florida who may be with us today but if you could just raise your hand out so we can say hello. isn't this just like home? this is just like him. [laughter] welcome to those from sunshine state but we are glad to have your. each of you are a credit to our state of florida and to your communities and i'm proud to have you here in your nation's capital. .. capital. thank you for your military service and for our ongoing service to veterans. commander johnston, officers, and members of the dav, you have a tremendous force behind you to accomplish the immense mission that is before each of us. our charge, yours and mine, is to assist and oversee that the department of veterans affairs carries out america's promise to those who have worn the uniform of this country. this includes ensuring that veterans receive timely, accurate, and consistent decisions when seeking

service-connected disability compensation, safe and high quality health care and prompt access to earned benefits. it demands that in dealing with the department of veterans' affairs, veterans be treated with the dignity and professionalism that is earned through honorable service to our nation. the need for oversight is crucial. but it is the need for accountability that is paramount. speaking directly to th must set the example. true leaders lay out clear expectations, putst others in positions to succeed, they follow through, and most importantly hold themselvess accountable for their actions of the follow me. that is the motto of the infantry. yet those word can be easily

translated to okayizational leadership at va. when there is a mission to be accomplished those who put themselves on the line are the leaders that others want to follow. and, it iacs a lack of accountability that corrodes trust within a chain of command. that said, an undeniable, widespread, simtic lack of accountability exists today in the department of veterans affairs. in fact, if you look at recent preventible deaths at va medical centers, patient safety o incidentste and claims backloggd increases department senior executives who presided over negligent and mismanagement morb likely to have received a bone must than punishment. it is a leadership model that is primed for failure. so today, i ask for your support

of a measure that i have introduced, hr 4031, the department of veterans affairs management accountable act of 2014. this bill would provide tools to the secretary of veterans affairs to better manage senior executive employees. those who are directly responsible for the day-to-day success or failure of va programs. hr 4030 would give the secretary the power to hold leaders accountable when they fail to perform their duties in an maker that properly serves the veterans entrusted to their care the av, you know leadership and i hope thaw will support this bill and work with us to empower the secretary to lead va into the future. and i also want to comment on something from your written remarks. you noted that the department, specific the veterans benefits

administration, has exhibited reduced transparency and openness of late. i can assure you that this shift has been noted by this congress. and i will underscore these ongoing concerns to the secretary. the va is to effectively carry out its duties, the department as well as congress and veterans servicens organizations must be open to candid, and honest conversation. i will be paying close attention to the matters of transparency as pba pushes towards 2015 and urge you to push your dialogue withnc congress and va to the maximum extent possible. i lock look forward to hearing your testimony today and i am certain we will work together over the coming months on many items on your list of legislative priorities but before i yield my time i want to

touch upon one specific area that you have noted is a top priority for dav in 2014. that is the expansion of advanced appropriations for the department of veterans affairs. thank you for your resounding support of hr 813, the putting veterans funding first act. while the veterans health administration is largely shielded from budgetary impasse, other functions critical to the department and the veterans are not, including accounts for information technology as well as construction spending on vital maintenance and improvement projects. and i'm going to continue to advocate for passage of this measure as well. gridlock must not compromise the functionality of theo department ofth veterans affairs. there are great work ahead for all of us but with your help i am confident there is also great potential for success, for

america's veterans. thank you once again for being here today and i now yield timee to my colleague and friend from the senate, chairman blumenthal for his opening statement. senator. >> thank you very much, chairman miller. and thank you to the leadership of the dav, commander johnston and others who are here today. most important to all the dav members who are here. thank you so much for making the trip and sending a message by your presence about not only the concern and interest but youryo knowledgeu and power, by your numbers and your presence here today. i would like to ask that chairman sanders full opening statement be placed in the record. he could not be here today because indeed he helping to manage the bill, the comprehensive bill that is under

consideration this week before the united states senate andns indeed i may have to, i will have to leave early to go back and assist him in that effort. i hope you will forgive me but with the chair's permission i would like to ask that his opening statement be placed in the record and i'd like to make a few opening brief remarks. >> without objection. i thought it o was probably goig to be because of the snow that he was not able to be here. >> we're here in the warmthca compared tous connecticut and vermont. let me ask all the connecticut dav members who are here please raise your hand so i can thank you personally for being here, all the connecticut members. i know that connecticut dav, and state commander and vice commander and dominic cordites, the dav vice commander all regularly advise me and their guidance and thinking is so very

valuable to me. let me begin by thanking the dav for its support, for the comprehensive benefits and health and military retirement payr restoration act which is e bill on the floor of the senate this week. the dav set about this bill. this bill, and i'm quoting, unprecedented in our modern experience, would create, expand and extend a number of va benefits, services and programs important to the dav and to our members. your help and support has been critical alongwith the help and support of virtually every veterans and military service organization in the country including the american legion, the veterans of foreign wars, the disabled american veterans, vietnam veterans of america, the military officers association of america, the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. the paralyzed veterans of

america, the gold star wives and many more.ra we thank you for your support for this bill which includes many measures that were reported out of our committee, the senate veterans affairs committee, by unanimous vote or on a very overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. there is nothing partisan about supporting this bill or any other measure that provide what we owes to our veterans. they should be above partisanis politics and this bill is big o andwe broad because the needs ad challenges of all of our veterans are big and broad. that's why it is comprehensive. it would provide the restoration of cola for military retirees, improve va health and care, health care and benefits, expand educational opportunities for our veterans, help end the benefits backlog which we know

bedevils many parts of ourpa country still andnd would help t our veterans back to work. and i'm very proud to be supporting this measure. it is a historic effort to be comprehensive, to reach and aid our veterans in a multiprong, multifaceted way. of particular interest to me is hearing from you about where you think the priorities ought to be andof how we can address the problem of uniting, for example, uniting the medical records and personnel data of the department of defensess and the departmentf veterans affairs. there are gaping divisions in that system where there should be none and i'm appalled by the delay that is often occur in the transofficer of information. i'm deeply appreciative of the work of the dav experts who help every day in aiding our veteras

with their claims and i value your expertise in addressing this challenge. i'm also personally committed to determining what we can do more and better to help veterans who suffer from posttraumatic stress. we should assist equally a veteran from today's conflicts well as those from past conflicts. including our vietnam veterans who suffered posttraumatic stress t before this debilitatif conditionli was medically diagnosed or perhaps even seen for what it is. that's why i'm working to get the department of defense, to give a second look at the records of our veterans of past wars including vietnam who may have been less than honorably discharged or otherwise disadvantaged because their condition was undiagnosed and untreated. given what we now know, thosed individual who today are upstanding members of the

community and suffered from posttraumatic stress oughtat toe given a second look. and their discharge status reevaluated if necessary. on all ofs these issues again your expertise and guidance, not only today but every day is very, very valuable and i i i wt to welcome you and thank you fot yourod service to america in uniform and when you have returned to your communities and today as you come back to the capital. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, senator. i now yield five minutes or as much time as he may consume to the ranking member of the house, full house committee, mr. michaud. >> thank you, very much, mr. chairman and thank you for your service for this great nation of ours as well. good afternoon, commander, i want to thank you and all members of dav and the auxiliary for your service and we thank you for your continued

dedication to our nation's veterans. i want to take an opportunity also to welcome those in the audience from maine, sons of daughters of maine have a history of serving our nation and i'm glad to see they're continuing that tradition as well by fighting for veterans issues. dav and other veterans groups are active and valued partners with us in congress as we work to keep our promise to america's veterans. i want to thank you for your work of advocating in the passage and enactment of hr 813, putting of veterans funding first act. we have seen how well advanced appropriation has worked for va's medical care. it is time that the rest of va's discretionary budget be treated the same way. we owe it to america's veterans to provide certain and stable va budget funding. va is pursuing a wide range of

initiatives from new methods of health care delivery to electronic benefit management. these investments will help bring thes department into the 21st century. working with you in the department of veterans affairsst we will make sure that these initiatives implemented fairly, transparently and in the best interests of the veterans and the american taxpayers. making sure that the department of veterans affairs can meet the challenges of the 21st century is a job of all of us. and i know the dav, your members across theha country, and your staff here in washington, are ready and eager for thatou challenge. so i look forward to your testimony today, commander. and again i want to thank you and dav's long history of distinguished service, for the men and women who wear the uniform andnd it is because of vsos because as yourself, the organization will give members about congress the information

we know need so that we can make those decisions important for our veterans and their families in this country. sorm once again, thank you very much and thank you, mr. chairman, i yield back. >> recognize for as much time as he may need the acting ranking member, mr. helloer from nevada. >> mr. chairman thank you. >> glad to have you here. >> good to be back, seeing old colleagues and some old frienda. that i have on this side of the capitol.ve i wan to thank y you the commanr for being here today and everybody that will be testifying and answering questions today, thanks for taking time. itfo is always a wonderful viewo see this crowd. advocacy and issues important to all of us. i want to take a moment to acknowledge veterans flown here from my home state, bill bowman and john hanson. are you out there?re any other nevada veterans out there, please raise your hand. they are tremendous advocates. they had appointments in my office at 9:30 this morning.

