with significant bipartisan climate legislation. and after 2010, you see that heartbeat of bipartisan activity

flatline. if you look at what happened in early 2010 that might explain why it suddenly ended, you find a supreme court decision called citizens united that allowed unlimited corporate money, unlimited billionaire money, to bombard our politics. and what people often think about that is that, oh, they all came in and they beat up the democrats on behalf of the republicans. and this is a partisan thing. but i've heard over and over from republican colleagues, what are you complaining about? they are spending more money against us and they are spending against you. and there have been times i believe when actually the unaccountable anonymous dark money that citizens united unleashed was being spent more in republican primaries and against republicans than it was against democrats.

that i think has suppressed debate, and have a corrosive effect on our politics, what was for many, many years a proud bipartisan tradition. so i'm very glad senator sanders raised that come and i think administrator mccarthy for being here and for all of her leadership and courage. >> administrator mccarthy, thank you very much. and with that we adjourn the hearing. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> coming up on c-span2, fox's national security analyst k. t. mcfarland talks with u.s. foreign policy. then the house veterans' affairs committee on some of the challenges facing vba. and later a house subcommittee will look at resolutions on the israeli-palestinian conflict. we will have live coverage at 9:30 a.m. eastern. michele flournoy is our guest on this week's q&a. >> you are dealing with the daily tyranny of the inbox. you're focused on the parts of the day. part of my responsibility as undersecretary defenseless are present in the second of depends on the so called deputies committee which is sort of the

senior level group that's working to the issues, developing option for the principles and the president, a lot of crisis management focus. when you're in a think tank your real utility is not trying to second-guess the policymaker on issue of the day, but help to do some work to raise their day, help them look over the horizon to see what are the issues i'm going to confront a year from now, five years, 10 years from now and that i think more strategically about america's role in the world. >> former undersecretary of defense and cofounder for the center for national american security, michele flournoy, on the creation of cnas come its mission and currents -- current defense issue, sunday night on c-span's q&a. >> c-span to provide live coverage of the senate floor proceedings and key public policy events. and did weekend booktv, now for 15 years the only television

network devoted to nonfiction books and authors. c-span2, created by the cable tv industry and brought to you as a public service by your local, cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. >> now, fox news national security analyst k. t. mcfarland is critical of president obama's foreign policy decisions in the middle east and ukraine. she spoke at the centennial institute annual western conservative summit held in denver. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i've got to show that when i wrote that column about president obama's west point speech and compared them to krispy kreme donuts, krispy kreme doughnuts wrote back and said no way. i was first year two years ago and my different ambassador

introduced me. nobody any idea who i was until i got up and i said wright, who here wants passionate watches fox news? i said i'm the brunette. they all got it. by the way, everybody still watch fox news? raise your hand. fox news come in its infinite wisdom has now started hiring brunettes. we have kimberly, andrea, you just heard from my new colleague mary catherine, brunette, and even katie pavlik who is the new higher, she's a blonde but dark blonde. we are very excited this is a new trend. i was -- jon and wanted to come back and talk about foreign policy. i started writing right me rocks about two weeks ago. i was listening on monday to the president's press secretary who said president obama had ushered in a new era of global

tranquility. so i wrote this speech, right? guess what. by thursday there were several wars. so i decided i'm going to rewrite the speech and talk to you about why we are not in an era of global tranquility. in fact, i think if the last six years american foreign policy we have never seen a more dangerous world with bad leaders. we have been about places before, don't get me wrong. we have a civil war, we have world war ii, there have been very difficult dark times in america's history but this is one of a few times a week that i think extremely weak leadership and leadership that wants to step back from the world stage. when president obama started declaring the air of leading from behind, which is what i think the obama doctrine is all about, he didn't understand that if you leave behind you're not leading to you are leaving big gap up front. what we've seen the last several months as a number of regional

countries rushing to fill that gap. i think the president on the say of the people around him, the idea of leading from behind was that everything that happened before, america's leadership in the world, george bush, was creating a more difficult and destabilize world. they thought if they could take america down a notch then everybody would be equal and then we would have, aisha in this global community and it's been an unmitigated disaster. if i ask you to raise your hands hands, helmand and you think we're in an era of greater tranquility in the globe? we are already smart. nobody raised their hands, and you're right. i want to go around the world and do a quick summary of why we've got a lot of problems encourage regions of the world and what i think maybe the way out of the. if you look what happens in the last 72 hours.

