations by the Office Accountability and Whistleblower Protection prior to the hearing.
The report recommends that Davis be fired and pay back the performance bonuses he has received over the past few years. OAWP also recommended that Johnson’s bonuses be taken back and noted he resigned while being investigated.
McDonough did not address the report directly during his testimony, but did say it shines a light on the need to update VA’s policies on both fraternization and workplace behavior. VA does not currently have an anti-fraternization policy.
HVAC Chairman Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) pledged that the committee would find the truth, no matter how long it takes.
“We are going to continue to demand answers from the department and pursue this investigation as far as it goes,” he said.
But Democrats on the committee are accusing Republicans of politicizing the issue.
“The conspiracy that the Majority has pushed is not reflective of reality,” said Ranking Member Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA,) in his opening statement. “Facts matter. Nothing is more important than the truth. My colleagues across the aisle are either being intentionally reckless and cavalier with the truth or willfully blind as they continue to push their narrative of widespread misconduct in ORMDI.”
Republicans pledged to continue the investigation and hold more hearings in the future.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.