they were there at 8:30 f that gives any idea howing a gross sieve they are and i appreciate the work they do and they are great advocates and represent the battle born state quite well. commander johnston i think wehe all agree there remains to be a lot improved upon when it comes to and caring for our american veterans. which is whyt the work that the dav does as advocacy group and resource for our veterans is so important. this the second year i had the privilege to sit on the senate veterans affairs committee. while that mayou not be as longa period of time compared to some of the other members here it is clear that one issue continues to be a primary focus and that's the disability claims backlog at va. the va promised veterans that their claims would be completed in less than 125 days yet more than 4300 veteransva in las veg, reno across nevada have waited much longer than that. in fact nevada has the longest waiting time in the nation.

that is why i made a top priority on this committee to work to address this issue in a bipartisan manner.in the claims backlog is the i greatest challenge facing the department of a veterans affairs today. but this issue has been plagued, has been plagued in the va for over 20 years, two decades and reality is we must update the process. it's a 1945 system for a 21st century veteran. the va needs a claims process that is proactive rather than reactive. one that can anticipate the needs of veterans to keep a backlog from happening. some may want to point fingers, place blame, but at end of the day, congress, the vsos and the va all have a part to play. for the pastpo year i worked wih senator casey through a bipartisan va backlog working group to learn more about why the backlog exists and what can be donewi to fix it. i'm also pleased that senators moran and tester have joined us

in this effort. it has taken significant time and resources to dig into this issue and shortly i look forward to rolling out suggestion that is we have developed with the help of the dav. our nation owes its veterans, owes it to our veterans to keep our promise to care for them and resolve this problem together. this is just one of the many important issues t that will be discussed todaray and i apprecie dav being here and look forward to the testimony, thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. senator, we are certainly grad to have you back on our side of the building. before i yield to my colleague, dr. wenstrup, i also want tore recognize two other people that i did not talk about to start with. joseph violante, long time national legislative director. joe, great to have you here with us and see you on the hill all the time. ron mentor, national director of service. ron, glad to have you here too.

my staff had just said i was going to yield to representative wenstrup to introduce the commander but i think it is important that you understand that dr. wenstrup is a combat veteran of iraq. a surgeon by trade, and a bronze star recipient. [applause] with that, mr. wenstrup, you're recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. as a proud member of the house veterans affairs committee it i> my privileged to introduce joseph johnson, national commander of disabled american veterans of the as commander johnson works to representy injured and disabled veterans i have had the honor to represent him in the house of

representatives. aving personally served as combat surgeon in iraq i saw our troops in the minutes and hours after being wounded. but often times the toughest battle our veterans fight is when they come home. disabled american veterans is a strong advocate for those who have served our nation and given more than most. and commander johnson does yeoman's work on behalf of the nation'sha disabled veterans. ite had the honor of sharing the stage with mr. johnson during veterans tribute in ohio. his passion for our military veterans is clear. it's selfless and with great conviction. 100% service-connected disabled veteran who served in the vietnam and persian gulf wars, commander johnson and joined the u.s. army in 1966, serving first as an enlisted soldier and later as a commissioned officer. he retired at rank of colonel in 1992 and was inducted into the ohio veterans hall of fame in

2007 and is a life member of dav chapter 63 in williamsburg, ohio. in our state of ohio and nationally commander johnson has been elected to and held variour management and leadership positions with the dav and is active in various chapter and department va voluntary service programs. culminating in his election as national commander last year. fellow members of congress from the house and senate, it's my honor to introduce national commander joe johnson to presenb the dav's legislative agenda. mr. johnston. thank you. [applause] >> welcome again, commander and you are now recognized for your testimony. >> representative wenstrup, friend, fellow warrior, thank

you very much. chairman miller, acting ranking member helloer and ranking member michaud, i want to thank you for convening today's hearing and for your leadership in helping to fulfill promises to men and women who have served. chairman sanders has recently brought w forth introducing sene bill 1982 and that is indeed one of the most wide-ranging veterans bills ever brought forward. i'd like to extend our sincere appreciation to chairman sanderr and all members of these committees on behalf of the more than 1.4 million members of dav and its auxiliary for the outstanding support that you have given our nation's injured and i'll veterans and their families and survivors.

we wish you all the best in our efforts, through the rest of the 113th congress, on behalf of america's veterans, their families, and survivors. allow my to introduce those seated at table with me as well ases some distinguished guests. nationallage. >> tant mark burr just.st executive directors, gary augustine. servic e director jim marszalek. legislative director, joseph violante. voluntary services director ron mentor. auxiliary national commander, susan miller of colorado. auxiliary national adjutant, judy heslan. senior vice commander ron pope of north carolina. vice commanders, george of, foster of california, and denni

culder ofda new york. national judge advocate mike dobmayer of north dark, i am mode i can't think past national commander larry palzine of california. chief of staff raymond hutchinson of ohio and my love of my life wick he vick and my son james and his wife rhonda. one man -- [applause] one man who for the first time in decade is not the at table with us today is art wilson. he retired in 2013 after a 47-year career serving as dav's superbly effective chief executive officer and national adjutant. art's departure after such a long ands distinguished term wil clearly leave a void the dav has selected an able, experienced,

executive in mark burgess as our new ceo and national adjutant. while the dav national executive committee please stand and be recognized. [applause] while the members of the national legislative interim committee also please stand. [applause] and i'd also like to recognize the entire dav delegation from my home state of ohio. please stand. [applause] i've already submitted for the record my written testimony.

detailing a number of concerns and ideas for your information and consideration. so i will use my time today to highlight a few of the mosto importantur issues facing veters today. t mr. chairman, veterans stand with each other and support one another in combat and long after the bullets cease to strike we always rely on our warrior brothers and sisters and i'm hoping that every member of congress will also stand with us and for us each and every day oa yourrr respective terms.y since our founding dav has remained dedicated to fulfilling our promises to the men and women who served, their families and survivors. dav's core mission is carried out through our chapter, department, transition and national service officers and in all dav has nearly 3,000 service officers including county veterans service officers, who are credited by dav.

during 2013 dav's 276 national service officers interviewed over 117,000 veterans and their families. reviewed more than 313,000 va claims files. filed over 215,000 new claims for benefits, and participated in more than 272,000 va rating board actions. in addition, our national appeals officers provided representation in almost a third of the appeals decided before the board of veterans appeals. our transition service officers conducted some 1400 briefings to groups separating servicemembers. 54,000 total participants in those sessions. counseled almost 31,000 persons and in individual inter views, reviewed military treatment

records of 13,316 individuals and submitted applications for 19,000 personal to dav vsos for filing with the va. our mobile service officers traveled almost 90,000 miles to 833 cities and towns and met with more than 20,000 veterans and other potential claimants to offer our assistance. about 17,000 dav and auxiliary volunteers donated more than 1.8 volunteer, million volunteer hours to assist america's wounded, injured and i'll veterans every year, saving taxpayers over $40 million in costs. dav's national transportationng network logged almost 26,000 road miles and transported over 700,000 veterans to have. a health care facilities. nearly 9,000 volunteer drivers spend over 1.7 million hours

transporting veterans. from 1987 to 2013, we have donated nearly 3,000 vans to the va, at a cost to the dav of more than $57 million. [applause] messrs. chairman and members of theco veterans affairs committe, let me thank those who joined us couple hours ago at the capitol at a press conference calling for advanced appropriation for all veterans programs, service and benefits. we are also joined by members about many other veterans and military organizations by all uniting withts a message for congress to pass the putting veterans funding first act. in addition hundreds of dav members and supporters have bee visiting your offices. thousands have been calling froc back home, and over a million,

that's over as million, have st or heard our message through facebook, twitter and the other social media. all calling on congress to keep ther promise by passing advancd appropriations. [applause] today if you open up any of the capitol hill publications you will see our full-page ad and you can see them online at corresponding websites. you can also read the op-ed in today's "wall street journal", former va secretary tony principi and i coauthored and another op-ed in yesterday's "washington times" that i wrote together with the national leaders from the vfw and the american legion. together our organizations represent more than five million veterans.