yesterday we had the russians shoot, russian forces in eastern ukraine shoot a civilian airliner out of the air. i don't think they would've done that but i don't think the russians would've been in eastern ukraine without a sense that the united states had withdrawn after his leadership role in the world. would also then any afternoon, thursday afternoon, israel went into gaza to try to destroy the tunnels that have been plaguing israel's security. so when into gaza, address the hamas military threat. i don't think we would've had him loss be as bold as the event and serving others will supply from iran as they have been without a sense that america wasn't going to do anything about it. so those are two very stark examples of the last 72 hours of america's withdrawal from leadership in the world. i think it's bigger than that. as i go around the world in a quick tour of the global crisis, look at iraq and syria. isis. it's a more radical form believe

it or not than al-qaeda, the islamic state of iraq and syria which did not just rename themselves the islamic state. it's in part of syria, part of iraq. it's robbed a bank that it's the richest terrorist group in the world. probably 2 billion under their belt. they seized oil fields so they will have replenishment of that money in the years to come and their goal is to expand in the middle east. so they have said jordan, next, lebanon we're looking at the sinai peninsula. so al-qaeda even though the president has said a year ago, two years ago al-qaeda is on the run, we've got bin laden. they are on the ropes to contact al-qaeda is in more countries and in bigger strength than ever before. so they are now throughout the middle east. they are in yemen, north africa, somalia, nigeria. with boko haram. to me the most upsetting from

our security standpoint is two things. one they have a new leader, a very charismatic guy who probably will be the man who inherits the mantle of islam of bin laden, and it, too, the are up to 4000 fighters in iraq and syria who carry american and european passports. they have vowed that next stop in new york. in fact, a guy who is the new charismatic leader, he calls himself -- when he was so years ago about eight years ago in american custody he said when he left see you in new york. so the objective is to, because terrorist activities not only in the region but in the united states and europe. been of the means to do that because if you have a european passport you can enter the united states legally. because we have a very core -- porous southern border people without american passports can enter the united states easily. so as much as we think that this global governance air of tranquility in fact i think

al-qaeda which continue to present an enormous threat to the united states, that threat is going to grow. to dismantle their nuclear program but the iranians have basically said we're not dismantling a darn thing. we want you to relieve the sanctions on us to our economy can't improvements we have no intention of dismantling our nuclear program. that are now sitting in iran more centrifuges than with starbucks in america. the supreme leader of iran, the guy who really makes the decisions, he has said that's not enough. it would like 10 times as many. we now see iraq aside, an iraq where al-qaeda is now -- iran

which is very emboldened. they think they've got a terrific deal with the united states. i think they are probably right. so then let's go to israel-hamas to purchasing israel go into the gaza strip. we seeing hamas very well supplied by iran continuing its assault against issue. i don't think iran and their client hamas has any intention of defeating israel on the battlefield to they know they can't do that. they know that if they launch rockets, it was greatest in missile defense system called the iron dome. they will defeat them. they know if they dig tunnels the israelis will find those and collapse the tunnels. what did you know, however, is they can win in the court of world opinion. that's why is this conflict that you started yesterday between israel and gaza and hamas on the gaza strip continues for a week to 10 days, which i think it will, use the world public

opinion turned against israel. hamas understands that if they have enough casualties, if they can show the world this is terrible israel is killing all of our civilians, our women at her children, but the world public opinion turns against israel. israel becomes were isolated and i think their ultimate goal is nonot to win on the battlefield but to drive a wedge between the united states and israel. not great for this era of global tranquility. then i think if you move further, afghanistan, maybe that was never ours to win but it sure is ours to lose. i go within further and look at china. shine in the last several years has built a blue water navy. their military which i think is more aggressive than their political leadership has started doing maps and the new maps they are showing say that the south china sea is really an internal chinese like. isn't anybody flying over the region needs to get chinese permission, any ship going to that region should get permission from the chinese as

well. they are not going to enforce to get but that's on their plan. by the way that south china sea region, that includes vietnam, thailand, cambodia, philippines, indonesia, malaysia. if you take it further north it includes south korea and japan. those are countries that are extending there is about what they see as american abdication of the region and american leadership role in the pacific. let's sort of swing forward to europe. actually before you go to europe let's go to the southern border and go to mexico and look at the southern border. we don't have a southern border anymore. as a national security person unconcerned with an immigration problem, and economic problem, a public health problem. those are all problems that we can solve those problems. what we can solve is it that porous southern border has people are coming through that porous southern border who carry inside a backpack, that a backpack, or instead young people, children coming across

europe young suicide bombers coming across. the fact that we have seen on the american side of the rio grande prayer rugs, dictionaries which are english, urdu. urdu. perduverdigris of language the taliban speak. translations and we now have indications that the are in the groups that are coming across the southern border there are populations that come from very dangerous places, pakistan, afghanistan, somalia. that's my concern is that in that porous southern border what comes across is not just people who say well, i want to take on the world trade center but it's numbers of people who can come across the united states. they are experienced fighters. they know what they're doing. they could marry up with american passport holders and then you could see five years from now, three years from now, eight years from now you could see sustained and continuous terrorist attacks on the united states. not big ones the little ones. they are almost as dangerous as

