the past. the vaccine is not as effective as we would like. -- wane afterayne 00 three years. coughthe whooping bacteria has evolved and seems to be invading our vaccines. this is a question of working with the fda to come up with a better vaccine. in terms of regulatory action, certain things are appropriate. it is often the state or local government that has the authority in terms of people coming into the country. operates quarantines. but the solution is not to try to build a perfect moat around the country. safer andle will be we will be safer as well. i don't know if you want to say any last words. >> we are out of time.

>> i think i'm going to sleep i would knowing these incredib >> on the next "washington journal," the latest on the situation in iraq regarding airstrikes and the kurdish population in the northern region. the director of the washington dc office for kurdistan regional government joins us. then a discussion on president lyndon johnson's calls for improving education in the 1960's. we look at lbj's "great society." we will also take your calls, beginning live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. secretarys affairs robert mcdonald spoke recently at the 70th annual american

veterans national convention. it was his first major speech since being confirmed by the senate in july. he addressed some of the recent problems at the v.a. and talked about improving veteran access to health care. this is 25 minutes. >> thank you. please, be seated. thank you for your strong and independent and great support for our veterans. good afternoon. it is an honor and privilege to join you in memphis, tennessee. i spoke as i was preparing for my senate confirmation hearing

but this is my first chance to speak directly to the quarter million members of your organization and discuss the concerns we all share. and what we are going to do about them. let me say right off. i appreciate your contribution to va reform. the discussions that we have had on capitol hill and across the nation. i welcome counsel from amvets and other organizations. your experience and deep devotion to veterans is not lost on me. i value your insights. i thank you very much and encourage you to keep them coming. national commander john mitchell, thank you for that kind introduction. auxilaryriff, , and commander

mitchell, congratulations on your work this last year. a difficult one, to be sure. i look forward to working with amvets new leadership. thanks for extending the invitation to help kick off your 70th annual convention. it was good to talk to you last week. i appreciate your time, support, encouragement, and recommendations. thanks as well for your important collaboration in the transformation. your contributions in the digits to digits initiative will keep paying dividends to veterans for a long time to come. let me recognize as well your delegation from taiwan. congratulations on your 23 years of partnership and sharing with amvets.

i spent a decade of my life in asia with my family. we lived both in the philippines for four years in japan for six years. we traveled throughout that part of the world for the proctor and gamble company. i love the people and cultures in asia. it was one of the most formative times in my business career. i learned important lessons. one is important as we begin changing va into a more veteran centric organization. it is all about innovation. the response the customers need. which is inspired by fundamental human truths. we have to understand the needs of those we serve. our customers, our veterans. no one understands those needs better than the frontline staff and the veterans receiving the care that we can provide.

over these next several months, i am traveling extensively. i am hearing directly from employees from veterans and others. from congressional members and local community leaders, volunteers, and other stakeholders. my first stop on the road was at the v.a. medical center in phoenix. the next day, i visited the center in las vegas. we have good people. many veterans. they are passionate about serving veterans. they are working hard to fix our system so we can provide superior service. we are on our team and they have our support. we are counting on those people on the ground, closest to the veterans, to share their innovative solutions that will help solve our problems in serving veterans. this afternoon, i am honored to

visit our fallen veterans and those who keep watch over them at the national cemetery in memphis. tomorrow, i look forward to hearing from employees and veterans at the memphis va medical center. and the memphis vet's center. i'm sitting down with employees, nurses, physicians -- our frontline staff. and talking to the veterans we serve. let me assure you, i am getting some unvarnished truth about how things work. some good, some bad, some mixed. i am learning what we need to keep doing and what we need to do better. when i visited the medical center in phoenix, i kept hearing an unfortunate nickname. epicenter.

it is a term associated with disaster. that is a bad reputation to have and it will take time to change it. what i can tell so far -- soon i will have been secretary exactly two weeks. from what i can tell so far, everything is not a disaster. phoenix really is not an epicenter. the problems we discovered in phoenix were systemic extending beyond the that one location and moment in time. the phoenix story is about more than a crisis in veteran access. it is a story of failed leadership. it is also the story of dedicated people who stood up to help us serve veterans better. my thanks goes to them. coming face to face with reality

is not disaster. i went to hear your stories. i want to know when you are not being served well. i have to know so we can make things better. all of this is a tremendous opportunity. deputy secretary sloan gibson put it like this when he was testifying to congress. "we can turn these challenges into the greatest opportunity for improvement in the history of the v.a. department." the former department of the institute of medicine took that notion one step further. he said, because of this crisis, va can encompass things it could have never accomplished before. that is what we are going to do. with the continued support of president obama, congress, and the strong support of amvet and

other organizations, we are going to do what never could have been done otherwise. it is a great opportunity and a rare opportunity. his opportunity that we cannot miss nor underestimate. before my confirmation hearing, i consulted and talked with a lot of leaders. i spent time with leaders of other service organizations and many members of congress. again and again, people ask me, why do you want to be the secretary of veterans affairs? here's what i told him. i believe in this very strongly. to me, there is no other higher calling. this is a chance to make a difference in the lives of the veterans whom i care so deeply about. my wife deeann and i come from military families.