messrs. chairman, you and the other members of this committeem know theil importance of advance appropriations judging by the overwhelming votes in favor of this legislation in both of your committees. let me a especially recognize miller and congressman michaud for sponsoring the legislation in the house and senators begich and bozeman for sponsoring this legislation in the senate. i also want to thank you, chairman sanders, who isn't here, for getting behind the legislation and insuring that senate bill 1982 included va's mandatory ben fed and for moving it through the committee. the government shutdown last october confirmed what has become increasingly clear. the federal budget and appropriations process is broken. over the past 25 years the full year budget for the department of veterans affairs has only

been enacted by the start of the fiscal year only three times. in 2009 as a result, of a grassroots advocacy effort by dav and other vsos, congress passed and the president signed the veterans health care budget reform and transparency act that provides advanced appropriations for va medical care programs. this past october, while many v. a offices and services were shut during the shutdown, va hospitals and clinics were able to provide uninterrupted health care. by contrast, claims processing to reduce the backlog was slowed, activities at national cemeteries were scaled back, and what medical research projects were nearly suspended. when va regional offices were shut down, many of our national service officers resorted to occupying temporary quarters including tents in order to continue to helping veterans

seeking their earned benefits. we at dav were determined that our free representation would not and could not be interrupted. during last year's veterans day activities, a woman approached me to say how grateful she was to dav for our efforts in helping the government shutdown before va ran out of fund for disability compensation. she and her husband's only i income wasn his monthly va compensation. and, as the shutdown lingered on she told me with tears in her eyes, that they were terribly worried they would not be able to buy food, gas or pay their rent. as national commander of this tremendous organization, i was grateful for those kind words about dav's effective advocacy but it concerned me greatly thar she andat her husband were, toed to go through such a terrible ordeal, given the sacrifice they

already made pour this country. we should never again put a disabled veteran or his or her family in similar circumstances. [applause]ey this is why dav's operation, keep the promise, has made advance? shouting] has made advanced appropriations for all va funding accounts including manadatory disability payments to veterans, our highest legislative priority in 2014. messrs. chairman, advanced appropriations is a common-sense approach to a long-standing problem and it has broad and bipartisan support in congress and veterans community and by

the american people at large. now it is up to the leaders in congress to bring this legislation up for votes in both the house and the senate. it's time for congress to keep the promise to american veterans.an [applause] of course authorizing benefits for veterans, especially disabled veterans, without providing the systems to deliver those benefits in a timely, accurate manner, is a promise unfulfilled. for decade va's benefits claims process has failed to meet that promise. today however for the first time in years some good news is coming from the vba. after four years of comprehensive transformation that included implementation of new organizational and operating

processes, new i.t. systems and new training, testing and a quality control regimes, there is measurable progress ind addressing the backlog of pending claims for our veterans benefits. similarly without the infrastructure to deliver services the promises made by our government willts ring holl. d. a v believes one of the greatest challenges facing va and enormous short fall and funding for v. a's capital and infrastructure. according to va's own analysis, just to maintain its current infrastructure requires up to 64 billion over the next 10 years but at current funding rates, va will need more than 25 years to complete that work. major construction alone, va estimates that say that there is average of 2.3 billion is needed each yearma for the next decade but this funding level was

pitiful 342 million. our veterans deserve more than agin g facilities that may soon be falling down around them. we need your support to increase funding for maintaining va's infrastructure need, to continue to delivering the health care and benefits our nation's heroes have earned. messrs. chairman, family caregivers play an indispensable role as part of va's long term services and support systems. they provide the vast majorityro of carele for loved ones with chronic needs and functionalvi limitations. as a result of legislationde passed in 2010 va provides essential caregiver services and support only to the newest generation of severely injured and wounded veterans. family caregivers of veterans from earlier wars do not receive the same comprehensive support fully address the burdens and

strains of a lifetime of care giving. dav urges congress to correctur the inequity and extend this successful program to caregivers of all eras. [applause] and in closing i'd like to point out to all of you that before you are men and women of honor. that means that they did whatever was needed to be done when our country called. and lady and gentlemen, you can still call on us anytime that youdo need us and we would be proud to serve. that's why this country is never be overrun by an enemy force as long as we all draw breath. messrs. chairman, this completes my testimony and my staff and i would be very pleased to respond to any questions that you may have. thank you for allowing me the opportunity to appear before you

on behalfas of the dav and to share our proud record of service to veterans of our country. may god bless america's soldiers, sailors, airmen, coast guardsmenrd and marines who aren harm's way and may god continue to bless the united states of america. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much for your testimony, commander. what i'd like to do since the senators may have to depart and go back to the senate side for debate that is on the floor i would like go ahead yield to the chairman for any questions

he may have in case he has to leave. >> thank you, chairman miller, i very much appreciate that in yielding and very grateful for that very stirring and inspiring comment andg testimony. i want to focus my brief couple of questions on the capitol budget, the 10-year plan that as you very wisely and perceptively say can't be accomplished in less than 25 years which is a contradiction in terps and really a betrayal of the promises that we do need to keep. and i want to ask you about the impacts, the human impacts if you could tell us from your deep and vast experience of failing to fulfill that 10-year plan.

>> yes, sir and the impact isfi going to be even greater if we bring down the army and other services to pre-world war ii levels, the va is going to be inundated with new request for claims and new request for health care services. and to have these infrastructure facilities falling down around folks earss is absolutely the wrong thing to do. and we need to make sure that we get the appropriate amount of fund budgeted to cover these shortfalls that are certainly going to occur in the years to come.am simply because the war ends does not mean that the necessity for va services gets any less. [applause]ha >> in fact perhaps you'd agree with me, that the contrary is true.

as the wars end and as we downsize to levels of world war ii and pre-world war ii, the army, for example, at 440,000 to 450,000, we're going to see a million men and women leave the military over the next five years. that statistic comes from the va itself. in fact from general shinseki. a million men and women becoming veterans. many of them afflicted, not only with highly-visible wound but also the horrific invisible wounds of post-tramatic stress and traumatic brain injury. a million men and women added to the ranks of our veterans and they're the one who is will ben impacted by this failure to fulfill the 10-year plan. in connecticut, for example, we see the va hospital in west haven found wonting and failing

in a number of critical areas by the ig, the inspector general of the va in a recent report that has to be addressed through capital improvements as well as procedures and practices. so i would agree with you veryim stronglypr and really want to ce men and thank you for the statement and the presence of so many of the members who are here today so that we can fulfill that promise. thank you very much. [applause] and i want to thank you, mr. chairman, for allowing me to ask that question and in case i have to leave i hope you will forgive me. thank you. >> senator he heller. >> mr. chairman, thank you and commander thank you very much for your ll testimony and everyy that's here today. it's good to see you here. at 4:30 this afternoon i have

secretary shinseki coming into my office and i'm going to ask him a lot of questions. i'm going to ask him obviously the veterans backlog issue and progress, if any, are being made. the issue of lack of communication between my office andny the in reno. and that is another question i'm going to ask and hopefully get a good answer for but there are other questions that you might think that should ask him. are there any questions, if you were talking to secretary shinseki today, what question would that be and i'm going to take notes? and this is your chance toy advocate. >>th well, i wouldn't, presume,s sir to tell you what to ask the secretary although the secretary is an airborne ranger like me. so he is my friend. and he has told me that he will, will reduce the backlog by 2015. but i would defer to members my staff for any additional information they want to share.

