"afterward words." sunday night on booktv. talking about veterans and homelessness in this 45-minute speech. >> good morning. it is a distinct pleasure for me personally and professionally to introduce our speaker. as many of you know, i had a career here in washington, d.c. i was on the veterans affairs committee staff, the senate committee staff, 19 years with veterans affairs, most of which i served as director of homeless veterans programs. for those of you outside of

washington, i will tell you inside washington there are people who make things happen. one of tse people one of the people i'm here to be wh this morni. tom bowman has a long, and distinguished career. you have his bio in your book. he is a proud marine corps veteran. 21 years of active service, 30 years total. to what we doly here, he is a man who listens, understands, and evaluates, and takes action. when i was at the v.a., i worked directly with secretaries, deputy secretaries, and chiefs of staff on a daily basis. i can tell you there is no finer person i have worked with then tom bowman.

i will tell you he is going to make some remarks unusual for top leadership officials. we will ask him to stick around and take some questions. be thinking about that. it is a distinct honor and pleasure for me to introduce tom bowman, deputy secretary of [applause]ffai truly a pleasure for me to be here. flashy tie.my there is a little story behind it i will share with you. listening to pete talk about our time together at v.a., if you want to talk about a class act. a real advocate for homeless veterans.

a class act, it was a pleasure to work with pete doherty. i found this on my car. i thought it would give it to you. [laughter] . bowman: i think pete for that introduction. i want to it knowledge some of the people here, especially chip. we worked together in years past. he is been a tremendous advocate for veterans writ large across the country. think individuals like

chip are represented here. of you, but iost do of the repution your organization has in the community. rerks.redhave some i will deviate from them bause this is going to be my last public event as the deputy secretary. i've announced mretireme. i plan to stay active in the veteran space. is specially in the world of homeless veterans. it is a pleasure for me to be her. i can to gno finer .rganization -- i can think of no finer

organization. departing from my prepared remarks, one of the things i hope to discuss is i know will the last year there has been some confusion about whether or not the department of veterans affairs is truly committedo homeless veterans and programs from us veterans. let me straighten the record. we are. there is going to be a continuing focus and funding and support homeless veterans. [applause]

mr. bowman: we will have a new secretary and new deputy secretary. people come and go depending on their personal and professional circumstances, but the department remains. 360,000 employees in the department of veterans affairs across the country. 270,000 oriented in the health arena with the veterans health administration. all focused on one thing, taking care of veterans. that is --ty to do thlast four years -- we in the country, but we especially in

the department of veterans affairs, i believe are at an inflection point. there is something happening at the v.a. to move us in the where do we really need to be in a department. what programs to we really need to have into the future. that assessment is going on right now in any number of ways. last sevenver the months the issue of the veteran's choice bill. the difficulty in coming to agreement and having it pass. a now have the mission act piece of legislation that will help redefine the issue of choice in the community. health care choice in the community. why is that important?

i think because it is going to the to solidify understanding and reality that v.a. hospitals and outpatient clinics are not the total picture of v.a. health care. also about providers in the community. i think what you will find over the next three have in five redefinition, but onhink greater clarity exactly when somebody says "v.a. health care" what does that mean. the pete and i were at v.a., what first came to mind was be at hospitals, outpatient clinics, the bed count. veterans goeded the

to the community. at that community provider at as ans not looked integrated part of the health care system. it was in default. it was what we would look to because we could not provided. 15-18 years down the timeline and i think we're giving greater definition and clarity as to what we expect of health care being provided. address theit to real needs. homeless veterans are a part of that need. uyo help define the focus of that cohort. understand? said years ago when people "homeless veteran."