big ones but you get the sense of 10 simultaneous attacks in american shopping centers across the country, we would all stay home and hide under the bed. another era, a period where think whatever real danger in our southern border. and want to flip across the atlantic and go to europe. our relations with europeans, rate nato allies, they are very bad right now. the germans are supposed the our great allies won't even talk to the white house. angela merkel has been a stalwart success in the european union, economically, politically, we spied on her and we never apologized afterwards. so i relations on the allies we have grown in the past have relied on, those are afraid. i think i finally will in with my tour of the happy world, with the situation with russia. vladimir putin i think as various ambitions at what we've seen in the last several months is his real ambition, which is

to reclaim the soviet empire. he gave a speech when he annexed, when russia annexed crimea several months ago, and it was for me a wakeup call. i was when those people thought maybe we could do a deal with putin down the road if we were able to give him what he wanted and we could get what we wanted, which was corroboration over iran's nuclear program. he spoke in the great hall of the people, the grand kremlin palace to maybe the 400 top leaders of russia. and amidst a beautiful chandelier and the goldleaf on the wall and the place where the czars had held court and where the soviet leadership that held court before, he gave an impassioned speech saying we are annexing crimea and we're holding the west responsible. the americans lied to us. americans cheated us. americans stole from us. it was impassioned and all the people who were listening stood

on their chairs and they were crying but they were cheering. they were shouting. what i understood that the point was that any sense of accommodation with the russians probably isn't going to happen. and probably not with his leadership. they have a different goal. when the russians put in not just troops along the border with ukraine but it had troops inside ukraine, that to me, it followed on very naturally from what could have said to his own people. i was in ukraine five weeks ago. i went to kiev right after the election and met with the head of the intelligence community and the chief of staff of the military and a number of political leaders and they said you guys don't get it. we have been invaded on our eastern border and eastern ukraine with russia but the russians have troops along the border, that they have also sent troops and tanks in. they are not wearing russian uniforms. they have ripped the insignia all. they're wearing brown shirts. they call them the brownshirts. they have sent in tanks and aircraft and various high levels

of ammunition, ammunition and artillery and abrupt the markings off the the side that we've been invaded. the russians will tell you that they have nothing to do with this. this is just ethnic russians in eastern ukraine who, like people in crimea, wanted to hook up with a mother she. it's been an invasion. what we saw in the last 48 hours is exactly what happens when that invasion takes root. i think there's not much good news about a civilian airliner being shut down with a worm understands the phony war that i was getting about five weeks ago is now out in the open. people understand what putin is doing. this wasn't just a plan to do it on the eastern ukrainian border. this was a plan that putin had to go country after country after country exciting the ethnic russians on the western border of russia and getting them to leave their areas to

abdicate their citizenship, whether it's in poland or ukraine or georgia, or name your country, and rejoin russia. now the world knows what he's up to. the question is what will the world do about it? so this is all terrific. a resurgent russia, iran is about to get nuclear weapons and cause a nuclear arms race in the middle east. israel is in a very dangerous position in the middle east. al-qaeda has now taken over countries and oil fields and banks declined the fact that they want to kill all christians and jews in the birthplace of christianity and judaism, porous southern border, china is on the move. it all sounds pretty grim. so let me now ask you, how many of you think that america's best days are over? that we're a country on declined? that the world has passed us by. the majority of american people think that and they are wrong. because good old america, there

are two theorie periods of world history. once as all countries, a mutable you have is a law of nature, countries start, rise, hazard a innocent and they inevitably decline. the other school of thought is that america somehow is exempt from this, we are different. we keep reinventing ourselves because of who we are. because we are out of any nationalities, because we come together in a different system of government that favors and enshrines and encourages entrepreneurism, ingenuity, invention, risk-taking, personal responsibility that somehow we are exempt from the universal law. i was really a couple of years ago thinking the first version, okay, rise, shine, decline. but i have and the last two years, really three years, come to think that maybe we are the exception. here's why. not just because as you would listen to republicans, some republicans during the last presidential cycle when they would all stand up on the row

and said who believes in american exceptionalism? i believe, i believe. it was like peter pan or if you put enough fairy dust and to think hard enough, tinkerbell comes back to life. i think there's some factual basis for thinking that america is, in fact, with great times ahead. i would say fracking. colorado, you're at the forefront of this. fracking has been around for a long time but we have in the last three to five years, the united states and americans and only america where this would happen with develop the technology to look deep underground, 3-d mapping and relies with a lot of energy. we've also developed a technology to drill down deep and horizontally to extract the energy at a reasonable price. what does that do? that is a strategic game changing. it's a strategic game changer that i think it's equivalent of the united states winning world

