True public servants are frowned upon by some in the federal bureaucracy. Anyone daring to rock the boat by going public with evidence of malfeasance risks retaliation.

Regardless of laws intended to protect whistleblowers, it takes a good deal of courage to be one. Government employees are all too aware that the bureaucracy has ways of punishing their kind.

One cannot blame whistleblowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs for being discouraged. More than a year ago, some of them went to the press with stories of veterans being placed on lengthy waiting lists at VA medical centers – sometimes dying before their appointments finally came up.

Congress and the American people were angry beyond measure. A thorough housecleaning at the VA was ordered. Congress provided $16 billion in new funding to help veterans.

While some VA hospitals have improved, others have not.

This week, lawmakers were told many complaints about the VA continue to come in from employees. Carol Lerner, head of the independent Office of Special Counsel, said VA whistleblower cases are 40 percent of the total her agency is investigating from throughout the government.

Clearly, the VA bureaucracy is winning. Congress should not stand for it. If lawmakers have to do something drastic – replacing the entire upper echelon of VA management, for example – they should do it.