WASHINGTON — A recently passed Senate bill could lead to the use of security cameras inside VA health care facilities, according to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.
The Senate-approved bill, which passed the House earlier this year, is sponsored by fellow West Virginia Republicans Representatives David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Carol Miler and is companion legislation to the Senate version.
Speaking with reporters Thursday, Capito said the bill was drafted in response to the actions of convicted serial killer Reta Mays.
Mays, a former nursing assistant at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, pleaded guilty to murder and assault charges in the deaths of eight veterans. In May, she was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences, one for each murder, and an additional 240 months for the eighth victim.
The bill would require the U.S. secretary of veterans affairs to submit a report to Congress on the use of security cameras in VA medical centers, Capito said.
“This is a small bill, but I think very important,” she said.
“When we saw what happened in the Clarksburg hospital, in order to have gotten to the answers and to have been able to satisfy that horrifying situation a little bit quicker, if we’d had cameras like we do in many hospitals and community health care facilities, we would have been able to see the movements of certain people going in and out of the rooms of our veterans."
She was inspired to write the legislation after feeling “very frustrated” with the speed of the investigation into the deaths at the Clarksburg facility, Capito said.
“We’re solving crimes all over this country with people having cameras in their parking lots or their personal residences. I think they are very much a deterrent to a lot of crimes,” she said. “This would give us the ability to work with the VA to put forward a plan to put cameras into the VA hospitals and give them in the future some of the funding capabilities to modernize that.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, D.W.Va., issued a joint statement with Capito after the Senate passed the legislation.
“I am pleased the Senate passed our bipartisan legislation to require the VA to submit a report on the use of security cameras at VA facilities,” Manchin, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said. “This is a good first step in restoring our veterans’ confidence in the VA medical centers, but we have a long way to go. I’m pleased this important legislation is now headed to President Biden’s desk, and as we move forward, I will keep fighting to ensure every veteran has access to the safe, quality health care they deserve.”
Speaking at the VA Medical Center in Clarksburg a week after Mays’ sentencing, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough promised to work to restore public trust by implementing recommendations from a recently released report by the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General.
The report found that “serious, pervasive and deep-rooted clinical and administrative deficiencies” at the medical center created missed opportunities to stop Mays while she was employed at the hospital.
“What happened to the veterans is devastating and heartbreaking, and the entire Department of Veterans Affairs joins me in mourning their tragic loss, their senseless murders, the pain this community has endured,” McDonough said. “The VA must accept some responsibility, which we have done and will continue to do, which is one of the reasons I’m here today.”
The VA will “take every step possible” and will “spare no expense,” to prevent future murders from occurring at VA facilities, McDonough said.
“We’re moving forward deliberately and meticulously to correct the errors that have been identified,” he said. “An important part of the work ahead is about restoring veterans’ trust and confidence in VA and restoring the Clarksburg communities’ trust and confidence in VA.”