war ii. here's what's going to happen. not now but two years from now, six years from now, you will have cheap energy. it's going to be a lot of energy jobs. not just in colorado that in western pennsylvania, north dakota. cheap energy jobs across the united states to the second thing is because of cheap and inexpensive energy we are going to have a resurgent and repatriation that's called manufacturing jobs. remember when ross perot ran for president and he said there's this giant sucking sound at all the jobs are leaving america and they're going to other countries? guess what? they are coming back. they are coming back because great place to do business that they're coming back for real economic reasons. i met with the two leading, the two heads of european energy companies, one is a french energy company and an italian when. they said europe is never going to recover economically because our competitors are america.

and america is all of a sudden whatever the price is going to be to manufacture a widget in germany, it's going to be cheaper to manufacture in the united states because your energy is going to be so much less expensive. the fact of seven come if you think japan. we'll have good energy jobs now, the next round is manufacturing returned to the united states. but then it will be a third round and that's when cheap american energy hooks up with 3-d printing technology and bioengineering. we are looking i think it would make the right political decisions in the next two to three years, we are looking at a 20 year run where the united states is going to be as prosperous as we just enjoyed with the technology, computer, high-tech boom. we have to make the right political decisions. i don't think we're making those decisions right now. we are certainly not making them in washington. when i look around the world today i say tough times for the next couple of years, resurgent

russia, china, open border, nukes in iran. but i look beyond that and say america's future is indeed very bright. it's not a given but if we make the right political decision and pressure our political leaders to make the right decisions, then i think the united states for our children and grandchildren will be very great indeed. to quote my old boss ronald reagan once again america will be a shining city on the hill. [applause] >> you may not realize this but we go way back. we were both working for president nixon. he had a big job working for president nixon because he wrote president nixes -- president nixon's speeches. >> that type is have the ultimate control. >> i always knew you were a pretty smart guy. spent the woman has a hand.

it's always that way. thank you very much. third time at the summit and it keeps getting better. [applause] >> thank you. spent a been talking about the western conservative summit, a mobile app, check your app store for the, ipad, iphone, android. get the mobile app and you can get badges for things you've done to be digitally interactive at western concert summit 2014. you can get one of the founders of conservatism. you can get a reagan badge, a lincoln badge. you can even get an andrews or armstrong badge pic you can get a margaret thatcher badge. when i hear k. t. mcfarland, i feel at some of the spirit of the iron lady, the toughness, the wisdom, the fighting spirit is being channeled and we're very grateful for you, k. t. >> thank you. cannot tell you a great margaret

thatcher star? >> please do. >> margaret thatcher and i got to know each other during the reagan administration. i knew her better than she knew me but when i ran for the senate in new york and 2006, she gave me some insight. she's somebody go to an interview, take two dresses. this is margaret thatcher, right? the one who brought down the iron curtain but she said here's why. because you never know what kind of background you can have and you want to make sure you look okay. i had a blue dress on earlier and i just changed. thank you, margaret thatcher. [applause] thank you, john. thanks very much. >> thank you, k. t. mcfarland. >> a house panel will work on resolutions to address the israeli-palestinian conflict. one measure would condemn the killing of israeli and palestinian children. the other would condemn the use

of civilians as human shields. watch live market -- markup coverage this morning starting at 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span2. and on c-span3, the house oversight committee will look at the legality of certain political activities by the executive branch. former and current white house employees are ready to test the. the obama admission has indicated that the current white house political strategy director may not testify. that's live at 9 a.m. eastern. >> forty years ago the watergate scandal led to the only resignation of an american president. american history tv revisits 1974 and the final weeks of the nixon administration this week and a house judiciary committee as it answers impeachment of the president and the charge of abuse of power. >> would you have there are questions about what the framers had in mind, questions about

whether the activities that have been found out by the committee and by the senate, watergate committee, were indeed impeachable and thirdly, can we prove that richard nixon knew about them and even authorize them speak with watergate 40 years later, sunday night at eight eastern on american history tv on c-span3. >> representatives from a number of veterans organizations give their assessment of some of the challenges facing the va. they testified before the house veterans' affairs committee. this week the senate veterans' affairs committee voted unanimously to approve the nomination of robert mcdonald as veterans affairs secretary. the full senate could vote on the nomination next week. >> on our second panel we have