a homeless veteran was homeless, living in tents. i spent a number of years living in florida and there were tent villages for the homeless integrated into those buildings. ofy were not well taken care by the health care system we had in the v.a. in tampa and st. pete. i was part of that. we didot do as good of a job as we should have. we are doing much better now. why? because of organizations like yos. echo chambers to make sure we in washington see, that and feel the need need to be addressed by the homeless veteran and their

families. 15-18 years ago, that small families" waseir not heard. that's real progress. now,se on the hill legislators, when they think of homeless veterans, it is now homeless veterans and their families. echoing out. is an if you are going to address a homelesseter you are also going to address what might be a dysfunctional family, what might be a druil just by the act of hping that homeless veteran. the other point i would like to say the v.a.people is broken because of all of this had press.

the v.a. is not broken. it is not broken. it is changing, and like any large department or health car system, we he problems. but let me ask you this. how many private health care andems are as open transparent when a problem ofurs van the department human affairs? not going to push out into the public arena the fact of their errors and mistakes. what is our obligation? our obligation is to be transparent and make the problems known because once we make them known, they are going to get corrected. why are they going to get corrected #because organizations

like yours are the guardians to make sure the department does pay attention and does follow through. and the congress relies upon you all to be there echo chamber. you inform them as to what is working or not working right. we're a better deparen because of organizations like yours. i think you take it personal, make it personal as an organization. if we are not doin what we are supposed to be doing, we want to hear about it. your obligation is to make sure we hear about it. ist is where the v.a. benning to move. some people say it is broken because of the culture. now.nk that is more the culture we have at v.a. is

employee significant court that wants to do the right thing. the definition of the right thing is evha take the phrase about orphans, the word "care" is the most important. back then, what was the care being provided for the veterans? ny times it was to take them off the battlefield. try to bind up there wounds. then it began to develop that there was a greater sense of of the country to take care of them. the word "care" again to have a juster definition they and health care. it was pension and bens. i think the last inflection

point of significance was right as world war ii was ending and general bradley was asked by president truman to come up with means and methods. how do you upgrade the veterans administration to be able to take her of these returning soldiers? they have needs. they need to be reintegrated into the community. if you take a look at the andnization and structure compare it to right now, it's the same organizational structure. the three administrations. the g.i. bill. home loans. to v.a. medical center and medical school. that was all designed and thought of at the end of world

war ii. we still have that structure. going to change. is youture of v.a. change to be ableo accommodate specific needs of the veteran of anticipateday, and the needs of tomorrow. [applause] mr. bowman: you will will help shape that need of tomorrow. especially in the realm of the homeless veteran and their families. be aggressive. don't be timid. make it personal. if you take anything away from my remarks today, it is your

mission -- make it personal. the more personal it is to you as an individual as well as an organization, the greater clarity and impact you will have in congress as well as in court. make it personal. i do not know how many of you have heardf thispeech by bed."l craven "make your let's have a show of hands. i strongly recommend it. all you have to do is google "make your bed." it is about a 19-minute set of res by admiral the craven, who was the head of u.s. special operations command at the point he was retiring. shortly after he made that speech he retired and became the

chancellor of the university of texas. i'm a graduate of the university of texas. -- hook 'emit --general mccrea been commanded the same rotc unit that i did. you saw how successful he is. i take all of the credifor that because of the leadership lessons i left for him to follow through on. i have not been able to communicate that to him yet, but -- [laughter] enjoywman: you will listening to his remarks. it is, how do you change the world. that is his theme. he gives 10 points.

i would like to talk to you about a couple of them. i think the lessons he speaks about are not only leons for you individual, but they become ourmplate of how many of homeless veterans, many them i think, are coming out of homelessness and reengineering their lives based upon the simple principles the admiral talks about in there. the first one he says is "make your bed." ever since i saw that, i have been intimidated because occasionally -- well, not occasionally -- most of the time i did not make my bed. but after listenithe admiral, it just takes a minute or two but i make my bed.

