ports, all of our facilities, so from my perspective it gives them a significant advantage, end quote. can russia been -- >> therefore i'm sure that russia and others take advantage of those technological developments in order to advance their intelligence collection capabilities. >> do you believe that the processes and procedures might allow russia to exceed the limits imposed by the opening skies treaty? >> i would have to take a look into how those capabilities could be used to -- to exceed those. >> thank you, my time expired, thank you again for your appearance today. >> senator. >> thank you, mr. chair. welcome director brennan. you talked in your opening

statement, you outlined real progress that's been made within isil in terms of limiting their financial resources and the reality of inspired terrorist attacks that have global reach including here in the homeland as we have seen this week. what progress is being made in degrading isil's ability to inspire terrorist acts through the digital or even traditional media and how have we learned how to measure that progress? >> we are trying to go up stream and find out who is responsible for spewing the information into the internet that inspires these individuals to carry these attacks. and working with our military partners, we are trying to make sure that the appropriate actions are taken in syria and iraq where a lot of this emanates from.

in addition, we are trying to share as many information with global partners because it's not just upstream activity but the downstream of this but it also gets to issue that we were talking earlier about which is what is the government's role as far as being ability to limit this type of material both in terms of what is legal authorities are as well as technical capabilities are to prevent this type of propgation.

order device anywhere in the world. but if we're not careful about how we address these challenges we could certainly mandate weakness into her own digital systems, potentially putting the personal and financial records of americans at risk from hostile actions, both from state level actors and from criminal actors. and i think if we mandate sort of a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem we could also see a number of real economic activity, real jobs

migrate overseas to avoid those perceived solutions. so it's clear to both my soap and a number of my colleagues that we need to have continue to conversations around this. they need to be technologically grounded. i know senator warner wrote and i have cosponsored a bill that seeks to set up a commission that would include perspectives from intelligence, law enforcement and the business and technology communities. do you have a perspective on that legislation? >> first of all let me say that i strongly support encryption as a capability that protects our way of life, our prosperity, our national security. but at the same time i fully agree with both you, senator warner, senator wyden and others that we need to have the opportunity to do with this new environment of the digital domain so that the government

cannot properly safeguard its interests, its citizens, its future. that requires the experts to be able to get together the legal, technical, the practitioners to find some way that will not be perceived as a backdoor that it's going to allow the government to legitimately carry out its responsibilities while not com cover my see the great benefits that accrue to encryption. i don't know as an executive branch officer i'm allowed to endorse a piece of legislative initiatives, but i've talked to other members of congress. i think a congressional commission on this issue is something that could do a great service because this is not just a government only issue. it is largely a private sector issue ever needs to be an understanding between the private sector and the government about what our respective roles and responsibilities going to be, to find some kind of solution that is able to optimize what it is we are all trying to achieve, which is security, privacy,

liberty, prosperity and a technologically rich world that will continue to evolve. i encourage you to continue to tackle this issue and also to educate the american people about what it is so they don't fear the government's role which is what happens right now because i don't understand it. then we need to make sure they understand that frontier is just like the physical domain in the maritime domain. we have an obligation to protect our people. >> thank you for your perspective on that. thank you, chair. >> senator lankford. >> thanks for being here again. you helped lead or did lead when president obama was president-elect obama in 2008 intelligence transition team. it's part of the responsibility be able to brief the future president at the time of some the issues that were blinking red, i think the term was used, on the intelligence community. if you helping organize for that next transition because will have a new president next year, what are the key things you could articulate our blinking

red for the new president? >> cyber certainly. that individual whoever is elected needs to use their all for, eight years to tackle this issue to take him know to come up with the types of understanding that are necessary. terrorism will continue to plague us. that's related to the cyber issue and how we're going to make sure that fbi and nsa and cia and others are able to do their job to protect this country. proliferation is something we cannot forget about, which is brought into stark relief by the activities in north korea and kim jong-un and the continued development of his nuclear program and ballistic missile capability that is a threat not just to the region and also to us. instability in a number of countries in the middle east and africa, and the lack of governance capabilities within these countries, so that they

are unable to tackle the political, the economic, societal, the cultural challenges. i am really worried about how instability is going to continue to erode and corrode some of the foundations of governance and a more and more individuals because of their feeling of the disenfranchised from the governments are now identify with subnational groups, whether it be within isil or al-nusra or boko haram or others. they are not identifying themselves as somalis, nigerians. identifying themselves as part of a confession group or a terrorist organization. that is a very, very disturbing trend that i believe that this country can play a role in trying to help address. we cannot solve it on our own. >> do you think we would have less restoration of the isil and isis, whether you want to call them today? we would have less of the movement of terrorism worldwide if there was not a safe haven in syria and in iraq the? >> that is a big, big part of the. we need to take away their safe

haven because it gives them the opportunity to use of these lands to train and fight but also to gain revenue. their control of large cities like mosul and iraq and its population centers as well as oilfields, it generates revenue not just to keep their fires on the battlefield but also to try to support some of these terrorist operations. >> could that reduce the amount of money that's flowing to isis right now that we're not taking our that should have a higher tempo? >> i think the u.s.-led coalition has done a good job going after some of these bulk cash such as those the oil infrastructure and refining capabilities. it's intermingled with a lot of the locals and civilians who were trying to eke out and existence. i think the military has done a very good job. there's more to be done. that's why intelligence is so important to we can give them the insights. >> help you understand the tip of the pro-syrian forces including the russians and others, their airstrike temple

compared to ours. >> unfortnuately, they're directing a lot other airstrikes and artillery barrage is against the prescreen army that is trying to unseat bashar al-assad. and just look out over the past two weeks the amount of air strikes in the aleppo area where many of the syrian moderate opposition operate has exceeded the pre-cessation of hostilities totals. so yes the russians and serious have gone after isil as well as al-nusra but a large portion of their strikes are directed against what we consider to be the legitimate syrian opposition that are trying to save the country from bashar al-assad speed you anticipate the number of strikes exceed the secession of hostilities which seems to be a piece of paper at this point? it doesn't seem to be an actual cessation of hostilities? >> it is holding by a thread, especially in aleppo and the countryside spill the agreements we have come open skies under the things we all do the letter

and the spirit of it, do the russians also hold to the letter and the spirit of these agreements? >> i will have to get back to you in another setting on the. >> thank you. i yield back. >> senator hirono. >> thank you, director brennan for being here. you mentioned in your remarks about cia modernization and the desire to diversify the cia to be reflective of the diversity not only in our own country but, of course, all of the entities that we deal with in the world. can you briefly go over what you're doing to increase diversity in the cia? >> over the past three years we've had initiative, called the directors advisor group, initiated by general petraeus, my predecessor, i'm trying to advance women in leadership within the agency. we have had implementation teams that have been working over the last three years to make sure

that the objectives and goals of this study are being operationalized and our promotional and assignment panels and other types of programs went inside the agency. i passed vernon jordan who is a member of our external advisory board disputed an effort at cia for to go look at all the different facets of the agency in terms of representation in leadership, recruitment efforts, training and development of officers and why we have fallen short of these federal standards of what our diversity composition should look like. it was a hard-hitting report and came up with a number of recommendations. we have put together action scenes on as well. i have the lead officer who is involved in a. i have made mandatory training for senior leadership team. about three weeks ago when several hours of diversity in leadership and for the seniormost officers. they need to be heavily involved in a. we think we've fallen short over the past just because we have been so driven by crises that we