ms. verna jones, veterans affairs director of the american legion, welcome. mr. ryan gallucci, deputy director of the national legislative service or veterans of foreign wars of the united states. welcome, sir. mr. carl blake, acting associate director -- executrix or for government relations, paralyzed veterans of america. welcome. mr. joseph violante, who is the national legislative director for disabled american veterans. welcome. mr. rick whiting, executive director of the government affairs for the vietnam veterans of america. welcome. and mr. alex nicholson, legislative director for the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. welcome. thank you all for joining us here this morning. thank you so much for your

patience. your complete written statements will be made part of the hearing record. ms. jones, if you're ready, you're now recognized for five minutes. >> i wonder how may people in this room would bet the last $40 to make some sense of the va? mr. vice chairman, traffic on behalf of the national and the 2.4 me members of the american legion, 90 for your diligence and oversight during this crisis. the american legion has spent the last six weeks setting up crisis centers. we have seen over 2000 veterans. iban each one of those crisis centers and i can tell you are stand that it is bad and then deeply saddened. the american legion is that it would listen to veterans and widows and children who one by one told us stories of broken promises, pain, mistreatment, delays and just even death. many of them full of hurt,

anger, confusion and uncertainty just want to be heard. they told their stories many times but their pleas have fallen on deaf years. during these meetings the american legion lessons because what they have to say is important and we want to help. i'm going to tell you about a man in college has been his last $40 on a cab ride to get to an american legion crisis into because he literally had nothing left. i met a widow in phoenix, arizona, 70 years old reduced to sometimes sleeping in public bathrooms because the va couldn't get her claim correct. she came to us in tears. we were able to put her in front of the va and get those errors fixed on the spot in our crisis into. in el paso, texas, within the first three days with 74 veterans we recovered $462,000

on the spot for those veterans. who were entitled to those monies. monies. i read of it from the office of special counsel about va and the harmless errors that include a veteran waiting more than eight years or psychiatric appointment. eight years. we have veterans taking their own lives, 22 veterans today here in america, and this is a harmless error that veterans had to wait eight years for an appointment? we saw in north carolina a bad has been working on his claim for 14 years. as he left the crisis center he said, i can't believe it took me 90 minutes to fix what i've been working on for 14 years. that's what we've been doing, five cities, and we have half a dozen more scheduled. we are making the extra effort. that's what it takes. we all heard whistleblowers talk about the boxes of mail in pennsylvania. you can identify that mail she

said, it just takes a little extra effort but they don't allow you to make the effort. if an employee wants to make extra efforts to help veterans at the va, that employers shouldn't have her car vandalized or be subject to harassment. we need to promote that kind of employed to help the va is listening. how about you take the whistleblowers, the people with the guts to stand up and say, that's not the right the way to treat vitamins -- that's not the right way to trade veterans. you can make some move for them by getting rid of the ones who covered up veterans waiting for care so they can earn a little after money every year over over state accuracy to look good. i want to be perfectly clear the. this is not about tearing down the va but it's about saving the va. the american legion wants a good va for all veterans. abraham lincoln said care for him and shall have borne the battle, i didn't read the part that said its null and void if it affects your bonus.

we've talked to veterans in every city wants a place that belongs to the big they want doctors and medical professionals who understand that what their service and understand their needs but when american legion says that he has a problem acts as an actress and leadership, we don't want to throw out the va. we want to help restore it, making what should be for veterans, make it would veterans deserve. the man i told you back in colorado have been let down by the system. the system was supposed to care for him. he was broke, he felt broken, and he spent his last $40 on a cab ride to get to the american legion crisis center. all of his worldly possessions on his back in a knapsack. he arrived at the crisis center after th the close that a sweet asleep in in a gas station waiting for us to open. the next morning were able to get him in front of the va and that gentleman was placed in a housing program and received the services that he really needed. our chairman of the veterans affairs rehabilitation for

american legion is so effective that he gave that gentleman back is $40 because of the american legion truly believes that no veteran should have to pay for services he already paid for by virtue of their own service. we served over 2000 veterans in these crises centers of life-changing decisions have been made. we appreciate the support and collaboration from the va. those va employees came into the crisis centers and worked with veterans and they did a great job. this is what happens when all come together, do what we know it's right. while we as an organization have an honest to help -- honor to of, why did it have to come to this point in the first place? thank you for listening. >> thank you, mr. jones. thank you so much for that testimony. now we were recognize mr. gallucci for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. vice chairman, and ranking member michaud and members of the committee don't have of the veterans of foreign wars, thank you for restoring trust in the va system. the allegation made against the

are a registered members are rightfully outraged. plus the vfw worth the loss of trust among veterans has potential to be more harmful than some of the propriety we've seen. when the scandal broke the vfw worked quickly to end the drug on behalf of veterans. we advertiser health line 1-800 vfw 1899 for veterans return to assist osha's expense. expense. we conducted issues at town hall and director surveys around the country and over the first two months of outrage we resume of the 1500 comments, most of which were negative. the dfw work with the leadership to help resolve more than 200 critical issues. we sorted through the downtown identify trends and make specific recommendations to fix the system. as we seek to resolve these issues we must be careful not to dismantle the. va care is far too important. many service cannot be duplicated or a foe, to estimate for the record here today osha specific concerns on scheduling, non-va care and accountability.