her father was a tailgunner in a b-24 in world war ii. he was shot down and survived as a prisoner of war. my father served in the army air corps after world war ii and was in the occupation forces in japan. her uncle was a 101 airborne division screaming eagle in vietnam. he was sprayed with agent orange and receives care from va. today, as i stand here, my nephew is a pilot in the air force and serving and flying missions in the middle east. veterans are special people to me. special people to my family. it is not just about me. it's about my family and all of us as a larger family. i graduated from the u.s. military academy in 1975.

air deputy of secretary sloan gibson was one of my classmates. he has been a great friend for many years. my time at west point and has a airborne ranger instilled in me a sense of duty to our country and strong values. four decades later, the words of the cadet prayer guide me. it encourages us to live our lives, choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong. i am fortunate for my 33 years experience at procter & gamble. where i learned the importance of effective management, strong leadership, and being responsive to the needs of customers. we worked hard and successfully to improve the lives of our customers all over the world. many of the same lessons i hope

to help bring change to v.a. to better serve the veterans. we will judge the success of individual and collective efforts against a single metric. customer outcomes, or, in this case veteran outcomes. , the strategic plan makes that clear. v.a. is a customer service orientation. we serve veterans. if we fail to serve veterans, we fail. we have a lot of work to do. those values and leadership experiences are what and for my actions and decisions as a secretary of veterans affairs, just as i promised to be president they would. just as i promised congress and as i am promising all of you this afternoon. the lessons from the army and procter & gamble translate, whether you are an entry-level

employee or head of an organization. here are a few of the lessons. first, have a clear purpose. president lincoln charges us 150 years ago to care for those who have borne the battle and their family. that means providing veterans with effective and efficient high-quality health care and the benefits you have earned. this is unconditional. you have earned these benefits. there is nothing more you need to do to earn them. we are obligated and honored to serve you. [applause] the second lesson is people want to succeed. it is my job to make sure employees at va have that opportunity. the biggest barriers to success in any organization are an ineffective culture, strategies and systems.

va has strong institutional values. advocacy, respect, and excellence. together, they are an acronym. icare. what better acronym could there be? if we live and work by the values, we cannot go wrong. my first day as secretary, i asked all employees to reaffirm the commitment to these values and our mission. i have directed under secretaries to take the same step and reaffirm our mission and values with their people. that is a first up and beginning to re-earn your trust and the trust of the american people. va has a good strategic plan. we just have to make sure we are

working together to execute the plan and become bush goals -- accomplish our goals. the framework for success is there. we have the most inspiring mission in the world. we have the right values. we have an effective strategy. but there have been failures. somewhere along the way, someone lost track of the mission. lost track of those core values. those systemic failures have manifested themselves. you are familiar with these. amvets has outlined some from the very beginning. veterans are waiting too long for care. performance metrics became an end in and of themselves rather than a way to measure outcome. there were widespread attempts to game the system and height problems. making veterans wait longer for care.

employees looking out for veterans identified systemic problems and poor leadership and were sometimes punished for doing so. we did not hold accountable the managers who held poor performance or retaliated against whistleblowers. our antiquated scheduling system is cumbersome and outdated. we can't tackle these issues without unprecedented accountability. i think there are already seeds of that happening, perhaps in some unprecedented ways. consider this for a moment. john talked about this. from president obama's nomination of a new secretary to confirmation and swearing-in took less than 30 days. consider this. the floor vote in the senate was 97-0. that is not a commentary on me. don't misunderstand me. it is a sign of our nation's

extraordinary commitment to veterans. last thursday, president obama signed into law the veteran's access choice of 2014. the law allocates $15 billion to va. $5 billion to hire physicians and other medical staff. $10 billion to fund additional purchase care while we build the internal capability to meet the current demand. the legislation authorizes va to enter into 27 leases in 18 states and puerto rico to give them more space for clinicians to treat patients. the laws grant v.a. new authority to remove or transfer senior executives based on performance or misconduct. that is what we call accountability.