>> love to hear from them, yes. >> yes, thank you.fo we do believe that ther va isht making progress on the backlog. wehe obviously feel that advancd appropriations is necessary because every yearhe there is a lapse between the start of the fiscal year and when the budget is finally improved. that causes all kinds of problems in training, in getting things accomplished in a business, efficient businessmanner. we would like the secretary to support our efforts to get advanced appropriations for the rest of the va and for discretionary. he himself hasn't indicated that it is very important for his i.t. budget and his construction budget to be received on time because of the props associated with those two issues. so we would like to know if

secretary will continue to advance, or to support our advanced appropriations. >> very good. w anyonei else?o i certainly appreciate those comments and they will be well-heeded. one of the issues that comes up in my office, commander, is the fully developed claims program. it's ahe new initiative by the a office. veterans who schmidt a fully developed claim are able to receive a decision under 125 days and insuring that their claimsve do not become backlogg. i guess my question, what more can congress and va do assure the veterans fill out a fully developed claim? >> i would just make a general comment before i turn this over to my staff but we believe that the the reduction of the backlog is a combination of the fully-developed claim process,

the dbqs, and then also accountability that's passed on to the review officers. and we think those three things are exactly the types of answers to not only reduce the claims but to the manageable level but then to reduce the backlog entirely. >> let me do, if i can ask a follow-upla question. i know that the dav works hard to encourage veterans to, you served to file a complete, as complete a claim as possible but i also recognize that veterans need to have the options to file any way they want, whether that is on that form or perhaps on paper napkin. is that accurate and, can you explain to this committee why it is important that veterans still have the option to file a claim anyway they want? >> i'll defer that to the staff. >> yerkes thank you. i think it is important that

veterans still have the opportunity to file a claim whether it is on paper, on the standard 526 ez or if they do it on a regular form.l currently they could take that regular piece of paper or as many people refer to it as a napkin, send it to the va regional office and va has a duty to send the claimant the correct appropriate form to be completed and then they return it but that napkin starts to date the day they receive the claim and va's proposal, they are recommending that you have to file it on that 526 ez in order for them to start the date. that is what we don't agree with. so it is very important that veterans still have the opportunity because not everyone has easy access to the forms and not everyone can do it electronically either. so va's still in the early stages of their transformation planth on filing claims electronically. so we feel it is important that we continue to allow them to submit claims on paper to protect their effective dates.

>> very good. thank you very much. >> if i might add. >> please. you mentioned fully-developed plans. in order to encourage people to develop their own claims, veterans, it's very important ts have that. process that they can establish what's called an informal claim and as mr. marszalek mentioned, protect the effective date so they can then go out and develop information that's needed to be a fully-developed claim. that claim goes through the process much quicker and without that protection on their effective date they will not be motivated to go out and develop that evidence andke will leave t to the va which causes the claim to have a lot longer development time. >> mr. chairman, thank you. i see my time has run out but it has been a pleasure to participate in operation keep the promise. thank you. [applause]

>> commander in your written testimony you talked about several initiatives that dav find that have had a positive effect on the backlog of disability claims and one ofia those initiatives that dav refers to is the quality controe regimes or as va refers to them, quality review team, but i don't know if you or your team is aware that despite this positive feedback there was a memo that was sent out a week ago today basically saying that all vba staff would be working on, for the quality review teams, would be discontinued until further notice so that all hand could be on deck to continue processing claims. and what i would like to hear from you is the effect that a temporary elimination of the these review teams may have on the secretary's goal of 95%

accuracy within 125 days? turning numbers out is one thing but the accuracy is critical and so, again you may or may not be aware of o it. joe may be aware of it but i'd like to hear from you what youag thinaik the potential effects, negative owr positive, could be. >> i'll let the staff answer that question. >> thank you, mr. chairman. quality is our number one priority and always has been. we were very supportive with the creation of qrt teams. we are aware of this initiative. this was to go through the end of march. it's important that va makes a decision right the first time. that is only way we want it. we are going to monitor very closely over this next 40 days or so to see how it impacts. what we don't want to see is this continue to happen. that was our concern at the

beginning when the qrts werem created, that they would use these folks when an initiative came up, qrt teams are very important and we've been happy with the progress of the qrt teams locally there, being able to do some centralized training on particular issues they're seeing at that local va regional office. we feel it is important that quality is the number one priority over quantity. [applause] >> also in your written statement you stated that the most important factor driving vba's productivity gains was undoubtly the policy put into place of mannedder to overtime for claims processing. i think that over, the overtime initiative has been helpful without question but it is not sustainable t in the long term e to employee burnout and reduced accuracy rates. s so indeed the benefits program

portion of the independent budgetou recommend that is we provide sufficient resources to insure adequate staffing levelso at the vba and it goes on to state that the vsos recommended increased staffing levels instead of a sole reliance on mandatory overtime. so what i'd like to hear is a further explanation of the independent budget rationale for the positions that, or the position that you take and the organizations took that hiring additional employees may prove moreti beneficial to have.yo ba than overreliance on mandatory overtime? >> i would like to say just a few general words before i defer to staff for the specifics of that but over the years the independent budget has been the bellwether of the actual requirements for what was needed in the va in the budget each year and every time that independentbe budget is ignoredt always results in additionalva

appropriations having to be passed in order to meet the needs. so we do have confidence in our numbers. we have confidence in the quality of that product and we certainly believe that you all should pay attention and heed it. so with that i would defer to the staff. >> mr. chairman, i'll respond to that. and just say that in the independent budget what we thought about was what happened several years ago when they brought on al core of temporary employees, trained them, put them into the workforce, and then through attrition either kept them on after the temporary period or let them go. and wein felt that that provided va, number one, with the resources, with sufficient trained employees and also gave va the opportunity to make a determination as to who was successful and who they can keep on. so we feel that, you know, overtime is nice but after a while people do get burned out

and we would rather see, even if it is temporary, in the binning, a core of people coming on board to take care of the needs. and again with automation and what va is doing, the needs for the numbers that we've requested may go down over the years and that gives v. a the ability to then decrease their workforce when necessary and just keep those that are productive. >> thank you. my time has expired. mr. michaud. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. in this year's independent budget you included a recommendation that vba must develop a new metrics and assessment tool to measure the performance of, at every level of the claims processing system, based upon a scientific methodology ofel projecting work loads, resources requirements andba allocations.

can you provide some examples of the performance measures youir believe that should be instituted at theio vba? >> i will defer that question to the staff. >> thank you. firmly believe that there should be progressive metrics with benchmark compliance, transparency, so that we as vsos can insure that the va are meeting their needs and making sure that it's more than just production goals but also quality goals. and we will continue to watch them closely and make them accountable for those benchmarks >> there's an old saying, if yod can't measure it, you can't manage it. what part of the claims process, in your view, should be counted in order to be measured? clearly you can get a lot of,

yoimu know, claims out the door, but the accuracy rate might be terrible. so what part of the claims process do you think should be measured? >> there is no doubt that the t va's making sure that everybody knows about their production metrics. so of course we are very concerned about the quality of those claims that are being done. now the dav for all the claims that we represent we take a look at those claims before they're promulgated, to make sure there are no mistakes and take them back to the va before they are finalized. however there are many veterans that are not represented. so item is very important to mae sure that quality across the board is being done and that theyan do it right the first ti. [applause]

having that said, that would also reduce the appeals because if they get it right the first time, then you're not going to have as many appeals. >> actualley that's my next question. as you know as they move down to lower the backlog the amount of appease are actually isth concerningey is actually going . what are you recommending as far as, i mean that we should do as far as the appeals process because that is a huge concern as a backlog comes down, the appealss process is going high? >> there is no doubt that appeals are, even a longer time frame than the regular ajudication of regular claims. so the more we can do to fix it at the front end, and i believer that with fdcs, fully-developed claims, thosee will help the appeals process.

not only will the evidence be there at the very beginning that they need to do it right the first time, the time frame for those claims are much shorter and i believe veterans would be much more satisfied to get a claim in a the mare of weeks as opposed to a matter of months or years knowing that the evidence that they submitted and also all the evidence was considered as opposed to starting a claim, getting a exam, and then not having the claim adjudicated until months later when the condition could change between the time they had their exam and the time they actually adjudicate the claim. >> m y last question, since my time's running out is, on events appropriation i have no doubt that bill was brought to the floor, hr 813, that it passed congress overwhelmingly, probably unanimous. what are you doing as far as to get leadership to bring the bill

to the has floor for a vote on it? >> actually yesterday our department of ohio had a meeting in the speaker's office with the staff to discuss that fact, of bringing advanced appropriations forward. today alongwith, operation, keep the promise, we had thousands of calls made into the capitol hill switchboard ater the time we wee atwe the rally. so we hope that with those phone calls, with the emails that will be generating today and with visits that our members are making they will get the message to bring that bill to the floor for a vote. . .g the bill to the floor for a vote. >> thank you very much and thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much. >> i thank the chairman, i got the message.