the major issue facing the health of system is time axis. veterans who would deposit expenses to the vfw still shared concerns over unreasonably times. to date the vfw outdated technology is a center. this is why the scheduling system is rife with fraud and manipulation and why veteran care suffers. one veteran who contacted the vfw charges problems transferring to the salt lake city center. at first va said it would take six much but after six months vehicle the better it would be another six-month. six months later when he called you was informed you of this enrolled because it not been seen in more than a year. we have to do better than this. next the vfw acknowledges the va must fully leverage its non-authority to va must the

responsibly and resources to properly coordinate and deliver non-va care otherwise veterans will suffer. earlier this week i spoke with a veteran care giver in his or to recount a recent minor receiving non-va care. that that are needed a seemingly routine knee surgery but the it was backlog and had to send in out for the procedure but what followed was a bureaucratic mess. after the outset provided perform the operation the veteran quickly was discharged and was told the hospital had no further responsibility. meaning to veteran and his caregiver had to drive directly to va to receive proper medication and prosthetic. the vfw understands va may have been best suited to provide but this was not communicated to the veteran prior to the procedure. moreover, the caregiver reported a non-the facility was in flexible in providing basic assistance to the veteran who was clearly in pain while still in their care. this is a prime example of why outsourcing to is not a catchall solution. va must continue to serve as the

guarantor of such care and congress must ensure that va referral pain and private networks can make responsible, timely health care decisions. finally, we all know accountability is a major problem for va and a problem that goes beyond executive employees. secrecy and low morale seem to be symptoms of a vehicle to that focuses on internal processes rather than patients. veterans say resource are stretched too thin but employers are afraid to speak up and penalize when they do. but he has to focus on patients first by changing the mindset. this demands strong executive leadership and strong whistleblower protection. the vfw also worries that figure barack as he incentivize retention of poor performing employees over termination and placement. they can take up to you year too vacancies. if va cannot quickly hire top talent we cannot expect the va to fire that employee if va cannot fire bad employers would not expect it to deliver timely quality care to the veteran to

me. banks and and everything the vfw hears about va care has been bad. nearly 40% of the veterans who contacted us praise the va. just this week several veterans sought out our professional staff to share have va doctors have saved their lives to others offered perspective on how the system has improved. we believe the system can work but it cannot work without congress taking action. this week the fw members also passed a stern resolution going to pass the the access and accountability act. both chambers have agreed these reforms will veterans receive timely care which is what our members insisted congress cannot go into the august recess without passing this bill. when the current scandal broke every legislator in washington agreed that this was a national imperative. however, some of recently backed off hearing more about costs and the veterans are waiting for giving women opportunity. we have an opportunity share veterans and those still serving in harm's way that our nation will live up to its promise to care for those who defend.

we have to get this right. where to restore trust and confidence in the va system and the vfw will do whatever it takes to make that happen. mr. chairman, ranking member, this concludes my testimony. i'm happy to imagine the questions spend not recognize mr. blake for five minutes. >> thank you, vice chairman, ranking member michaud. i'd like to thank you for the opportunity to testify today. it truly is frustrating and disappointing see the things that have been reported about the the health care system in the last several months. not a thing we have heard is surprising. the highest percentage users of the health care system in the veteran population. i can promise you that our members have experienced the long delays and appointment scheduling gimmicks that a been disclosed but i'm a regular user of va. it is happened to me as a regular user of the va. however, we are fortunate

because vba 30 years ago you help an agreement to allow us to do and your site is to fully understand what goes on and to sure that adequate staffing and adequate resources are devoted to that system. the sad reality is that veteran should try to access the larger va health care system do not have that luxury. the fact is we are all responsible for these problems. veterans service organizations should have provoked greater examination of her concern by encouraging congress and senior va leadership to examine the face of these problems as we saw it. meanwhile, the administration should of been fully honest about the resources sadly needed to meet actual demand on the system. not manipulating didn't demand and sisters, to make bookings better than they obviously were. finally, congress should actually listen to what we had to say as advocates and as we've been saying for years, these problems can we trace all the

