WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, today released the following statement after Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert McDonald compared wait times for veterans seeking access to health care at the VA to “the number of hours you wait in line” at Disneyland:

“I am extremely disappointed in Secretary McDonald’s comparison of the deadly VA wait-time scandal to long lines at an amusement park. This type of attitude is why I have introduced the Veterans First Act to hold VA employees accountable and to make sure they know that veterans’ access to timely and quality care is a matter that we take very seriously.”

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The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is chaired by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in the 114th Congress. Isakson is a veteran himself – having served in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966-1972 – and has been a member of the Senate VA Committee since he joined the Senate in 2005. Isakson’s home state of Georgia is home to more than a dozen military installations representing each branch of the military as well as more than 750,000 veterans.