have not paid attention to some of the strategic imperatives. that's why we need to have our leaders actively involved in these efforts from development, mentoring, sponsoring to recruitment efforts. i go out to schools. i talk to there is groups. >> you have a timeframe for when you would like to see some of the results of these kinds of efforts. but with a timeframe be? >> yesterday is the first one. want to make sure we are able to look at the milestones that we need to it's not just the numbers but i want to make sure we have instituted some of the programs that are going to sustain these efforts. it's put in place the foundational elements of this. i think then the numbers that were going to look at in terms of representation are going to increase over time but i'm most interested in institutionalizing some of these changes so it's not just a study that is forgot about. >> you also said in a number of ways during your responses that the question of what is the role

of government as we see entities such as isil using every means to spread their propaganda at encouraging phone will ask, not just in our country but all throughout the world. edited want, you seemed to indicate that in order for us to determine what the appropriate governmental bolshevik, that one approach would be a commission to i think that's what senator warner's bill is, to create a commission to enable us to figure out what government's role should be, along with input from a lot of other folks like you. so would you say that is the best way for us? because you have said that the role of government is one that we haven't quite figured out. >> i don't know what the best way is but just know that it has to be an effort undertaken by the government and the private sector in a very thoughtful man that looks at the various dimensions of the problem and is going to come forward with a number of options,

recommendations about how to optimize what we're trying to do other national security, privacy, civil liberties front cover text of this country and not cede this environment to the terrorists and those who want to do us harm. i do believe that with the tremendous technological advances like encryption and other things, they are taking advantage of the liberties that we have fought so hard to defend. >> and i think right now, all the other people talked about the need to figure out what we're going to be doing in this cyberspace, i don't think we've put in place any kind of cohesive or coherent process. let me turn to china. the hague is expected wrote about china's claims in the south china sea soon, and it's anticipated that the ruling will support the philippines case that china has made excessive claims about its maritime sovereignty. can you briefly discuss your assessment of what china's

response might be do be such a bowling? and could expected ruling be a trigger for further escalation by china? >> in the recent conference, face angle a conference in singapore, the chinese representative made very clear they don't recognize the legitimacy of the arbitration tribunal, nor i think we'll cede to its findings. so secretary carter made very clear that we certainly do recognize that there needs to be this type of arbitration, given that the are a number of claimants to some of these features in the sea, and it's not just the philippines and its other countries as well. and so there needs to be an agreed upon mechanism that will be able to resolve outstanding disputes. i think the united states has made very clear the importance of protecting freedom of navigation in that part of the world, and will continue to take

steps to make sure that people understand the united states is committed to freedom of navigation worldwide. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chair. >> thank you, senator. to any centers seek additional questions? senator wyden has asked for one. the vice-chairman also asked me, director, to ask you a couple of questions. she had to leave for an appropriations meeting at 10:30. what your assessment of north korea's cyber capabilities and intentions? >> i think that the north koreans have developed a cyber capabilities as we've seen some recent incidents over the last year or two where it has been employed. i think it is something that we need to be concerned about, given kim jong-un's penchant use whatever capabilities he might have to cause problems. so we can get back to the vice

chairman a more detailed answer about their capabilities as well as potential intentions. >> great. one last question from the vice chairman. isil is getting all the attention today. they are not the only terrorist organization out there. what are we doing and how concerned are you on aqap and other potential organization? >> the vice chairman spousal the right, there are a number of terrorist organization. al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula continue to be very active in sight of yemen and has several thousand adheres invited. turbine recent collaborative efforts between the united states along with the uae and saudi arabia and yemen to dislodge aqap from the port city. it was successful. it drove them out but there is an active effort under way to continue to dismantle and destroy that organization. but also there is the organizations in the afpak area

led by the taliban, the haqqani said that continue to engage in terrorist attacks. blush a type of we work very close with the service in the area including the indians and others try to guard against their ability carry out those attacks. this is something that we continue to have to dedicate a lot of resources to it as you know ahead of al-qaeda still is out there and continue to put up audio statement of the things exhorting his followers. this is a continued challenge for us. >> senator wyden. >> just a quick comment and a fast question. on this encryption issue, gratified you've included think there's a government role fear. you got me at hello on that. no question that our ways of the government can strengthen the personal safety of americans at a dangerous time. i think it makes sense to hire people with extensive experience in science and technology like we have, for example, oregon's silica force. i can get plenty of things.

what i don't want to do though as i don't want to go backward on digital security, which is what's going to happen if the government, the congress requires backdoors are built into the products of this country. we will continue that debate. i just want to make that clear as we wrap up. senator lankford as an appropriate question, which is a to a new president. i think effort to touch on this like to get it for me for the record. if the next president of the united states directs the agency, directs the cia to resume the use of the worse of interrogation technics, how would you respond? >> i have said publicly that i do not believe such aggressive coercive techniques are necessary. as you know the cia's detention and interrogation program was disbanded, and i certainly, while i directed cia, have no intention bring such a program back and would not engage in

eits such as waterboarding and other things ever. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator king. >> a question about isil and libya. any chance they're going to get all of any of the libya's oil capabilities, because that's where a lot of the revenues have come from in syria and iraq. how do you assess the security of the oil assets in libya? >> i don't think anything and libya is overly secure. there have been a tense made an assault upon some of those oil facilities. up-to-date isil estaban able to gain control of them. i have to get back and see whether or not they're sort of pockets of areas were isil has been able to encroach there are some challenges of their and our a number of security militias and firm firms that are into ars that have prevented isil from taking over. we would teach you a more thorough response. >> i know i said was my final question.

my wife says i say finally too much and he gets my hopes up. >> she's a smart woman. [laughter] >> afghanistan, we haven't talked about afghanistan at all. what your assessment about the security situation in afghanistan? there's a proposed drawdown our troops which has to start sometime in the early fall, if it's going to achieve the 5000 troop number in january. give us an assessment of the situation. is there, i guess the short question is, does the government have a chance taliban just waiting, and they're going to take back over? >> we are near the height of the fighting season. the number of casualties on both sides in terms of the ansf, the afghan national study forces and the taliban i figure greater this year and we've seen in a long, long time because a number of engagements, which means i think the afghan forces are

stepping up and engaging in the fight more as u.s. forces have drawn down, but also think it reflects the intensity of the taliban efforts. they are really trying to erode the government hold in various areas. we've worked very closely with the afghans to have been better consolidate their forces so that they can protect the critical infrastructure, the cities and transit routes. but the taliban is determined working with the haqqanis, a subgroup of the taliban, so that is continued concern about the taliban's ability to carry out these attacks, both in some of the outlying areas but also as they try to go after the provincial capitals as well as kabul. so it is still uncertain in my mind whether or not the taliban is going to continue to make incremental progress. we are providing support to our afghan intelligence partners so that they have the capabilities that they need. but there is still a long, hard

fight ahead in afghanistan for the afghan government. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator king. director, thank you. the two takeaways from your testimony that i certainly heard that are relevant to today, there will be an increase in global terrorism as more pressure is applied in the battle space. and i think that's something that we certainly have seen up to this point. there's no reason to suspect that that doesn't increase. and isil has become a global organization. and i think sometimes we treat them in a very small geographical footprint, but they very quickly and quietly grown to be that global organization. now i'd like to give a closing statement. i'm not sure that i've done that before but i feel compelled. adequately speak for the vice-chairman but i think she would probably associate with most of what i will say. this feud between the tech companies and the intelligence community and law enforcement has to stop.