the vast majority of va employees are dedicated to the mission and core values. where that is not the case, where there has been a violation of trust of the nation, there will be accountability. this is about restoring the trust of veterans. our elected representatives. all americans. that legislation is another sign of the strong support we have for veterans. i appreciate the work of chairman sanders, chairman miller, and the other members of congress who came to pass the law. i appreciate amvet's role of candidly informing congress of how they saw things. we could not have done this without you. i know that is not the first

time or the last time amevts will share its recommendations. your voice is loud, clear, and i hear you. i want to continue hearing from you. you are not just stakeholders, you're shareholders and customers. we need your input. as acting secretary sloan gibson was doing some great work, he has been heading us in the right direction. i support the efforts we have in place. he has grabbed hold of the problems like a snapping turtle and not let go. we have suspended performance awards. 14-day access measures have been removed from performance plans. that is to eliminate motives for inappropriate scheduling practices behavior. we have frozen central office headquarters hiring.

we are making good progress getting veterans office waiting lists and fixing scheduling product -- problems. we have reached out to 240,000 veterans to get them off wait list. in the last two months, we have made over 830,000 referrals for veterans to receive their care in the private sector. that is up more than 166,000 over the same time last year. each of the referrals -- [applause] each of these referrals on average results in seven visits or appointments. we are talking about more than 1.1 million appointments in the private sector over the last two months. until we get systems up to capacity, we are expanding our use of private care and other non-va health care to experience -- improve access for veterans.

we are monitoring non-va care to make sure veterans deserve -- received the best they deserve. we will enhance the existing system in the short term. we will get an off the shelf scheduling system. we will expand digital technology to free up people to care for veterans. facilities are adding more clinic hours. we are adding mobile medical clinic units in providing care for more veterans. we are contracting with an outside organization to conduct an independent audit of scheduling practices. that is across the entire system

and beginning early next fiscal year, october 1. v.h.a. has dispatched teams to provide assistance to facilities requiring the most improvement. there is a multidisciplinary team on the ground in phoenix. every medical center and business director is conducting in person inspections of clinics. that includes interacting with staff to assess scheduling practices and identifying obstacles to timely care. so far, over 2300 of these visits have been conducted. we have taken action on every one of the recommendations. we are going to improve forecasting for resources. we can develop a strategy for meeting the higher levels of demand we are experiencing. we are determining which processes need to be streamlined and where we need to reorganize. to more efficiently use our resources.

to help with that process, i am establishing a board of physicians and nurses to help me with best practices. we are aggressively recruiting to fill physician vacancies. let me pause. in phoenix and las vegas, i have heard it takes too long to bring people in and the hiring policies and procedures are time-consuming. we are going to fix that. we need about 1000 doctors, nurses, and clerks in feet -- phoenix and 500 in las vegas. we will need more beyond that. i want your help. to go recruit the best doctors, nurses, and clerks will make it the best health care system in the country. i will be out there recruiting these people.

and i would like your help. if you have names, please send them to me. we are building a more robust, continuous system to provide site-specific information on patient satisfaction. we are going to learn more about what other leading health care systems are doing to track patient access experiences. we are improving communications. between the field and the central office, between employees and leadership, and between v.a. and veteran service organizations and stakeholders. high-performance companies get their best innovations from those closest to the customer. we are going to create a more open and less hierarchical altar so in full -- culture so employees can contribute ideas and help us improve.

collaborating closely with v. s.o.'s is a top priority. it is not enough to listen to your concerns and ideas. we have the strength in our collaboration in changing this department -- we are going to gather your ideas and make them happen. v.a. leadership is going to work with amvets at a levels to improve communication. in 1944, it was collaboration between federal employees and veterans that produced this great organization, amvets. that same spirit of collaboration will bring needed change to veterans affairs. we have huge challenges ahead. veterans are in need. it will be tough work to transform va as the provider of choice. we have people rolling up their

sleeves right now. we are very excited to do this. we can and will get it done. we can't do it and won't to do it without you. the best technology and systems are no substitute for looking at ourselves through the eyes of every single veteran. amvets has been doing that for 70 years. let me close by saying how grateful i am to president obama and congress for entrusting me with this opportunity to leave the department of veterans affairs. -- to lead the department of veterans affairs. thank you amvets for being a friend of the department. thank you for your work. thank you for your commitment. thank you for your enduring devotion to veterans. thank you for sharing your time with me this afternoon. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> tonight, "q&a" with pat buchanan. followed by the scottish

parliament considering the option of declaring scotland's independence from the u.k. whip, the house majority of a," our week on "q& guest is pat buchanan, the author of "the greatest comeback: how richard nixon rose from defeat to create the new majority." mr. buchanan worked for richard nixon and his book explores nixon's career following his losses in the 1960's presidential election in the 1962 california governor's race, and how he recovered to win the presidency in 1968. >> pat buchanan, your new