way back to 2003 when a jihad to actually begin denying enrollment to eligible veterans who are seeking care because it did not have the capacity or the resources within. unfortunately, instead of taking meaningful steps then, we allow the va to just close its doors to some people and now it simply got worse. so here we are today talking about this problem. in a mini recently, a member of congress told several of us in the committee, without we're giving the va enough resources. that is a ridiculous statement. this just a firms no one is listening to what we the vsos and ago office of the independent budget have to say because we've been pointing to these problems in both our budget and policy recommendations for 28 years. in fact, for four years now we have not once had the opportunity to formally present in front of the appropriations subcommittee to outline our concern. for years now. i will not dispute the fact that

the va health care system has been given large sums of my in recent years. and that the va has done a poor job of managing come and spending those resources. those are facts. but that does not automatically mean that additional resources are not needed now. we believe that absolutely are, whether to address the recommendations made by the va or the administration or the white house, or whoever made the $17 billion recommendation. or to address legislation that the conference committee is currently wrangling over right now. unfortunately discussion has turn more towards using private health care to resolve these problems instead of restraint and the va from within. sending veterans out in the private marketplace may alleviate that series pressures on access right now, but that is not the answer to the long-term problem. the va is provided appraisal and yet some members of congress have laughed that off as being unacceptable or not part of this debate.

when will they be part of this debate? because i'm not convinced it will never be a part of the debate. does congress not really interested in fixing the va from within? i hear all the discussions about culture, and i can agree with anyone more, that culture needs to be fixed. i use the va so i know what the culture of the va is like. but i can tell you, i prefer to go to my va doctor. the question was asked of this committee hearing last week about the possibly of the contracting out for most services, not specialized care or care that is unique to the. that question ignores the fact that primary care is not a generic function, particularly comes to veterans. even the representative from the american hospital association sat right there and admitted that they would need time to understand the nature of the veteran and patient by pollution before the to begin to truly meet demand. meanwhile, one of the other representatives who sat right here in this seed said we have long-standing concerns about the rates of reimbursement.

are we not concerned when the people that it seems that we're going to turn to to help us address these access problems will readily admit that they fully do not understand veterans as patience and that a word about how much they're going to get paid? their motivations are not our motivations. their mission is not the mission of the va. to be clear, pva finds is wholly unacceptable that tens of thousands of veterans have waited for far too long for care and in many cases are still waiting to be seen or have never been seen. not a single veteran should have to wait for care when it is needed. it is incumbent upon this committee, all of us at this table, and the folks sitting behind me to get this right because it will matter in the long run to millions of veterans. so it's time for the rhetoric to stop. thank you again, mr. chairman. i'd be happy getting questions that you may have. >> thank you. i appreciated. now go on mr. violante.

you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, vice chairman and members of the committee. thank you for inviting dvd does for today but when allegations of secret waiting lists came to light we were outraged. like you we wanted to wait for all the facts before reaching final conclusions. today there is no longer any doubt that the serious problems uncovered by this committee invalidated by va, oig are real and must be corrected. over a decade ago va face a moral crisis. it may 2003 a presidential task force, pdf, appointed by president bush reported the following, and i'll quote. from this book. as of july 2003 at least 236,000 veterans were waiting six months or more for first appointments or initial follow-up.

a clear indication, including occasion of lack of sufficient capacity, or at a minimum a lack of adequate resources to provide required care, end quote. .pdf concluded there was a mismatch in va between demand for access and available funding. as pointed out earlier, at a hearing in february 2004, secretary shinseki said this table and stated, i asked omb for $1.2 billion more than i received. one year later after stating unequivocally that the va's budget for fy 2005 and 2006 were sufficient, secretary nicholson admitted va needed an additional

$975 million for '05, and $2 billion more for '06. even when va accurately indicates its needs, omb passed back a lower number in the final budget. that's why dav and our partners have testified over the past decade the va medical care and budgets were inadequate. in the prior 10 years the funding provided for medical care was more than $7.8 billion less than what the iab recommended. for next year we project it will be $2 billion less than needed. here's what the congressional budget office said in a recent report, and i quote, under current law for 2015, cbo's baseline projections for 2016, va's appropriation for health care are not projected to keep pace with the growth in the patient population, or growth in

per capita spending for health care. meaning that waiting times will tend to increase, end quote. in addition over the 10 years of funding appropriated for construction has been about $9 billion less than what was needed. that's based on va's own internal analysis. mr. chairman, since 1905, it was famously written quote, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, end quote. the question is will we learn from the mistakes of the past? in our view the debate over whether there is a mismatch between demand for va health care and the resources provided is a settled issue. why else would the houseboat 426 to zero and the senate vote 93-3