encryption is the issue that we describe it as, but this is much more. technology is going to drive the united states economy for the next 50 years, and the global economy as well. it is the secret sauce for our children and our grandchildren to the unlimited opportunities, not success but opportunities. when the vice-chairman and i committed to at least lay on the table a solution to encryption can it was not with the bling we are smarter than everyone else but it is we understood what was at stake and we willing to take the heat. as you know we've taken a lot of hits. i don't regret it, because i think what we had hoped was that we would start a national debate in this country about what the appropriate role of government is. that for the american people to understand that for our agencies to prevent and protect them,

that that comes with a price, at that this debate is about what the cost might be and what we are willing to accept. we can't separate the world based upon whose domain domestically and who is the domain in foreign countries. yet that's the beauty of the internet. it really doesn't matter. but if it was important to locate the united states, we would probably have very little manufacturing is most of its customers are overseas, but they argue. they are here because we have in our foundational structure things that they find them forward. and at the top the list is the rule of law. and i point to what one tech leader said as the vice chair and i launched the encryption debate to the level it is today. we can't trust the judge on the bench to you from the intelligence community or law

enforcement and understand whether some placement the threshold that they need to reach to access communications or data. well, let me say today, if we've gotten to the point where we don't trust a judge on the bench, we have just guided rule of law in the united states. this to me is about so much more than encryption. this is about whether the united states is going to be the innovator of the world for the next 50 years. it's about what the next generation as as opportunities and, oh, yes, freedom, protection of personal data and prevention of terrorist attacks. if we can't prosecute criminals by a district attorney or by u.s. attorney, because they can't gather the information they need to make a case in

court, then talking about orlando, and we will talk about crime in every community across this country because we are going to have individuals that committed to walk and live next door to us everyday. so i use the platform today. i don't think i find disagreement from you or from others in law enforcement either nationally or locally, because we've heard from a lot of them, but never to believe that we need to take to heart what we do affects the intersection of the rule of law and technology in the future, and we're much better off to that debate today and we are to wait until something happens and we needed. the pendulum swings too far, i'll a post-9/11. and we did some things then that we thought were right. today looking back, we would not do that again. we all agree. this is an opportunity to get this one right, not to go too far but to go to the right place, the right point. so, director, i want to thank you for your testimony.

i want to thank you for the resolve of your workforce. i also want to highlight the professional staff of this committee. i think they are incredibly talented, incredibly dedicated. they travel to the unpopular spots where your offices are on a regular basis. they do it not to gain mileage points. they do it to live up to the mission of this committee, which is oversight of your agency and the rest of the intelligence community. on behalf of 85 other members of the united states cynic, and all, by the way, for the american people. we are the ones that testified and certify that you do things within the letter of the law, or a presidential directive and we don't overstep those bounds and when we do, it's this committee's responsibility to report it and pulled it in. so they deserve credit because they don't get that credit very often. please pass to your employees our sincere gratitude for the

job they do. we look forward to your next visit with us. it probably won't be open and there will be some disappointed souls in the audience, but we will do it in a much productive way. thank you, mr. director. hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> with the political primary season over, c-span booktv the white house take you to the summer political conventions. watched the republican national convention starting july 18 with live coverage from cleveland. >> we will be going into the convention no matter what happens and i think we're going to go in so strong. >> i watched the democratic national convention starting july 25 with live coverage from philadelphia. >> let's go forward, let's win the nomination, and in july let's return as a unified party. >> then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to philadelphia, pennsylvania. >> every minute of the republican and democratic

parties national convention on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> ahead of the democratic national convention in july, philadelphia mayor jim kenney will talk about the planning process. he will be joined by the conventions ceo and executive director. we will take you there live today at 2 p.m. eastern on c-span3. >> after the senate rejected a for gun control measures, senate democrats held a press conference at the u.s. capitol. here's a look. >> senate republicans should be others but, of course, they are not. they are not embarrassed because the nra is happy. 90% of americans support

expanded background checks. it's not 90% of democrats. it's 90% of the american people, democrats, republicans come independence. 85% of americans want to close the terrors accountable. democrats, republicans and independents. but the nra says no. so republicans do nothing. the junior senator from new hampshire has said that she'll vote yes on everything. she should make up her mind and not be a hypocrite. the junior senator from new hampshire such as voting a yes. that's not logical but that's what you think the republicans need to stop siding with gun extremism, listen to the american people and policies -- pass these proposals to make america safer. there's been a lot of talk about what they're going to do next. it's my understanding mcconnell is going to move to

an amendment which is not, which is not i am told i think entity with the work that is being done by collins and some others try to come up with something bipartisan. the point is this, i'm told the nra doesn't support even that. so i would hope the republicans would understand that -- i hope senator collins can drum up 20 votes or so to make that google. but just not a gesture in futility. we would have from senator feinstein next is our person is been working on this since she became mayor as a result of the murder of the mayor of san francisco. we will do then from bill nelson, this murphy, and then from richard blumenthal, cory booker and then i'll take a few questions. >> thank you leader.

well, here we go again. another mass shooting, this time the largest in history. 49 dead, 53 injured. another chance for congress to take meaningful action, another missed opportunity. today we couldn't even agree to prevent known and suspected terrorists from buying guns. the power of the gun lobby over certain members of the senate seems boundless. the alternative some are suggesting is to limit and no guns for terrorists legislation to cover just the no-fly zone. that i believe is a serious mistake. we use very narrow list. if we do that we are left with a bill that has no teeth and mrs. many individuals who shouldn't be able to purchase guns. after just a few minutes of brief review, my staff came up with multiple examples of individuals in charge with

crimes related to terrorism but also flew planes. it's impossible to tell how many people with ties to terrorism would not be covered by the collins amendment. if we focused only on the no fly and selectee list, we were nearly 900,000 foreign nationals on the terrorist watch list who can legally purchase guns. for example, 20 million on the visa waiver program alone can come from a european country with no visa into this country and be able to buy guns. also we ignore 2300 u.s. persons determined by the fbi to be known or suspected terrorists. the legislation that was defeated today included second amendment protections and the ability to appeal a tonight

begun administered in a court of law. protected the ability of law-enforcement to investigate potential crimes of terrorism. and most importantly it would keep deadly firearms out of the hands of known and suspected terrorists. i'm hopeful we will be able to revisit this bill at some point in the future, and cooler heads will prevail. i find it really inexcusable that any individual at all, a felon, a domestic abuser, someone mentally ill, and by a weapon online or at a gun show with no scrutiny at all. the murphy and emmett was such a good amendment. -- amendment. it's you all those loopholes and background checks. so i'm hoping that one day the climate will change. my own view, very personal view is that we're going into an

election season and mr. and mrs. america, you have to stand up and you have to say i'm going to vote only for people who will do something to close the terror gap, to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally incompetent, who are criminals and they would use them illegally. maybe, just maybe, this next election can produce something. >> well done. >> well, thank you, diane, for your leadership. i am mortified by today's vote but i'm not surprised by it. we learned in the months after sandy hook that the other a as a vice like grip on this place. even when 90% of the american public wants change. a new poll out today, 90% of

americans believe in expanded background checks. 87% of americans think that terrorists should not be able to buy guns. 87% of americans. 90% of republicans in the apple thinks terrorists should not be able to buy guns. i don't think democracy allows for this congress to be so out of step with the american public for very long. so i mortified by today's vote. but my spine is strengthened by the fact that we had 40 democrats on the floor depicting change. over the cours course of this wy event millions join our crusade to end this epidemic of gun violence. and as republicans scramble, as we speak to try to find some way out of this mess, as they tried to find some way to show that they understand that 90% of americans don't want terrorists to get guns. we are closer than ever before to breaking the nra's grip on