[ applause ] >> in the dav, hold your hands up, any of my tennessee colleagues that are here. as commander, i want to thank you for your leadership for the dav. i want to briefly tell you a very quick story about how much i appreciate why you're here and about a year and a half ago i got to back to korea where i was stationed and colonel, mineis >> i got a chance to go back to korea and i was there in 1973 come and does a country that was digging its way out of the war. they were recovering from a devastating level that country from one into the other. in 1960 that country had the fourth poorest economy in the world. today because of working men and women did and people like you, there are 50 million reading

people and the leadership of the country said every time you get in front of a group of veterans, you thank them for us. i'm doing that today. you are saying the largest christian church in the world is insult korea. to all my baptist friends, it's a methodist church where i go. [laughter] so it is a country tha that is e eighth or ninth the largest economy in the world, thanks to what the american people did. you saw what happened after world war ii. i cannot thank you enough for what you've done and made us a free nation. i can never do enough for our veterans in this country. we have a the hospital a mile from my front door in johnson city, tennessee, were i live and get my commitment. i wrote on your advanced appropriations. i couldn't see why we couldn't do that. it makes sense to do it. i think it makes absolute sense to do with the whole budget. get it done in one year and refined at the second year. the va was a good start. it shows us that the veteran

shows the way advanced appropriations work. i will support that. the frustration i have here is the billion dollars we spent. that's $1 billion. last about as i where in the veterans' affairs committee, chairman remembers this very well where we could have an integrated electronic health record whether va and dod talk -- we've lost a billion dollars and we still can't make it work. this is my sixth year. i can understand in today's technology why a veteran servicemember can't leave and electronically transfer the record. it hasn't been explained to me. i think the backlog of claims has been well discussed. it is coming down to isolate the secretary on the. he has a commitment to the. the two things that i really am passionate about our homeless veterans. i know you don't see that but i think it's heartbreaking when you see a veteran sleeping under a bridge that honorably served

this country. we had the hud bash vouchers. that has come down. jemison seki has been very, very good about that but we don't have enough housing stock to put these veterans in. that's one of our problems at home. we've got to work on this as a place to house homeless veterans. to people to commit and get these folks back integrated into society. sergeant major walls and i co-chaired the invisible and caucus. when you have more veterans dying of suicide than you do combat, something is wrong. we need programs, look into that and find out what the causes are and put resources behind preventing that. we have so many veterans out there that are in need right now. i think that's one i certainly feel very passionate about. i think the other one, i seen a local global, is to bring the va to the community outpatient clinics that we have. we just opened one up in tennessee. it's going to have to be expanded in a year and a half. it was that successful. i think i will encourage, john

and i are having breakfast with a secretary in the morning so if you want to give it any other questions that senator heller didn't get we will be glad to take them in the morning. was breakfast with the secretary. i think it's a tremendous success and way to get the care instead of elderly veterans having to drive miles and miles to care, have it in their own community. i'll stop there and again thank you for your service. i hear al all of the claims i tk the kids were pretty much everything you brought up today. and thank all of you for your service. with that i yield back. [applause] >> mr. takano, you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome on behalf of i think the five californians, the three of us here, myself, congresswoman mcleod and congresswoman julia

brownlee, paul put it was not year, and also doctor raoul ruiz. i'm sorry, mr. denham, there's six of us i guess. i'd like to acknowledge the californians in the room. so if you are here from california, please stand and let us know your presence. [applause] >> we make that trip back and forth between washington and california, and we know what a journey you made. and we appreciate that you've come all that way to let us know your legislative agenda. and it's a great honor to serve on this committee, and to do what we can. i represent riverside county which is the eighth largest veteran population in the country. i met with my veterans advisory council last week. they are doing tremendous work in my county to reach out to

homeless veterans, to find out where your living along the santa ana river, and a different encampments in the valley, just to get a count. and i'm fully aligned, as i think all of us are carefully aligned, with the secretaries of goal of ending veterans homelessness. i have one question that i want to ask you, commander. it's my understanding that the va has published new regulations that established presumptions for veterans living with severe traumatic brain injury. who also have parkinson's disease, certain types of dementia, depression, unprovoked seizures, or certain diseases of the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. given these additional disabilities, a, is it your -- visual organization aware of any planning or analysis that the va

has done that relates to the possible impact on the veteran administration's backlog of claims? >> i defer that to the staff, sir. >> thank you for the question. we are not aware of any planning that the va has right now and how they're going to implement about, but we haven't seen an ongoing increase in claims at this time from that at this point. >> is that because of the rule change we are not seeing tremendous impact as of now? >> we haven't seen a spike in the backlog or there hasn't been any discussions about initiatives to address those particular conditions that were added as presumptive conditions. >> so we're not anticipating a spike, and organizationally you feel you're prepared as of now? >> well, i'm not sure if we just did a spike. va hasn't disgusted.

they're going to segregate each particular claimants at a particular place. we hope that does come to fruition with veterans benefit management system that they're able to electronically send those cases the regional offices that can handle the additional workload where would an increase a spike in the backlog of claims already pending. pending. >> very good. i don't have any further questions. i'll get my colleagues and opportunity as question. i yield back my time. >> thank you very much. doctor when struck. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and believe me, i'm so grateful to be here with you today. and i know we already have the opportunity to see so many delegates from ohio and a proud to be from ohio to see someone of here today. and if anyone out there is somebody that i had the opportunity to lay my hands on in iraq, i want to tell you it was my honor to take care of you. you know, we have a wall that

exists, unfortunately, and i see more and more now that i'm on this side. between the department of defense and the va. i know we're in the process of caring that down. we are one family. when you take that oath and you say i'm going to serve this country, it should go right on through. there shouldn't be this wall and this divide between the opportunities that exist to take care of our troops. they electronic medical records that dr. roza spoke about, to me that is a shame and it delays care, makes it more difficult to have a smooth flow of care. i do see some positive things. i was at madigan last year. i see some sort of programs where they're really starting to focus on transition at the time of etfs. and it makes sense to me that if you're disabled or getting a

medical separation, that your level of disability and be determined at that time and to rewrite over to the va. instead of having to go through these processes and having redundant services. there's other things i see starting to take place, and that's guiding the troops as they're leaving the military into being able to use the skills that they learned in the military and to translate them into civilian work, and helping them get their, and guidance on the educational opportunities. i do believe the greatest opportunity when you have the troops still in uniform, they are a more captive audience. these are the types of things we need to do to make your job easier. and to tear down that wall between the two. you know, we endured in our medical practice, my private medical practice where we had to change to an electronic medical records. it can be done. you just do it. you just do it. and then there's a seamless

flow. things are getting better. the opportunities are great. i really don't have any questions of you today, except i want to thank you for all that you do. i know how active you are. i know many people you help. and another challenge that comes with that. and i want to thank you for keeping a promise of service to this country. thank you. [applause] >> -- was leaving us after one term of service in the congress to go home. >> well, thank you all for and been here. thank you for your service, and i won't be redundant but i want to thank the california delegation who is here. so the question i would like to say, since i have to be leaving, i'm going to roll to questions into one. i'll just add an and.

what steps as dv dva taken to conduct outreach specifically towards women veterans, and what could the facilities of do more effectively to integrate women's health care programs into the rest of the health care centers? >> i am very proud to say, madam congresswoman, that we and the dav lead all of the legacy vsos honor women's programs, and we are the cosponsors of every meeting that has occurred with the va in order to do that. the specific answer to your questions, i will now defer to the staff. >> thank you. in 2008, we began stand up for women veterans campaign, and since that time is sponsored several films highlighting the military experience of women veterans, such as liners and service, when women come

marching home. is some we plan to release a special report and sponsor another capitol hill event focus on women veterans transition issues. during the screening of the film, women of war, home. as with previous events we plan to bring the women featured in the film to washington and invite members of congress, their staff, and va and dod officials to attend a panel discussion following the film screening. a special edition was mailed to every va medical center and the screening of the songs on capitol hill helped inform and educate policymakers about the special needs of women veterans resulting in legislation being passed to improve benefits and service for women. the dav is engaging this year on a special research project to look into the transitioning of women after deployment back into the civilian world. and what issues they may be dealing with different from men so that we can be aware of it,

make the va aware of it. >> of course there's lots of women that have already returned who are out there. i know homelessness amongst women is a very large issue. and the places where they feel safe when they are homeless. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> mr. runyan, you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank each and every one of you for your service. i checked the attendance list. i'm sure there's got to be one or two but there's no new jerseyans on the list, but there's one. i know the rest of that is coming in next week. i saw it on the schedule, but thank you all for your service. it is rare that we have the panel of expertise from the dav all sitting at one table at one time.