for legislation to expand veterans access to health care that cbo estimated could cost $30 billion for two years of coverage and up to $54 billion annually after that if there was already enough money? acting secretary gibson testifies about the progress made over the past two months, adding more clinics, hours, filling physician vacancies and using temporary staffing resources. secretary gibson also testified in order to continue this expanded access initiative for this year and the next three years, va wanted supplemental resources totaling $17.6 billion. unlike the proposals in a conference committee, va's proposal would have an immediate impact by continuing va's

expanded access initiative and its purchase care while building an internal capacity for the future. for these reasons we support the supplemental request approach. mr. chairman, dav has for decades said the funding provided was inadequate. health care needs for veterans. sadly, history has proven us correct. it is up to congress and the administration to take steps necessary to end a mismatch, provide va the resources it needs and work with the vsos to strengthening the va health care system so enrolled veterans receive high quality, timely, and convenient medical care. that concludes my test when. i do have a to answer questions. thank you. >> thank you, sir. mr. wyden come you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you very much, congressman, mr. vice chairman. we are a simple bunch. in our legislative agenda for

the one at 12 congress and the 113th congress, consisted only of -- no one, fix the va. what we meant by that was gobbledygook that meant nothing in terms of adding to the coaching the mission. secondly, is that there be two accountability. when people lie, they get fired but if i like your national president, i'm toast and absolutely agree with that decision. they don't have adequate resources. and lastly on our agenda is addressing toxic ones which hasn't been adequate done for any generation but it wasn't done for those exposed to ionizing radiation at the end of world war ii, or during the '50s. it wasn't true of the vietnam

vets with agent orange and other toxic exposure. not true of gulf war vets who were exposed to sarin gas, and others which effective long-term health care consequences and have not addressed that of the young folks today. it's something that needs to change in the system, not an add-on but changed in a way in which va approaches their mission of veterans health care. it's not agenda health care system that happens to be for vets. it's got to be based on military exposure whether that's all the things that people talk about here earlier today in terms of spinal cord injury, visual, impaired and blind services, prosthetics and on and on and on. and certainly the exposures and that's what we have such high cancer rates. i noticed that somebody, it wasn't us, put it out on the table a little card from the

american academy of nurses. worthwhere they get this from, e information in this, they're disseminating to their members. why? because va is not talking to private sector medicine about the women's, injuries, illnesses and conditions that stem from military service these on branch of service, when did you serve, where did you serve, and what was your military occupational specialty. and, in fact, there should be. because 70%, or 6030% of veterans don't go anywhere near a va hospital. more wounded and more do today then did 20 years ago because they care is better once you get in. but we still have the adequate resources and most importantly don't have the right kind of attitude. the plantation mentality of we're going to tell these or fats what they need, no. about asking for that's what do you need.

what do you all think? here's the problem. we can solve this together but not just at the national level but at the network level and at most importantly, we believe, at the va medical center level. it's all too often people have fallen backwards. one example, the white house mandated that everybody -- last august and september. so they did it. they were supposed to meet with stakeholders in the committee including all of the vsos and set the agenda and work together to will this summer. that's not what happened. they had a predetermined message. the invite the couple people from each vso and told us what we ought to think. that's not a summit. that's not a partnership. once we change this, at the local apple, then we will start to turn it around. i will say that under the acting secretary, there is wins of a fresh pot or wafting through it,

-- hasn't got back to the field yet but it's wafting through. so people are doing what they should of been doing all along, not just we call the shots from vso and other stakeholders, but that the ask our opinion but as an example on the scheduling system, some people were not going to ask our opinion and the second are, acting secretary made them listen. because we know what it's like because it's our folks who go through the nonsense. and if you want to change the va, you change that particular part of it. forcing va to listen to the stakeholders and to really do patient-centered care or veteran centered care, and to do that you've got respect individual veteran. and the veterans organizations, and other stakeholders. i want to just touch on resources here just for a second. we have said from the outset

that the form imposed in 2003 was no dadgumm good. why? because it was a civilian foreign a that was designed for hmos and middle-class people that can afford them. that's not who uses the va. the average number of presentations at that time was five to seven presentations, veterans coming into the hospitals, and today among the youngest veterans, it's 14 presentations. it figures in one to three presentation. it doesn't take a rocket scientist, even i can figure out if you're going to fall further and further and further behind if you use that to estimate what it is going to be. we need to jump that and go to a more realistic funding case on the needs of the people. the last thing i want to comment on, and as an appendix to today, people have been saying where are we going to find the medical

professionals? .. >> thank you for your testimony, s. now we'll recognize mr. nicholson for fiven minutes. >> vice chair bilirakis and distinguished members of the committee, on behalf of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, we appreciate the opportunity to share with you our views and rom