this place. let's be honest. terrorists today are using assault weapons rather than ieds are airplanes to attack americans. after second 11, we decided that we were not going to allow terrorism to get hold of airplanes in order to kill civilians. well, today they've moved on to assault weapons. they specifically recruit global attackers to go to gun shows to buy assault weapons. we should take the same tact. so we are not giving up. the american people are not giving up. we will watch how these negotiations play out over the next few days but i will do you this. they are simply evidence of the fact that republicans know they are on the wrong side of the electorate. democracy doesn't allow for this place to be this far out of step, 90% of americans, for very long. with that let me introduce my partner in all of this work,

representing sandy hook and on the floor this week, senator blumenthal. >> first, let me thank senator murphy for his leadership and, of course, senator booker, part of the team that went to the floor, and all of our colleagues last week who joined us in a rare moment of history. that brought us here today. for the republicans to say that they have alternative proposals, there would be no debate on that alone any amendments or proposals but for our forcing them to address this issue. and my reaction to this vote today is exactly what i heard from the gallery three years ago when this body failed to adopt common sense, sensible measures. shame on you.

that's what we shouted from the gallery that day. shame on you. that's what the american people are shouting at the senate of the united states today. diane expressed the hope that cooler heads may prevail. i think what we need is more courageous heads, and those heads will come with our republican colleagues not on look at themselves in the mirror but have to look at their constituents in the eye between now and november and afterward. the political dynamic of this nation has changed. it is a sea change. and the american people have turned a chapter because the terrorists have turned a chapter. this fight is no longer about the 30,000 individual people who

are lost every year to gun violence. it is now about making americans safe against her enemies like isis it would inspire and support extremist violence here. we need to take the fight to isis, but also heartened our defense at home. and that means commonsense sensible measures like keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists with really effective measures. i urge our republican colleagues, not just to talk tough, but to act tough. the cornyn proposal was described as a wolf in sheep's clothing i think was really a sheep in wolf's clothing. like the toughness and the wolf like toughness that we need in such a measure. so the republicans are now

indeed scrambling. they can't figure out how to stay on the good side of the nra and still be credible with the american people. i can say with absolute certainty that i am determined to see common sense solutions that reflect common ground, but they need to be effective and stop the kind of terrorist extremism and everyday gun violence on our streets that take 30,000 people every year. we are not giving up. we are not going away. we will not relent in this effort. and i would like to introduce and now a great partner from the state of new jersey, actually now that he has arrived a a gret partner and friend from the state of florida, bill nelson.

>> what am i going to tell 49 grieving families? what am i going to tell the families of those that are still in the hospital fighting for their lives? what am i going to tell the trauma surgeon whose bloodstained tissues unsure in -- shoes that have been shown oy so many news programs and who said he didn't know, in the midst of the screams and cries, if they were black or white or gay or straight, as they brought in over 40 all at one time into that trauma operating room. what am i going to tell the community of orlando that is trying to come together in the

healing? sadly what i'm going to have to tell that is the nra one again. >> so it's clear we are at war with terrorists. it's clear that the our people that are plotting against us every single day. it's clear that the our folks who are seeking to inspire and radicalize folks here and abroad to attack this country. and given what we've seen from san bernardino to orlando, a vote was just taken to make us safer, and utah senator after senator leave us with these gaping vulnerabilities. we are in the country, we live in a nation right now where someone on a visa waiver, let's

see people like those who carried out the attacks in belgium, a visa waiver country, can get on a plane, and instead of doing the attack in belgium they can come to the united states, foreign nationals, walk into a gun show, i a trunk full of weapons and carry out the same attack we saw overseas writer in america. we live in a nation right now, thanks to the vote we just saw, for some folks who were under fbi investigation, were on the terrorist watch list, who are on the no fly list, you get on a plane but they can carry out unspeakable violence by going to a gun show, going on the internet line weapons, went into a school, a church, mosque, a playground, carry out unspeakable violence. we now still live in a nation thanks to the but that was just

taken that someone can be a criminal, could have made terroristic threats, could have stocked their ex-girlfriend, been arrested for that, and can still go to a gun show, can still go on the internet, get a weapon and kill them. our job is to protect this nation, protect our citizens. but what happened today is so troubling and disturbing and frustrating that when you are gaping holes, when literally our enemy is telling people to exploit these holes, kill us, we have left these loopholes open. so today i am angry, i am frustrated, but i like my fellow senators standing with me will not let this in finite defeat

undermine our infinite determination to close these gaping loopholes. we may have lost today, but we will not give up. and might appeal to the american people. because as was said already we have the overwhelming majority of folks with us. it's time we begin to demonstrate the truth, that the power of the people is greater than the people in power. they cannot block sensible, common sense legislation that will protect us from having this kind of grievous bloodshed again and again and again. if we do nothing, more people in our country will likely die. so for all those folks who say time and time again we are at war with terror, what we've been

doing by not closing this loophole to eight and about those people who seek to get weapons to kill us -- to aid and abet -- i will not stop fighting. i will stand with my colleagues here, and we will continue this effort. it's our hope that folks will start lifting the voice, that we will not wait until the next mass shooting that seem to happen every two months. there is enough blood, there is enough death, enough killing going on. we have all the evidence we need that we need to do more. doing nothing is unacceptable. so the fight continues. >> i want to extend my personal appreciation to senator durbin, senator schumer who are here.

patty, where is patty? and, of course, the statements made by the senators who interest you. we will take a few questions. i'm happy to do that. >> you've got two democrats who voted against measures like you are talking about. how do you get everybody else on board? >> it's kind of interesting you would direct it towards democrats. there's 46 of us, more than 90% vote with us every time so i think just not focus on the one or two that voted against what we feel is good legislation. you should focus on the republicans the we are doing our job. the democrats are doing our job. we don't focus on a couple -- >> don't you meet all your people as well as -- >> please, there's 46 of us, okay? the whole point is this. i mentioned earlier republicans

are just about soa as anyone can be. all they care about is taking care of the nra. you give somebody in a difficult situation like the senator from new hampshire, the junior senator from new hampshire. she is doing everything. you can't explain what she's doing. the people in new hampshire are going to recognize that. >> can you talk about what do you think the court and is time to do? do you see this as a serious -- >> first of all, i think susan collins is a serious legislatu legislature. but you know what's interesting, i don't know if they of my colleagues have been the scene of this. some have but i haven't. i have not seen. it's been kind of secret. i would hope that we can see that soon. however, everybody, i'm told, left the floor a couple of minutes ago, mitch mcconnell

is filing another piece of legislation on some different thing. something else. keep in mind what we have to do around here. let's get the big picture. let's look at the forest. he's found closure on sunday tonight. i'm sure to divert attention away from the terrible vote that they took today. we are going to be able to get to that on wednesday, and the cornyn measure may get closure but if it does that's 30 hours after that. so now we are integers and we haven't even done the bill that we are on. and don't forget about zika. more than 1000 women are sorely concerned about, we've had births of children and the united states with small brains, and we're doing nothing on that. we've waited for ever to do

something about puerto rico. but is that? they default on everything that comes due the first of the month. what is something on opioids? people are dying everyday with opioids and we are waiting for a conference to go forward on the. so everybody, what is the responsibility of the so-called majority here? spent i just want to enter as well. susan collins assessors legislative. she's always voted with us. nothing new to susan collins to try to make a compromise in its a good thing but the key question is not whether susan collins will step forward to try to offer a compromise, but it's when republicans will finally joiners we can get something done. that is the key question, not whether susan collins is willing to compromise. she always has been. but will for the first time with a world changing, terrorism and lone wolves, will 20 republicans

finally step up to the plate and pass the most modest of measures that will stop terrorists from getting guns. guns. >> three times a day we've mentioned the fact that everybody likes of susan, and we know that it summit is going to pass, she's out there alone all the time it. one more question. >> why did the toomey-manchin bill fall the wayside? into the only bipartisan background check bill? >> that's a good one but it's easy to enter. we offered senator mcconnell he could do that today. he refused to do. we told me to do that. we would set aside one of ours we have today, and he said no. he's not -- he's doing something else. that's the answer to that one. thanks, everybody. [inaudible conversations]