usually we are issue specific on what we are talking about. i know mr. violante, when we talk about matrix, it sets my hair on fire. i don't know if you're the one to answer this question so i will directed at the commander so he can maybe take a job at it and headed on down. when we talk about matrix, and mr. michaud, touched on it a little bit, it seems to me a lot of the time being where i met at a know it seems to many of our constituents and many of our veterans that it's almost at the va is running to the next major crisis. now, is it of their to put out a fire? or is it a combination of putting on a fire and actually having lack of personnel to address the crises? because it seems our attention that are drawn to metrics in the va change monthly.

you know, i mean, it came up to now, you know, fully developed, claims are great but now we have an increase in appeals. so what is the flavor -- are we a cow pushing anything or i would just playing a shell game? i just want to throw that out for comment and any suggestions, no, we can pin them down to try to get a set sheet of measurements so we can actually judge the progress we are trying to make. >> we had a report from general hickey yesterday that indeed there are some reduction in the claims backlog, that even goes beyond what we knew of. but i would defer to the rest of the staff for the specifics of those questions. >> mr. runyan, it's one of the things we raise in her testimony about the transparency and making sure that we can see the progression and how they're proposing it.

because you're right, i think, we put out one fire and that is the backlog, and someone forgets about the fact that now the we've done all those claims and decided them, what happens to them? pda gets 5% of appeals from those that are filed, so that's what things would like to see the a do a job at and that is giving us their metrics and how they figure this out and what you're looking at. one of the issues that we talked about in the independent budget, again, is vha is able to determine what their needs are through a metrics program. and vba should be able to do the same. >> i appreciate that because i sit up there, and chairing a subcommittee on disability, it's a daily occurrence of what problems we're going to tackle this week and at the same time

as he sits up there and says it takes is two years to get anybody trained to do any of this anyway. >> if i might. we believe that the transformation to a paperless process is the right thing to do. it's in its fourth year now i believe. it's not an easy thing to transition a large bureaucracy like that into april -- paperless processes. we do believe many other initiatives are now coming online and we are hoping that they are showing positive results, and will start to help the process be much more quality effective from this point forward. >> thank you for that. i will leave with this, dealing with advanced appropriations, and then i brought this up when secretaries in sexy sat in front of us. it was literally within the first couple of months -- sector sense that the. i went to see box in the district, brand-new expansion.

they had the extra machine sitting there. they couldn't install the extra machine because they didn't have the ip budget to put a cat five wire took a computer again with the x-ray machine. that's the detail that we're talking about. and without i yield back, chairman. >> mr. wells, you are recognized. >> thank you, chairman miller, and thank you commander for your service and for containing your service and to your family. no water deploys alone and no warrior comes home alone. there's a family and the opportunity, commander miller, thank you, the importance of getting this right and the work you do can't be understated. minnesota delegation here, a couple of these folks hold a special place for me. i think our state adjutant or sergeant whitehead is here.

he and i served together in the same artillery you know, so i will speak up for you back there, sergeant. [laughter] and dave wenzel is here. dave came to my office for a special project, wounded warriors, dave, are you here somewhere? i ask that you make sure you're working. thanks. [laughter] good, he is here. we are grateful, and to each of you, no one comes to capitol hill with more credibility and his organization. and no one understands the importance of what you are doing. this goes beyond care of her wounded warriors and it cuts to the heart of our democracy, what are our values and commitments, what do we do as commuting and what are we willing to do for those who understand a little bit about service to this nation. we understand now through technology and other things that less and less people serve in uniform. that's a good thing as all of you want to know is, because it you know what comes with that service. somebody has still got to do it,

and so the rest of the folks who are not doing it need to understand, veterans, veterans benefits are not a charity or a lottery. that's not the way this works. and they're not a secondary thing that you think about. we have to get this right. with to get a right not only morally to the right thinker with to get it right because it cuts to the core of the nation. what's the next generation looking at. when you bring these things and bring your credibility, it's broader than that. you do that. it's healthy to have debates up here. it's not healthy when veterans as the commanders that are put out there and there will being is put at risk because we have political differences. because i can tell you, it's healthy to have differences. this thing about you people can't get along, you have differences, why can't you agree? idyllic asking, have you ever been married? you agree all the time? [laughter] but, you know, what? you love your spouse do that you differences but you find a

commonality. these chairman and these folks are speak there is no one i would rather stand with and they. we don't agree on all the issues but we agree with the care of our veterans, on the basis of the democracy that we need to get right. and you can bring these up it's important. i think what's hard to understand and for many of you i see someone faces, there's folks here, you didn't only fight this nation's wars, he came back and have been fighting for these things for decades. now, there's a tendency to be a frustration that dammit, why did we have to fight? but democracy is always has to be keep going to have to keep coming. we have to keep at it. it's not going to run itself but we shouldn't have to put up with the nonsense of not having the funding there when it's needed, fighting whether we are injured and how the injury came about, and how do we get the care. because no one in my district or any of these folks district tells me, do you know what you need to do? you need to cut the budget by making sure veterans don't get the care they need. i have never anyone say that.

they sell lots of things to me, good and bad and that's not when they say. so keeping the promise, nothing should be easier than keeping that promise to every person in america wants us to keep that promise so that -- [applause] >> and here's what you need to know. the folks that are up here, just two short questions but i think it's a book for you to understand and the few who come out here, there are millions of folks who are working today, their families, they couldn't come out. you sacrifice, these folks were out here in capitol hill they are the best at what you're doing. and i can tell you what, many things they get tenure don't get done because of political malice, they get done out of ignorance because people just don't know. somebody needs to the point how this works. somebody needs to get this right. what you understand is in this country right now, president kennedy was right about this one. you can either curse the darkness or you can light the damn candle. so come here and live together,

make people light the candle. the our people are connoisseurs of cursing the darkness. find a solution, bring it forward. so you're a this appropriation, that is a candle. get it done, get laid, get it fixed. it's not that difficult. [applause] -- get into lives. i'm going to ask one thing of this group a week can help us to love anybody this we consider boseman was part of a little document that was done on jason aaron and his family. jason was blown up in iraq and he came back home and the va as we did this with the camp lejeune bill, put in there and said through technology it's not good enough just to get these guys in wheelchairs. it's not good enough to find the newest prosthetic because the new, folks are sitting are living testimony, we don't know what the limits of your rehabilitation are so let's get there. we also promised if your parents or your spouse are taking care of them, we are going to do that

because they may be your son but they are our warrior. so you're giving the love. you are doing that. [applause] i'm out of time. i'm out of time but what i'm telling you this is jason and his parents, mike and pam are telling me, it's not happening the way we intended it to happen. they are paying out of pocket for those types of things. we've got to figure how to do better because this kid, this 23 old kid summed it up best. he said, what kind of person wants to be told they plateaued? what kind of man wants to be guilty plateaued? he said i'm not plateauing. i want to ski again. i want to do these things again. that's the call of action, that's the candle we need to life. i would just hope we come back to figure out how to ask for that application. thank you for indole jimmy, chairman. [applause] -- indulging me. >> now you know why we call him command sergeant major. [laughter] >> the highest ranking enlisted

soldier ever to serve in the states congress. [applause] >> ms. brownley, you are recognized. >> thank you mr. cherry-pick and i, too, want to welcome everyone who is here from the great state of california. thank you for traveling here. and thank you for what you do every single day for our veterans in california. my hat is off to you. and thank you, commander johnson for your testimony today and your very detailed written testimony that has been offered to us but i think this is an excellent document for us to hold on to, the document that we can refer to often to make sure that we are fulfilling our responsibilities, not only that we are providing the services

our veterans need, but our oversight responsibilities as well. so thank you for that. and you described the men and women in this room as men and women of honor. and i just want to tell you, i concur wholeheartedly that every man and woman in this room our men and women of honor. and every man and woman have served our country, men and women of honor and i want to express my deep gratitude to them. [applause] >> i wanted to follow-up on congresswoman mclees questioning with regards to our female disabled veterans and female veterans in general it and i'm very excited to hear about what is coming forward issue but i will look forward to the film

screening and look forward to the hearing. it is an anything i can do to be helpful in the process, i would be delighted to offer a helping hand. i want to know if we will get to a place where we actually have very, what are the very specific things we need to do for our women veterans and then our ability to create the metrics that we been talking about today and the transparency to have the metrics that we need for us to oversee and to make sure that we are providing everything we need for our female veterans. >> i will defer to the south. >> yes, thank you. over the last soviet va researchers have been evaluating the va's current health care delivery model for women veterans. as you know, the population of women using the va system has doubled --