his point is, if you make your bed, you know you have accomplished something. even if the rest of the day is failure, you come home and loing your bed and think -- i made my bed. i'm good. set of challenges. he talks about failure. can be born out of failure. we are all going to fail in e way orther. i've had any number of failure experience. so will you all. but each one of them kind of gave you an insight into how you can turn that failure into a success. i think many of our veterans are beginning to do that, more so now they on in the past because of the programs the ba has. it has been -- the programs the

v.a. has. try and fail, if you are not successful, you get up and continue on. there will be a success. be for ones may person, but that one person then can generate three or four other people just by reason of their experience and what you did. what you individually did to change that one pers's life. that not one person can influence the rear for others thathey can influence three or four others. that happens. that happens today, that will happen tomorrow. sure that every day at the department level, every day, that we make sure people who are involved

with the homeless veteran programs and the education of those programs, that they do their job. there is one cohort i have found in my experience where there is dedication inlt the realm of taking care of homele veterans. because each of those veterans has a story. veteransach of those is experienced and failure. experience, from you as an individual taking a personally, you are going to change the lives of many, many more hess veterans. that is part of the reason when we talk about number of homeless veterans, our goal is

functional zero. there will always be individuals experiencing homelessness or near-homelessness. towill get better at trying see those individuals before they actually become homeless. that is where weant to be. what are the indicators? we have programs. we are going to go there. we're going to be much better at predictive analysis. what, it is going to be thatizations like yours llave to keep us, as a department, focused on that direction. making se the right amount resources are dedicated to it. the extension of programs, the veterans justice outreach. the veterans courts. those are extensions and i thk they were motivated at the

beginning. i think the first court was in buffalo. around ther 500 country. there are more judges who want to have calendars on their docket address the help veterans who come in, many of whom are from the world of homelessness were will find emselves moving into homelessness if the program there being offered or should be isered in the court system not fixed. we as a country are looking at homelessness and veterans taking care of veterans is to me how we can lead the way addressing the homeless community writ large.

it can become a template for communities around the country. me, are the messengers. also whatoing out but you learn out there that is not being done exactly right. you can bring the message back. one of the other principal points that admiral mike raven brought up -- admiral mccrae for an -- mccraven brought up --he was talking about hell week. wednesday of hell week is when they go to tijna mudflap. individuals who go out there, if

they are going to be out there for 12 hours as a general rule. they are in the water. it is cold. tess all men, it really the fiber to see, who else needs to be weeded out. who else is not going to be able to demonstrate the strength, the commitment, despite the cold pain,r, to, despite the they are going to stay. he talks about how they are in the mod and the instructors are kind of touting them. andwe need is five of you we will take you out of the mud. 40 people've been there. the instructors were saying, just five of you need to do it. they were looking around. they can see there were about two or three then dovernd

pain. -- two or three of them bent over in pain. he thought they would step out. he was a participant, he was in the mud. so he was there. he was obviously not going to be one of the ones who would quit. group knewy in that four ofre were three or these individuals probably ready to quit. what that individual did was he started sinking. here you are for-five hours then, colder than you have ever been, hungry, you have not slept. -- he started to sing. here you are, for or five hours in, colder than you have ever

been, hungry, you have not slept. then two more voices, three more voices, soon everybody in the mud started to sing. shorter,that night got pain seemed to go away. home eight hours later as an group. the four or five who were probably close, did it. ownpoint was you have your inflection point. yohave your own product about what is the maximum you can take ,eather it be pain consternation. but, is it really? there is always more that you can do. the point there was, find

within. do not quit. his last point was the bell. -- now, with the bell, aany point in training you want to quit, you just have to and ring l -- the bell it. you're not humiliated. you just made a decision that this is not where you need to be, not what you need to do. you bring the the bell. the whole purpose of the seal training is to convince you you do not want or do not need to ringgit t bell- two to ring that bell. you can overcome that diversity.