>> the ceo of first met, public safety broadband network, will brief members of the senate commerce committee this morning on progress made in deploying their network. that's at 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span3. actinic in federal reserve chair janet yellen testifies before the senate banking committee on the state of the u.s. economy. we will bring it to you live on c-span and c-span radio. >> veterans affairs secretary robert mcdonald talked about the veterans health care system and his transformation strategy for the my va program. the brookings institution hosted this. it is about one hour.

>> all right, good afternoon, everyone. my name is elaine kamarck. i'm the director of the center for effective, you know, something are rather. center for effective government management here at brookings, and also a senior fellow. it is my great privilege today to open this session on can the department of veterans affairs be modernized, with the secretary of veterans affairs robert mcdonald. so let me introduce the secretary, and then i'm going to introduce norm eisen, one of my colleagues here at the secretary will speak and then norm will come up and join him here to moderate some questions he's getting from twitter and other places, and also take your questions. and we will have a hard stop at 3:00.

secretary mcdonald is a west point graduate, graduate in the top 2% of his class in 1975, and deserved his prograde adjutant ford escort to get it was recognized by the royal society for the encouragement of arts, manufacturinmanufactures and coe most distinguished graduate in academic, leadership, and physical education. so that's quite something. he served with the 82nd airborne division, completed jungle, arctic and desert warfare training and heard the ranger tab, the expert infantry badge and senior parachutist wing. leaving military service, he was awarded the meritorious service medal. he then spent most of his career at procter & gamble we ended up as chairman, president and chief executive officer. under his leadership procter & gamble significantly

recalibrated its product portfolio, expanding its manufacturing footprint, adding nearly 1 billion people to its global customer base and through the firm's organic sales by an average of 3% a year. and two years ago, just about two years ago, president obama selected robert mcdonald to be the second of veterans affairs. over the course of his tenure so far, that he has expanded of veterans access by focusing on staffing productivity and va community care. ..

he will be interrogated briefly by our very own norman eisen, senior fellow at brookings. norm served in the obama administration a special assistant for ethics and government reform and went to the czech republic where i first met him to serve as united states ambassador there. he is with us at brookings. we are pleased to have him and he will be talking with you afterwards and with his secretary. with that, let's give robert mcdonald a round of applause. [applause] >> thank you for that kind introduction and the opportunity to have this conversation. thanks to norman eisen for

participating. i want to start by answering a question asked today. can the department of veterans affairs be modernized. the answer is absolutely yes. not only can it be modernized, it is already being modernized and we are already seeing the results. based on what veterans are telling us, seeing improvements in the care they are receiving from the da, last fiscal year we completed 5 million more appointments than in the previous fiscal year. almost 57 million appointments inside the va and 21 million appointments in the community. this past march we set a new record for completing appointments, 5.3 million inside the va. 730,000 more appointments than

in march 2014. we issued 370,000 authorizations for care in the community in march. twice as many as march 2014. and 2 million appointments in the months ahead. clinical workload is up 11% in the past two years, nearly 9% inside the va and 27% with va community care. in a system the size of the va, 7 million additional hours of care for veterans. the result, 97% of appointments are completed within 30 days, 86% within 7 days, 22% are same day appointments. average wait time last month 5

days for primary care, 6 days for specialty care, two days for mental health care. none of those numbers tell the whole story. they are important but what really matters is whether veterans are satisfied with their experience at the va. we are asking veterans what they think, using automated kiosks at our facilities. more than half 1 million have responded in recent weeks. one of the questions we ask is how satisfied are you that you got today's appointment when you wanted, 90% say they are satisfied or completely satisfied, less then 3% say they are dissatisfied or completely dissatisfied. i don't know how patients in the private sector would answer that question but i suspect our results are favorable. but guess what.

as we improve access to care more veterans are choosing va care for the quality, convenience or cost savings. i'm sure you have heard it said that if you build it they will come. we are building a better va. veterans are coming to us for more care. even though we are providing more appointments than ever, some veterans are still waiting longer than they should have to wait but that is not a measure of our failure. that is a measure of our success, providing more care, veterans waiting less time for care so they are coming to us for more of their care and telling us they are satisfied or completely satisfied with the timeliness of their care. how does that not spell success? until all veterans are satisfied

with their care i won't be satisfied with the va. nobody at va will be satisfied with va. i am satisfied we are on the right track, making progress, that progress is undeniable. some people are determined to ignore it. some experience running very large organizations and i know you can't accomplish a major overhaul of the corporations, culture and operations overnight. i also know the va has several areas of excellence to brag about. the american customer satisfaction index rated our national cemetery administration number one in customer service five times running. jd power has rated our mail-order pharmacy the best in the country and customer satisfaction six years running. we are a leader in many fields of research. posttraumatic stress, traumatic

brain injuries, spinal cord injury, bursitis, genetics to name a few. we are a leader in medical innovation. the first implantable cardiac pacemaker, the first successful liver transplant. the first nicotine patch. 7 awards. look what we have done with backlog of disability claims. not long ago we had a backlog of 6000 claims, more than 125 days old. that is all you heard about in va in those days. what do we do? staff, adjusted some policies, we designed and implemented claims processing system. today the backlog is a fraction of what it was, found almost 90%. the idea that va can't be fixed

or we are not fixing it is just nonsense. we are fixing. we are just not finished yet. we have work to do. our vision, the goal we set for va, we are now working towards, is being number one customer service organization in the federal government. we are building a high-performance organization, and integrated customer center enterprise, leveraging va's vast scope and scale on behalf of every veteran who served. to achieve that goal, we are applying the best practices and standards of customer service businesses. top of the 17 executives since i became secretary, and all 12 have top level leadership experience in business, healthcare and government. we have conceived and organized transformation initiative which we call my va -- myva.