>> we will leave the remaining few minutes of this hearing. you can see it in its entirety at c-span.org. we will go live to the u.s. senate where lawmakers will begin the day with gentle speeches. on the legislative agenda, more debate on the bill that would expand health care, education and job assistance for veterans. vote could occur throughout the day. live now to the floor of the senate here on c-span2. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. o god our shield, we rejoice in the beauty of your salvation. let the people of the earth look to you with reverential awe. lord, look with favor upon our senators today, delivering them from fear and guiding them

around the obstacles that hinder their progress. unite them for the common good of this great land. manifest your purposes to them, making clear your plans and guiding them with your love. give them the wisdom to have confidence in your power, as you inspire them to use their talents as instruments of liberation and healing. enable them to go from strength to strength, as they fulfill your purpose for their lives. we pray in your holy name. amen.

the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., february 26, 2014. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable edward markey, a senator from the state of massachusetts, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: following my remarks and those of the republican leader the senate will be in a period of morning business for two hours. republicans will control the first half.

the majority the final half. following that morning business the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to s. 1982, the veterans benefits bill postcloture. if begin to reach agreement to begin consideration of the bill today. i'll have more to say about that in just a minute. mr. president, over the last many months millions of americans have signed up for affordable health insurance, many for the first time ever, many for the first time in many years. many young people have stayed on their parents' insurance plans while they pursued education or started their first jobs. many senior citizens have saved money on prescription bills, about $1,200 they saved and tens

of millions of women have accessed free medical care. and tons have been able to buy affordable health care insurance they could afford and could trust. despite all that good news, there's plenty of horror stories being told. all are untrue, but they're being told all over america. the leukemia patient whose insurance policy was canceled could die without her medication, mr. president, that's an ad being paid for by two billionaire brothers. it's absolutely false. or the woman whose insurance policy went up $700 a month, ads paid for around america by the multibillionaire koch brothers, and the ad is false.

we heard about the evils of obamacare, about the lives it's ruining. the republicans stump speeches in ads paid for by all the magnates, of koch brothers. but in those tales, turned out to be just that: tales, stories made up from whole cloth, lies distorted by the republicans to grab headlines forming political advertisements. mr. president, these two brothers are trying to buy america. they not only funnel money through their americans for prosperity, they funnel money into all kinds of organizations to do the same thing that they're doing. they're trying to buy america. i don't believe america is for sale.

we'll see, mr. president. don't take my word for all of this. how about taking the word of a nobel prize-winning economist who wrote last week in "the new york times," what the right wants are struggling average americans, preferably women, facing financial devastation, so those are the tales they're telling, even though they haven't been able to come up with any real examples. close quote. mr. president, paul kuman writes republicans are just making this stuff up. it's easy to do if you have billions of dollars to spend and you're trying to buy america. mr. president, we have our own stories to tell. true stories. true stories of average americans whose life of change

change -- lives have changed for the better because of the affordable care act, true stories of families who can rest easier knowing insurance companies can never again put profits first and people second. take the story of a couple from henderson, nevada. i went to high school there. their names are jane and brett thomas. these are real stories. this story is true. jane wrote to me recently to say she is -- quote -- "ecstatic" -- that's her word -- "to be saving $1,200 every month. our top of the line family insurance plan, thanks to obamacare. for years jane was locked into her job as a schoolteacher because she, brett and their two teenage children needed guaranteed health insurance. it cost a lot. but jane was able to quit her

teaching job, spend more time with her children and help her husband with the family small business. jane says the affordable care act has literally changed her life and the lives of her lord ones. here's what she wrote -- and i quote, mr. president -- "everyone on the news keeps talking of all the people the laws hurt. koch brothers lies. i'll start over quote -- "everyone on the news keeps talking of all the people the law hurt, but i thought i should share our joy. the best part is our insurance covers so much more and pays better on every front. i can't thank you and your colleagues enough for fighting for people like me and my family." close quote.

republicans may need tall tales and outright lies to convince the public that obamacare is bad for them. but democrats, we don't have to make things up. we have the support of lots of people, including a nobel prize-winning economist. not oil magnates who are trying to benefit their businesses by spreading lies about things that don't matter to them. mr. president, millions of real americans like jane and brett thomas benefiting from obamacare every day, their premiums are lower, their prescriptions are cheaper, they can't be denied a policy or discriminated against. their benefits can't be cut off because they get sick or reach some arbitrary cap that some insurance executive dreamed of. and they're no longer locked into jobs they don't love or don't need because they can't get insurance anywhere else. the koch brothers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars telling americans that obamacare is bad for them.

it's easy to do if you have no conscience and are willing to lie, like they are, through the ads that they're promoting. but the kochs should stick to what they know: the oil business. the oil business, where they've made their multibillions of dollars. because, mr. president, the truth is simply more powerful than any man, any legend or any false political ad. mr. president, i said i would talk about what we're doing here today. you talk about groundhog day, this is groundhog year. the republicans in the senate refuse to allow anything to take place. prior to our noon break yesterday, every tuesday republicans meet and democrats meet, one of the senior republicans came to me and said, "harry, are you going to have amendments?" i said of course we're going to have amendments. we've talked about amendments on the veterans bill.

and i've had republicans come to me and say let's try relevant amendments. so i said fine, come up with some. how many? i said i don't care. well, mr. president, the first amendment is what they have been doing all along. they offered an amendment that has nothing to do with this bill, veterans bill. it's partisanship at its best. it's obstruction at its best. mr. president, we got cloture on this bill. virtually everybody voted to allow us to start on this bill. but that's only a subterfuge. the republicans obviously have no intent of doing anything for the veterans as outlined in this bill. the chairman of the veterans' committee has worked for months coming up with a bill that is good, a bipartisan proposal, republican proposals in this bill. one of the republican senators here came and talked for some

length yesterday about ways he would like to improve the bill, offer amendments. he's not going to be allowed to do that, mr. president. the bill advanced yesterday should be bipartisan. a measure that would help the veterans who have given so much to defend our country. and as i indicated to my friend, the republican senator, before their lunch, let's look at amendments. why not? it's the right thing to do. but the first amendment the republicans demand is an unrelated issue, mr. president, on iran. now, everyone knows that there's negotiations taking place between the united states, the european union and others to prevent iran from having nuclear capacity. i've said many times. i'll repeat it here today. we will not let iran have

nuclear capabilities. the sanctions that we have put in place have brought them to the bargaining table. now, mr. president, you would think that if there was any validity to what the republicans are trying to do, the organization that is more supportive of israel than any organization i know -- aipac -- they said publicly they don't want to vote on this now. publicly they don't always put stuff out in the press, but that's what they said. the audacity of what they're doing, mr. president, in an effort to stall, obstruct, as they have done. this is, i repeat, not groundhog day, not groundhog month. groundhog year. the republicans have been doing this on every issue. it doesn't matter if it's an

issue that 90% of the american people support. democrats say they want -- i'm sorry. republicans say they want to help veterans; a strange way of showing it. we introduced a bill that would do just that. republicans immediately inject partisan politics into the mix, insisting on amendments that have nothing to do with helping veterans. so, mr. president, i am terribly disappointed, again, not surprised. what are we doing here today? nothing. nothing. because under the rules, they have 30 hours postcloture that they can sit around and do nothing, and that's what they do all the time. we have spent months and months and months sitting around doing nothing because of procedural roadblocks put up by the republicans.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, a broad, bipartisan majority in the senate would like to vote on iron sanctions. the dilemma we have here is that the majority leader doesn't want this vote to occur. so i'd like to start this morning with a few words about an issue that should be of grave concern to all of us, and that is the threat of the of a nuclear-armed iran. now, it's no exaggeration to say that this is one of the most significant foreign policy challenges of our time and one that we simply have to get right. that's why a strong bipartisan majority has sought to pass legislation here in the senate that puts teeth into the negotiations that have followed november's interim agreement. the challenge we've had is the majority leader doesn't want us to vote on it. it could be that he's afraid it'll actually pass.