if you cannot do the simple things in life, how can you do those me complicated things? one builds upon the other. he finishes the 10 points by saying, do not ever allow yourself to ring the bell. admit you cannot do more than what you have done. do not try to do it alone. find a partner. find somebody to work with. that is what you all are as an organization. every homeless veteran out there that you have impacted, that you deal with, every one of them is a potential success sry in the room way because of what you do. it is not that everybody is going to be successful. know that.not it is a question of who has touched them. and, you all, through your

organization in individual have saved lives. have saved marriages. have saved children. make it personal. do not develop. of department veterans affairs accountable for what we offer. you make a successful. -- you make us successful. we will become even more successful based on what you do and how you communicate that to us. like i said, this is my last public outing as the deputy secretary. i am probably going to be joining the ranks of those who volunteer, working with homeless veterans. i welcome that, i consider it to be a godsend. to me, it is my way of giving back and letting me put action

where my last 10 to 12 years in helping to develop policy. there and livet under the same policies that i helped pass, because i think they are good. better, going to get you can as i'm going to be a part of you. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. will take questions, for those of you who may have questions. willcannot answer them i make sure that an answer gets to pete or to check and make sure that you get them. right here.

>> that is the kind of leadership that has made a difference and produced results in the camaraderie and support, but you need leaders, especially as that message goes to the local folks who control the resources who allow us to get the results we do. the division directors, the skilled nurses, all of the is neededupport that to keep veterans off the street and alleviate suffering. my concern is to make sure the integrated care that has been developed continues in a robust fashion. so, that recent act that was passed. i'm concerned on how that is implemented and to ensure that that strong message remains aware the local resources go from the central offices. for years we had a struggle to

have hospitals represented in their conference -- in these conferences. they felt like they were outside. i would hate to give that up now , because we have struggled to bring them into our mission. we are not going to move backwards. part of the reason is that you are not going to allow it. congress will not allow it if they are aware -- made aware of what is happening. the attitude of the leadership within va is that they're are going to want to move forward. thatbelieve that the va you see today is not the va you will see five years from now. change will occurwhether it is .ssessing the physical plant we take a look at the demographic -- demographics of veterans. where there used to be in the

millions in the greater new england area, they have moved south. where was a lot of construction after world war two. it was where the veterans went back. we need to look at where our foot writ needs to be to help address and take care of the veterans -- where our foot prints need -- print needs to be to help address to take care of the veterans. you all will not let us a regress. ralphretary, my name is cooper. i do not know if you remember. hadwhen secretary principi his homeless advisory committee , i knowert van karen that pete remembers. direct lead to the secretary. our recommendation went to him.

founder, michael, just spoke eloquently about what is going on and what needs to happen in the future. i want to thank you for being so that those kinds of recommendations just did not get skd over the homeless veterans advisory committee, we had a direct line to the secretary. that was amazing back then, and blesssults today -- god you and may you have a fantastic retirement. [applause] regarding the reports the advisory committees, my belief is that copies of these reports should go to capitol hill. they go to the secretary because

they are advisory to help the the deputy and other senior leadership decides what are the needs of these , whether itmunities be in the homeless areas or women veterans. whatever the specific purpose of the advisory committee. i believe those reports should go to e hill, and i know many of them do. think, as you continue on executing the mission that you have as an organization in the community. when you work with congressional members and you go into their offices and briefing them drop the hand anday, have you seen the last advisory committee

report that was provided to the secretary. i am willing to bet that fifth -- in 50% of the cases the answer is going to be no. that is the reason you are there , to help them refocus and ask the departmentf copies of the recent repor if congress asks, they will get it. qution. >> good morning. houston all, i am from texas from catholic charities. my first question is about women veterans. even though i am grateful for and what it has donote of int homeless female veterans i think the va can do more. a lot of our female veterans have older children and a lot of

them wileven take children. a female veteran is limited in their options. a lot of grants we receive are allow easier access for our male veterans than female veterans. what do you suggest weo to champion those causes for housing for female veterans? as farr female veterans, there type -- is there a type of coalition that is making changes in the va system to be more female friendly in terms of health care. a lot of women have to wait 30 gynecologist, which to me, i have the same rights as a male veteran. i should be able to see a doctor today.