that is how we want veterans to see us. a va they are proud of and customized for them. we are committed to five strategies. first, improving the veteran experience. second, improving the employee experience. it is not a surprise the best customer service organizations in the world are also the best places to work. third, achieving service excellence. fourth, establishing a culture of continuous performance improvement and fifth, enhancing strategic partnerships. for the near-term, we are focused on quick wins for veterans, 12 breakthrough priorities for 2016 that support our long-term myva strategy. eight of the 12 are about directly improving service to veterans. first through the veteran

experience, second, increased access to healthcare. third, improved community health care. force, delivering unified veterans experience. fifth, modernized context. 6, improving compensation. 7, develop the fiscal side appeals process. eight, continue to reduce veterans homelessness. four of the 12 priorities are critical enablers designed to help previous eight. those four first improving employee experience. number 2, staff critical positions are vacant. 3, transform our office of information and technology. four, transform our supply chain to increase responsiveness and reduce operating costs. those four critical enablers are about reforming an internal

system giving employees the tools, resources they need to provide great service and consistently delivering an exceptional veteran experience. for employee serving veterans, high-performing organization into intellectually equipping more to improve care dramatically and service delivery to veterans. that is what our leaders developing leaders program or ldl is all about. ldl is an example of continuous enterprisewide growth, spreading best practices across va. we launched it last november and already trained over 19,000 employees. we are also training employees on advanced business techniques like lane 6 sigma and human centered design. and executive performance ratings and bonuses to veterans outcomes, employee surveys and

360 ° feedback. high-performing organization takes world-class collaboration and strategic partnerships. vast networks working together to serve veterans. that is why we have enabled the national network of 57 community veteran engagement, these boards are designed to leverage community assets not just va assets to meet local veteran needs. our goal is to have 100 of these by the end of the year. that is why we are capitalizing on strategic partnerships with external organizations to leverage the goodwill, resources and expertise of partners such as ibm, johnson & johnson, amazon, bristol-myers squibb, university of michigan health system and many more. that is why we are working collaboratively with world-class institutions like the cleveland clinic, starbucks, kaiser permanent, hospital corporation

of america and many others. it is why we brought together the diverse group of business leaders, medical professionals, government executives, veteran advocates to serve on the advisory committee. high-performance organization makes a clear purpose, strong values and enduring principles supporting the strategy. we have a clear purpose. our mission, caring for veterans and their families. strong, admirable values, eyecare values of integrity, commitment, advocacy, respect, excellence, their foundational to everything we do. high-performance organization also take strong leadership and we have that, a growing team of talent making changes and creating opportunities for greater progress.

it takes the kind of responsive system and processes, veteran centric by design. of veterans should have same-day access to primary care and new patients, and media care is needed. this could mean same-day appointment with primary care doctor, or a call to a nurse for medical advice or telehealth or mental telehealth or secure message, prescription refill or walk into a clinic for emergency facilities. we put in place a system to identify best practices in veterans hospital administration and implement those. it is based on the shark tank model. we invite employees to submit ideas and take a couple dozen of

the best ideas and have employees themselves present their ideas to a panel, the survivor assigned to a team to oversee limitation, it is an ongoing effort even with continuous improvement and operations directly affecting the veterans experience. nobody else in the healthcare community is doing it, leading the way as it does. we are making it easier for veterans on the road away from the regular va hospital to receive care or refill prescriptions from another va facility. making it possible for veterans to enroll for healthcare online or over the phone beginning july 5th. we are calling every new and rowley to welcome him to va scheduling an appointment and telling them about other va

benefits and services. called 200,000 veterans so far this year and the response has been tremendous. we created a mobile apps that lets veterans schedule, reschedule or cancel appointments on their smart phone. thousands of tried it and loved it and the test was conducted and we expect to make it fully available later this year, creating a single phone number and a single website for veterans to have a 1-stop source for information rather than asking them to navigate our complicated internal structure. we are working to give veterans more opportunities to provide immediate feedback for the quality of care they receive. these channels will be in place later this year and that feedback will help us to better meet the needs of veterans. we are committed to doing everything we can for veterans advancing on all these lines and

many others but important priorities for transformational change require congressional action. the president's fiscal year 2017 budget request is another tangible sign of his steadfast devotion to veterans and his commitment to transform va. the senate appropriations committee approved a budget equal to the president's request. the house markup proposes $1.5 billion reduction. let's be clear. that reduction will hurt veterans and it will impede critical initiatives necessary to transform va into the high-performing organization veterans deserve. we are encouraging congress to fund va at the requested level. and 100 legislative proposals for the a in the budget.

over 40 our new this year. they require congressional action. some are absolutely critical to maintaining our ability to purchase non-va care. in mid-march i testified to congress about the most important requirements to help us treat veterans better. deputy secretary gibson testified before the house veterans affairs committee thursday. we need congress's help modernizing and clarifying the's purchase authority. above all else this needs to get done to assure a strong foundation for veteran backed community care. we need congress's help streamlining the a's care, last october we submitted our plan to consolidate and simplify the overwhelming number of different programs and improve access to va care in the community. we need congress to a neck

legislation that allows us to compete against best medical professionals, and flexibility of 80 hours limit for certain medical professions and compensation reforms for network at hospital directors and treat healthcare executives more like their private-sector counterparts. the title 38 authority, with medical directors, physical directors and other healthcare executive leadership positions. then we could hire these employees more quickly with flexible salaries and operate under strong accountability policies. we are more responsive to emerging needs, asking for modest flexibility to overcome artificial funding restriction for veterans care.

we urged ambitious action of disability claim appeals system. we cannot serve veterans well unless we come together and make big changes in the appeals process. it is a heavy lift, we met with veteran service organizations and other veterans advocates and gotten their assistance in putting together a comprehensive appeals modernization legislative proposal which we submitted to congress in april and updated earlier this month. i believe congress is responding. on the senate side, in partnership with blumenthal working on the veterans first act. a large omnibus bill that includes legislative ideas we have been urging. on the house side chairman jeff miller has been working closely with them as well.

our window of opportunity is closing fast. we need congress to act on proposed legislation before they leave town in mid july, extended election-year summer recess. if congress doesn't act on these transformational changes the va will not be able to complete its transformation and veterans will have to settle for a va that is not as responsive to their needs. no question about that. if congress acts we look back on this year as the year we turned the corner for veterans. those are a few points about our progress and challenges. some argued va can best serve veterans by shutting down va healthcare altogether. they argue proposing that is the bold transformation veterans and families need, want and deserve. i suspect that proposal serves

some parties pretty well, but it is not transformational. it is more along the lines of dereliction. it doesn't serve veterans well and doesn't sit well with me. president reagan gave veterans a seat at the table in national affairs nearly three decades ago. myva is about keeping veterans at that table in control of how, when and where they wish to be served. thank you for sharing this time with me this afternoon. i look forward to your questions, thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> thank you, mister secretary, for that fascinating overview of all that you and your colleagues in the va are doing and the myva program, to take the next step to modernize the veterans administration to better serve our veterans and to make all of america proud of the care that we provide to them. it is an enormously challenging enterprise to come into government and attempt to transform, reform and modernize. i have some questions for you about that. let me remind everyone here and everyone in our viewing audience that we are live tweeting the

event and i am not checking my email from my friends. i am harvesting questions from the twitter feed. you can direct those questions that have been coming in at my twitter account,@norman eisen. norman eisen. we will also take the mat hashtag -- va sbc. first i will start with a question of my own for you. what has been the biggest surprise for you coming from a distinguished military career and a private-sector career, good and bad, the biggest surprise in your tenure as va secretary? >> you won't find this

surprising. i think the amplitude of emotion is surprising and that is the ability to do a good thing for a veteran on any given day. i like to think before i go home at night about how many veterans that i help today, how many did i help through systemic or transformational changes we are making or how many called me on my cell phone. i gave out my cell phone number to veterans at my first national press conference in 2014. i hear from veterans every day and i enjoy that because i like to listen to the voice of the customer. i was not surprised. the amplitude of satisfaction surprised me. surprise on the other side, the difficulty of getting things done we have a lot of stakeholders and as i mentioned in my talk we put together what