republican senators and hopefully some democratic senators as well are going to continue to press the majority leader to allow a vet on this legislation before -- a vote on this legislation before these negotiations end. the nuclear weapon-free iran act is a perfectly reasonable bill. this is a menendez-kirk bill. it doesn't disrupt ongoing negotiations. it simply provides an incentive for iran to keep its commitment under the interim agreement. it says that if iran doesn't keep its word, then it faces even tougher sanctions at the end of this six-month period. in other words, it doesn't disrupt the negotiations at all, even though the big -- sort of the high leader, supreme leader in iran says he's not paying any ateption tattention to these ta. nevertheless, it doesn't disrupt these talks, which seem to be going nowhere, but does say at

the end of the six-month period, you're going to get tougher sanctions if nothing comes of the discussions. it puts teeth into the talks that are already taking place. and it's a recognition of the success we've already had as a result of prior sanctions. after all, there is a good reason to believe that sanctions are what brought the iranians to the table in the first place. l they were hurting. so it just stands to reason that the iranians break the interim deal, they should get tougher sanctions. if nothing happens, we should send a message, you can't just keep talking forever. something happens at the end of the interim period. that's especially true given the fact that we're running out of tools here, short of the use of force. this bill is the best mechanism we have to keep the iranians at the table until we get the right

outcome and toen sure that they're stick -- and to ensure they're sticking to their end of the agreement. we should not fall to iran's efforts of public diplomacy. leaders in both houses of congress agree with this approach. so there's simply no good reason for the majority leader to prevent a vote on this crucial legislation. he's gridlocking the senate, preventing the senate from working its will on a bill that enjoys broad bipartisan support and makes elementary good sense sand the best hope we have to prevent a nuclear-armed iran. there's no excuse for muzzling the congress on an issue of this importance to our national security, to the security of israel, our closest ally in the middle east, and to international stability more broadly. now, i know many active members of aipac -- the majority leader mentioned aipac.

they want to have this vote. they'll be coming to washington next week from all over the country. i'll bet you, mr. president, this is a vote they want to have. this is a rare issue that should unite both parties in common purpose, and there's no question, it would, if the majority leader would simply drop his reflexive deference to a president who's policy is focused on withdrawing from our overhe's commitments, foreign policy that at worst poses a serious threat at our own security and that of our allies. so, once again, i call on the majority leader to allow the congress, allow the senate to serve its purpose and express itself in our nation's policy toward iran. let our constituents speak on this all-important issue on which so many of us from both parties actually agree. in the joint plan of, a the

president made clear that -- in the joint plan of action, the president made clear that he aopposes additional sanctions. why don't we let congress speak, let congress have a voice. let's stand together for a afford-deployed, ready, and lethal force that makes our commitments real in the eyes of friend and foe alike. let's hold iran accountable. actually hold them accountable. let's do the right thing. approve this legislation and send it to the president's desk. the clock is ticking, mr. president, and the time to act is now. now, on another subject, earlier this year came to the floor to pose a simple question about president obama's final years in office. did he wapts to be remembered as hero to the left or as a chafn s a champion to the middle class? that's the question. i asked the question this way

because for the last several years, the left has had its run of the white house. during that period, the politically connected and already powerful have clearly prospered. but what about the middle class? they feel like they've been shut out altogether as household income has plummeted and families that were just struggling to pay the bills have gotten left behind by a president and a party that claimed to act in their name . so i wanted to know, did the president plan to continue down the same i ha ideological road s taken on or would he change course and embrace effective proposals that would make a difference in the life of middle-class americans? would he reach across the aisle to jump-start job creation and make the economy work for the middle class again? well, over the last few months we appear to have gotten our answer. once more, the real concerns of ordinary americans have been pushed aside in favor of the

preoccupations of the political left. yet again we've seen the truth of the old saying that a liberal never lets the facts get in the waif a good tear -- the way of a good theory. we've seen how liberal policies end of hurting the very people they claim to help. nowhere is this more apparent than in the debate over the minimum wage. as a recent c.b.o. report made clerclear, the president's bill amounts to a terrible real-world trade-off helping one group of low-income americans by undercutting another group of low-income americans. how is that fair? americans are crying out for jobs. job creation is the top issue in our country. our unemployment and underemployment rates have remained abysmally high, more than half a decade after this president took office. and what's the white house solution? a bill that might sound good in theory but could cost as many as

a million jobs according to c.b.o. now, the coppingal budget office release -- the congressional budget office released another report. 2.5 million fewer americans in jobs thanks to obamacare. huge, huge disnisks to work, thanks to -- huge, huge disincentives to work, thanks to obamacare. now, the washington bureaucrats -- the same folks who promised you could keep your health care if you liked it -- they told americans that obamacare would simply liberate them from jobs. that's just unbelievable. especially when you consider that the law's medical twice tax alone is projected to kill as many as 33,000 jobs and that 60% of business owners and h.r. professionals recently surveyed said that obamacare will negatively impact jobs. as member of that group recently put it, "small businesses have

an incentive to stay small." -- under obamacare. that's because obamacare can punish businesses that choose to hire more workers. in my home state of the kentucky, the tension between the priorities of the left and the needs of the real people is on full display. that's because the obama administration has trained its sights son somsights on some oft vulnerable people. hardworking minors just want to put food on the table. here's why. because according to the liberal elite's in washington, these folks are standing in the way of their they'r theories. a practical approach that takes the concerns and anxieties of these people into account would promote clean energy even as it

acknowledges the real-world biflts of traditional sources of energy. my point is this: the administration has broken faith with the middle class and it's stirred up strong emotions; especially among those of us who want to see a better life for those struggling to make it in our states. almost everyone feels let down. a lot of folks are really angry, and it is a real tragedy, not only because of the missed opportunities and the human cost of these policies but also because the president ran for office and promised a very, very different approach. it's tragic because the very folks he's talked about helping are the ones who seem to suffer the most under his presidency. and its tragic because it appears he answered the question i posed in january that he's prepared to double down on the left and throw in the towel on the middle class. how else can you explain the obsession with all of these peripheral, ideological issues at a time when americans are demanding good, stable,

high-paying jobs and a new direction? at a time when folks' wages are stagnant but costs are rising, at a time when younger americans seem to be resigned to a harder life than their parents? how else do you explain why the president has signed off on projects like keystone pipeline or why he refuses to push his own party to support trade legislation that could support even more jobs? this can't be the legacy the president really wants to leave. but it's the legacy he'll be ensuring for himself if he doesn't change. there's still time to alter the course. there's still time for the president to acknowledge there's just no reconciling the demand of his base and the concerns of the middle class. it's one or the other because the real solution here is liberating the private sector. the real solution is to implement policies that will

increase wages for everyone instead of pursuing policies that essentially seek to distribute slices of a smaller pie to some. of course, making a turn toward authentic job creation might make the left mad, but it's the only way to get the gears of our economy working again and college graduates off their parents' couches and on to a path of earned success. maybe the president will show some change of heart up in minnesota today. maybe he'll recognize, for instance, that killing thousands of high-tech jobs in the medical device industry isn't worth the pain it's causing. who knows. who knows. i sure hope so. because if you've entered the sixth year of trying to fix an economy and you're still talking about emergency unemployment benefits, it's time to recognize your policies just haven't worked for the middle class. it's time for a fresh start.

so before i go, mr. president, let me also say i had he like to highlight one more dividing line between the dreams of the left and the well-being of our constituents. a tomorrowic topic i spoke abo, and that's medicare advantage. why would the administration want to raid a program that's working, like medicare advantage, to fund a program that doesn't work, like obamacare is thi? why would senate democrats vote time and time again to do that? they must have known that taking $300 billion from medicare advantage to fund obamacare would have real-world impacts on seniors, like losing choices and coverage and doctors they now enjoy. it's not fair, it's not right, and several of my colleagues will be coming to the floor to speak more about this issue this morning. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. johanns: mr. president? the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the

senate will be in a period of morning business for two hours, with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. with the republicans controlling the first half. mr. johanns: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. johanns: mr. president, thank you. yesterday i had the opportunity to come to the floor of the senate and talk about obamacare's broken promises for our nation's seniors. the administration's most recent proposal to significantly cut medicare advantage is certainly not news to my colleagues on the floor today. during the health care debate, we warned over and over again that cutting a half trillion dollars from medicare to fund obamacare would have disastrous

consequences. and that it certainly would not strengthen medicare. mr. president, you see, the law drains $380 billion from a very, very well-received medicare advantage program. stories from nebraskans illustrate how these cuts are hurting senior citizens. i heard from a couple in carney, nebraska. they wrote to me saying that the medicare advantage plan they had for several years was something that they really liked. it was a plan that worked for them. but that plan, because of obamacare, was canceled. she went on to say to me that another plan was going to cost more money, higher rates were coming for them. she went on to say -- and i'm quoting -- "i've not been shy