thank you for your service and i appreciate everything you have done. >> let me try to answer both questions. one, i will have to -- i must have to say that the va trying -- is trying to do more to accommodate women veterans. there is an advisory committee. i recommend this organization connect with that advisory committee and make them aware of any resolutions you have, ideas that you have as it relates to women veterans. it, it is a very active group. it is more active than it was early on. it is a very active group. the fastest growing cohort of veteran in the space areomen veterans. across the country, medical , and notave attempted all of them haven as successful as others, to try and

upgrade the structure, facilitiesndlinics to accommodate women veterans. and washington, d.c., i went through their clinian impressed by the difference that i saw fm when i first was over there about 10 years ago. down it lori. florida, therea, has been a different building constructed to focus on women veterans. he particular needs for a woman veteran to feel comfortable coming t a va medical center is where the v.a. is having -- trying to have the medical center directors bring their attention. how do we make me lcoming for the female veteran to come to my hospital?

significant amount of funding that is being oriented towards upgrading and creating women verans clinics at our major medical centers. one of the problems, and i have to be frank with you, is staffing it. you can build the most beautiful clinic, what if you cannot staff that you have not provided what the woman veteran needs. at the same time that you it -- that you attempt to contract with ob/gyn clinicians to come in, they are attempting to do that. we are not where we need to be that we are going to get there, because of the focus, the commenhat you have just made, because of the focus on it , and that is the lead into the future.

would young woman what to go into the military, maybe even serve a career with the belief that i serve my couny and my country will take care of me when i lve, especial if i ve iurred illness and injuries. that is an expectation and a promise. cliche, heard it, it is but it is true. that is a promise, we ow to you. personalid, make it and make sure your voice is heard. ok, i just got the hook. [laughter] again, i thank you. i wore my special tie for you all, because this is my last event. my daughter ha to ppenedck this thing out and it happened

one day when i was getting dressed, i was going to speak to a research advisory group and i was face timing with my oldest granddaughter and her sister, she was 16 and the younger one was 14. i'm getting dressed and i said i was going to speak to a research center. oh, well, yeah, boring. i said this was a really gat group and i was hoping to hava very rewarding experience. they asked what i was doubt -- what i was going to wear. i said i was going to wear a suit in a tie. oh, god, no, grandpa cky are wearing a tu --yu tied. -- tie.

where the cold one with all of the colors." said got that one and they they would really m at washe goal. thank you very much and i look forward to being part of you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, whicis resnsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] not -- c-span's washington journal. leahg up this morning, oforts on the results

primary day. from the u.s. capitol, membe of congress lay in on the u.s. north korea summit. joining us, ted yoho. congressman brad schneider, takers -- texas hungers been joaquin castro. and california republican dana rohrabacher. be sure to watch washington journal live at some :00 eastern this morning. join the discussion. an important issue to me in the state of utah, is our use of water. eating a desert state we need to focus on how we e our water and, with some of the drier winters we've had, it is important to focus on conserving water and acting on legislation that helps conserve water.

>> one of the most important issues is a lot or quality. we live -- is air quality. we live in a basin and we need to have more public transportation to reduce emissions. wagee important issue is inequality. there is a lot of jobs out there. i've been getting a lot of part-time jobs and the wages low and they keep you at part-time. i was a manager for eight years and they were always keeping wages low. i saw that wages are continuing sinking. those down at the bottom are low. eating a college graduate in a week i will be going into -- week i will be going into a market with a lot of jobs in congress does not care about

that. >> i am a librarian and an important issue for the state of utah is overpopulation. i feel like overpopulation is the root cause of many of our societal problems. i do not knoth they are easy solutions, but i feel like that is probably the most important issue in our state as well as our city on a global scale, all of that. >> voices from the states, part of c-span's 50 capitals tour. next, a discussion about the singapore scott -- a summit between president trump and kim jong-un. panelists gave their assessment of the summit and what it means for the region. is