i think is an outstanding transformational plan for the va but if we don't get the budget and get the law changes we need from congress, we are going to fall short of what we could otherwise do. we are working closely. the great thing is unanimity within congress and we are hoping we can get these bills on the floor and passed. they have generally gone through committee. and get them passed before congress views them in july. >> on your amplitude point you remarked in your speech about the new customer service kiosk and you get 90%, just under 90% entirely satisfied and 3% are satisfied or completely dissatisfied. i will say that every one of those 3% send me a tweet, tough

question for you, mister secretary. >> that is an interesting point because we run a healthcare system and there are 21 million veterans in this country, 9 million attached to our healthcare system, 6 million users frequently so 3% is still -- anybody in a customer service business like i have been in for 40 years will tell you even one unsatisfied or dissatisfied customers one too many. that is why no matter how well we do, how much we transform, this is an ongoing process we need to continue. one of the themes in the twitter question, recurring theme, this one, this particular suite i am looking at from robin mitchell, recurring theme is your comment that wait times are important but not the only measure of veterans experience and that is

what veterans are telling you. in the time around which you made that comment you analogize how corporations measure, that created a furor. i would give you an opportunity to respond, myself as child of a veteran, i experienced some of that amplitude myself. to give you a chance to respond to that, to the many tweets we are getting. >> i put out a statement right away that said if any veteran or any american looked at those comments and thought in any way we were not taking access to care seriously, i regret that. we are trying to build a world-class healthcare system

for veterans. access has been primary focus of everything we have done since the day i came into office. we had 4 million square feet to physical space, we added 1200 new doctors over 2300 new nurses. we have done evening hours, weekend hours, we are doing everything we can i mentioned in my remarks to give people access to care. one of my breakthrough priorities this year was by the end of the year to have same-day access, same-day connection with medical professionals to these issues. right now we have that at 34 facilities, 25% of our facilities and the team of people dedicated to figuring out how to do that in every single facility. access to care is a top priority for us.

>> 15 additional questions came in on@norman eisen and hashtag e a sack. keep them coming and. i will ask one that is not within your purview but the commitment to caring for veterans that you articulated. i myself was curious. it jumped out. although the healthcare needs of veterans are the primary focus of your work, veterans who have a full-spectrum of additional needs there have been recent studies. i will say the name of josh potus, high rates of insecurity among veterans, have you thought about that at all, what can be done, how in general when there

is such a critical requirement in the core healthcare mission that occupies so much of the day, how do you deal with additional needs of american vets? >> when i was secretary, started under gibson, the interim secretary, where do we want to take veterans hospital administration, and our care is integrated and holistic. we deal with mental health, physical health, spiritual health. we have a whole chapter and wheeled wheel with nutrition. we want to move our care from curing disease to preventing disease. i have been to about 300 va facilities in 22 months and one

of the things that bothers me is seeing obese veterans. we have a higher propensity of obesity and diabetes and that creates all kinds of bad outcomes. these are individuals who at least in a time in their life were exercising every day, taking physical fitness. how do we let them -- why don't we work with them to maintain fitness, so we are moving toward preventing disease. and the chief medical officer of hca who is helping us along with other medical professional designing a program focused on prevention rather than sure but that is the direction, savings for the taxpayers. >> mister secretary.

i don't want to neglect a real-life human being who filled out room here in favor of virtual-reality. i want to ask questions in the room here and i will begin with -- yes, ma'am. in the steak of the vivian -- viewing audience, i remind everybody, say who you are. i will say, brookings invited me. and a 1% question or 2%, i will be ruthless in the no filibuster rule. you are not going to require that. please proceed.

>> i'm doctor dana robinson and thank you for coming to support the day with us. i served in the navy for 25 years. it was my pleasure. i want to state, i support the organization. i know it is important to stay up to date for news standards, but taking this into consideration, committing suicide every single month. is it responsible, responsible to utilize the money for modernizing the system. the problems within the va

system. >> one of the parties, reduce the number of veterans committing suicide. and 22 veterans. 17 of those were not connected to the va. 5 of the 202r. and describing the modernization to improve the outage. hire more mental health professionals. and mental health care, if you move up to emergency rooms, somebody training there. i talked about i didn't mention specifically our veterans crisis line where we need to add more

people, dropped calls, if you call va medical center, in the past if you are in crisis hang up and dial this number, we are putting in place, press 7, we will get to you right away. people who run veterans crisis line which was shown in the hbo documentary that won and award, they are saving lives every day. we need to continue our outreach. one of the things outreach is critical to do is making sure the entire population is working together to recognize the five signs you are familiar with, the five signs the problem is coming because we can't wait for veterans to get connected, we have to connect to them. similarly we have a problem in this country, the largest medical system, we see national

problems before they get into the news. we are not creating enough mental health professionals in this country so one of the things i'm trying to do his work with medical schools, we train 70% of the doctors in this country to their residencies. may have been at the va and the navy. we got to create more residency because if we have the residencies the dean's at the medical school, we have to get more students to study mental health. in the poll of 2014, we were able to increase the amount of loan reimbursement, loan payback for people studying mental health and -- that was a filibuster. >> for the guest but only

slightly. i go to twitter for another question on the reform and modernization front, i was advising president obama, earlier in the administration, there are limits to the innovation, lessons of the private sector, the need for congressional approval and authorization in order to take the next step. the administration changed, don't have an infinite amount of time. given the administration changed, feet up priorities and which one, how do you deal with the finite -- from the private

sector to the public sector. >> great question. i said in my prepared remarks it takes time to transform the organization. at the turn of the year what causes us to take 5 long-term strategies and turn them into immediate priorities. by the end of the calendar year these are the things we want to get done. i asked for a congressional hearing, that is unusual but chairman isaacson in the senate had the hearing for me, reviewed after each of the 12 in 2014, what progress are we committing to in 2016. what are the veteran outcomes, same-day access to care. and appeal reform, community

care, consolidated community care, these are things we commit to providing the budget and the legislative changes that we need. that is the reason we did it. if we came to the building and i invite you to come over we have a room where literally we have by week, by months, accomplishments for each of these 12 that we track every week to make sure we are making progress because we want to deliver it. we want to create -- by december 31st. >> that is the biggest thing you brought to the private sector. and melanesia -- managing against the benchmarks. >> i don't know. i think so. the first time in the federal government, this is a practice

we have, we have to set benchmarks, goals and hold people accountable. >> to the back of the room, don't want to neglect people sitting at the back. i have three great questions from veterans combined into one question after i go through this. >> julie davis. can you talk about the decision not to implement the discipline procedures and veterans accountability act to improve accountability. >> since i have been secretary we have terminated over 2900 employees and we are holding people accountable. we think accountability is very important. we think accountability means more than firing people, it means providing feedback, training and development and the

resources they need, we have taken advantage of accelerated process for tween 9 senior executive service individuals. what we decided was that part of the law has come under question, constitutional question, we continue to follow that procedure since what we don't want to do is have this process go on, the technicality because the laws decided to be overturned. we are going back, using the old procedure. the new procedure just affects the amount of time for appeals. it doesn't affect the process all that much.

the answer to the whole thing, i would say in the opinion of at least the senate. the provisions senator isaacson, senate veterans affairs committee have put in the veterans first act we all support. va supports them, the republican party supports them, the democratic party supports them and we think that is the ultimate answer so i am hoping the veterans first act will get past soon. it has gone through committee and will get past through the senate. >> combining from twitter to get everybody a chance i have one veteran who asks where do nonprofits serve veterans go to

navigate to find their door into the va bureaucracy which after your reference remains sustainable? >> let me deal with the first? >> i hope i remember the other two? you are quite right. it is very easy. email me or matt collier, matthew.collier 2@va.gov. i very quickly realized we cannot do this by ourselves. a lot of goodwill for veterans, we need strategic partnerships. matt collier who graduated from west point in 1979 and had successful career running companies in the it industry, and lead strategic partnership efforts. let me tell you about one. and psychologists do pro bono work for veterans and we set up

strategic partnership with them for reasons that are hard to get mental health professionals and these can help serve veterans. that is an example. this is important because strategic partnerships are force multipliers and help expand outreach and ability to care for people but there is an important moral issue which is by law we cannot care people with dishonorable discharges. and we got to have those partners because we are not able to. >> i am tweeting for the military, as you heard the email address. it is not very good.

second question is about whistleblowers but because of the importance of whistleblowers or accountability, what are your plans, to improve the situation, that is a question near and dear to my heart, i gave my phone number to whistleblowers. >> we honor the whistleblowers and the va who identified to improve. if an organization is focused for veterans, whenever i go to a site, i have been to 300 locations, i meet with whistleblowers separately and privately without the leadership there. we work closely with the office

of special counsel. the first organization in government certified by office of special counsel dealing with whistleblowers. we want to make sure was a blowers are protected. many of them have become great advocates for the transformation we are doing. a lot of the transformation we are doing by after the fourth of july, that was unheard of before. and with whistleblowers. this is where they are training people, doing developing leaders program, we should have everybody at the va working to improve the system they work on.

as i was doing at all the sites i have been to, they were telling me they felt they were victims of a system they couldn't control and i am saying no, i am going to train you in other ways, i want you to control that system and change that system but that organization, those are run by the employees. >> you are a strong evangelist for bringing best practices from the private sector but what is the limit? where have you hit the wall? where have you learned it doesn't work? what works in the private sector doesn't work? >> it doesn't work where there are laws that encumber you. i was going to a bunch of medical centers and discovered we were outsourcing our emergency rooms. to me outsourcing the emergency room seems like a relatively poor business and what i discovered is there is an 80

hour work period which prohibits us from operating emergency rooms with 12 hour shifts. i went to the private sector, hda and others and kaiser permanent and everyone works 12 hour shifts so we are competitive. we can't hire the doctors and nurses we need to run an emergency room because of this law. this law was not designed for hospitals, but designed for government. are we going to treat this like a business serving customers or like another part of government? there are other examples. this appeal law i was talking about is 80 years old. we have 400,000 appeals waiting to be dealt with. it would require five years for each of those appeals to be decided. rather than ignoring that i

believe that west point prayer i grew up with called the doer -- to the harder right and easier wrong, a leadership of deputy secretary sloan gibson, the service organization, members of the staff, we said we are going to lock the door, slip food under the door, you are not coming out of the room until you come up with a new law. we have a new law but it has to be passed by congress. if we can get the laws passed, veteran outcomes, we said if we get this law passed, as we work the backlog, eventually we will deal with an appeal in one year, not five years. it is a matter of solving the problem but get congress to pass the law. >> coming back to this?

we are going to get you a microphone so c-span audience -- >> by any real measure this vietnam veteran, we are definitely making progress. >> thank you for your help. it is unfortunate that 3% announced to 630,000, the most vocal. >> we are working on it. >> give us a status update on the choice program. >> in fall of 2014 in response to the access, greater opportunity to send people for

care. and sending the community to the care, the choice act is an attempt to make it more broad. limitations were put on the act. a 30 day time limit. and driving distance. and geographic barrier. what we see is dramatic growth. and for care in the community. the issue we have is 7 different ways of providing care in the community. each one came from a somewhat different law, each has selection criteria, each one has different reimbursement rates, each is complex. as a result of that confuses

veterans, and last october. another proposal with a change in the law, 7 ways of caring the community and making them one. one reimbursement rate and the choice axis moving forward. and hearings on that, there are pieces of it, and the house dealing with pieces of it and that is the ultimate response. the other thing we did in this process is look at everything we thought was wrong with the original act because when you make an act you don't know and as you work overtime you learn how to make it better and we put that in the veterans first act. we are hopeful if the senate can pass the veterans first act the house can pass parts of this as well that we will be able to do

a better job in the community. thanks. >> okay. we are coming down to the last minutes. i will ask one. you have been too good on twitter, literally hundreds of tweets flooded in. i apologize to those of you but the secretary and his team will address the issues and questions therein. shifting again to another one of the non-healthcare leads, i promise veterans organizations i would ask without those, financial literacy issues, there have been the struggles of some veterans with financial issues about being subject to predatory lenders and other financial scams. what are you doing to help address financial literacy among

veterans? >> and important point and i am glad we will talk more than healthcare because va is one of the largest mortgage companies in the country. we ensure mortgages, the g.i. bill is the way my father, my father in law went to college, the way i went to graduate school. these are very important programs. the ultimate answer to financial literacy is what we are trying to do with the transition, roughly 215 servicemembers leaving the service each year. it is unacceptable for them to have a gap in their service from active duty to becoming a veteran with the full benefits a veteran should get so we are trained to take the transition process and push upstream with the department of defense and secretary as carter is a great partner in this and the

servicemembers, maybe 150 days before they leave the service and i participated in these programs. you go on base and the commanding general or admiral stand there with me, we train noncommissioned officers with the transition. we try to get them the medical exam they need to qualify on benefits and sign them up for healthcare and the g.i. bill. at the end of the program we have a job center and on these job centers we had tremendous success in terms of placing veterans on the spot so there is no transition time, no gap in transition from the time they leave the service, it is one of the reasons veteran unemployment

is virtually at an all-time low. >> mister secretary, it is 3:00. i'm sorry we have to end. we could go on for hours, fascinating analysis of what you have done at the va including the myva program and its implications to the rest of government at a time we are approaching transition and other limitations on the model to work together and many additional tweets including one from whistleblower that i will personally make sure the secretary's attention is drawn to and i want to thank everybody in our audience, everyone in our virtual audience on c-span, twitter, social media, been a great privilege welcoming the secretary.

[applause] [inaudible conversations] >> with the political primary season over c-span's road to the white house takes us to the political conventions. watch the republican national convention starting july 18th with live coverage from cleveland. >> we will be going into the convention no matter what happens and i think we are going to go in so strong. >> watch the democratic national convention starting july 25th with live coverage from philadelphia. >> let's go forward, let's win

the nomination and in july let's return as a unified party. >> our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice, philadelphia. >> every minute of the republican and democratic parties's national convention on c-span, c-span radio and c-span.org. >> ahead of the democratic national convention in july, philadelphia mayor jim kenney will talk about the planning process. he is joined by the convention's ceo and executive director. we take you there live today at 2:00 eastern on c-span3. >> the u.s. senate is about to gavel in to start the day. more work expected on the commerce, justice and science spending bill this afternoon.

lawmakers will give general speeches on the heels of four failed attempts to pass gun legislation yesterday. the senate will stand in recess so members can attend party meetings between 12:30 and 2:15 p.m.. now live to the senate floor on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. god and father of all, without whom our labor is but lost and with whom the weak are made mighty, make us worthy of your mercies. lord, help our lawmakers to find strength in your abiding love.