then on friday 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span two, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie jovanovich, will appear before the committee. and then testimony from the deposition, find the transcripts at c-span.org/impeachment. leo shane at our table, debbie editor of military times to talk about veterans issues and we divided the line for veterans, 202-748-8000, all others, 202-748-8001. -- you sat down with the v.a. secretary recently, what is his agenda? guest: it's interesting, it's been another tool to us year for v.a., they had some legislation passed, one of the keys of the trump presidency looking to expand outside care and community care programs. the last few months have been implementing that but we've been seeing headlines which have been

problematic for v.a., reports of this dr. in west virginia who killed -- may have killed 13 patients. a patient who was covered in and bytes before he passed away. a couple of bad headlines. we wanted to sit down to sorta find out where the secretary is and he said there are still some warts, some problems on the v.a., but he's on the standing now that it's much different than two years ago, much better, a much better path towards being friendly, giving veterans the service they need. capitol hill is a little different depending on who you're talking to. some folks are excited how this is rolled out, some are still worried about the issues of privatization, just how much it's being pushed out. the v.a. is a massive agency and a lot of people don't realize how much of the federal budget it is. the budget they asked for in fiscal 2020 is $220 billion,

larger than any of the individual military services. it bears watching and it's one where we've seen it continue to increase. the secretary expected to keep going up saying they will keep getting money because there's so much responsibility. >> where does that go to? explain how vast it is across the country and when you add with the mission act. how is this supposed to work? guest: that is been a real concern. lot, we'veseen a seen an increase in medical appointments. 3 million more medical appointments in fiscal 19. that's more doctors, more patients coming in, a lot more expensive. we see the number of claims go up. we've seen some issues with agent orange over the last few years. so these are all things with the money goes up, more and more veterans are engaging and we seen a lot of programs from v.a.

like suicide prevention outreach and other programs. some women veterans programs. all this money going in, despite that we hear from veteran service organizations that they could still use more. there is still a lot of catch-up for veterans and giving them the resources they need and support they need and were promised. we need to add more money and. the mission act, this was the controversy, if we are allowing more choice for veterans and push them into private care and community care, will this skyrocket the budget more and i asked the secretary in her interview and he said the money we've seen is within the parameters we expected, we have seen the increase in emergency room care, but we expected that and relieved some cost for the v.a.. it's not necessary where you would go for that care. but the new york times article a little bit ago talked about the cost and how setting up this

network of doctors that can work with v.a. has been more expensive than anticipated and may cost tens of millions more to really finalize it. so the secretary saying no. he feels it's fine. we will see. we will see where it goes. host: what do lawmakers on capitol hill, what are they telling you. >> democrats are very concerned and worried about those costs and about this whole issue of visit privatization. we've heard some of those concerns in recent months as the numbers haven't materialized, but there still keeping a close eye. i talked to the senate veterans affairs chairwoman -- chairman who be retiring. he said he's thrilled without been implemented. it feels like everything the anticipated has worked out fine. so for right now, holding fire on that from the critics and proponents a this is as good as we can ask for for a new program to be put in place.

>> what is the future look like for veterans health care as the wars -- we seen wars in afghanistan and iraq for decades , as they continue and this continues other presence there? veterans isr of decreasing, even with veterans coming out of the service, it's just a numbers game and we will see the number of veterans shrink. so that creates new questions for how big the issue -- how big should be. should be building your hospitals. we see them migrate to the south and the west, it doesn't make sense to have massive medical campuses on the east coast as we have in the past. so they are struggling with that. one of the things they're supposed to do is do a closing round for v.a.. but it's the same sort of idea. they decide which facilities are worth keeping open, which might need to be expanded, which would make sense if were shut down

because there better ways to do this. we seen a push toward smaller clinics, that maybe aren't the full hospital, would run some outpatient services and we seen this community care push. talking about a veteran dealing with the flu, they have to go all the way to v.a. to deal with that. if you've got a veteran who springs their ankle and goes were civilian doctor. , civilian doctors going to say i'll fix that. the v.a. doctor may look and say i want to talk to you about ptsd just to check. it's a lot of balancing act, as a lot of the v.a. try to figure out how to do this. they are revamping their records. how much will doctors be able to community with outside doctors and created real continuum of care from that.

we will see, it's a transformative period for v.a. and it could be a disaster. host: we divide the line by veterans and all others, what are some of the issues you believe the government needs to address when it comes to our nations veterans? can in washington, when did you serve? in 2005. served host: go-ahead. about: i want to comment -- i live in washington and this a lot of veterans in my situation we are looking for jobs. i don't think there is anything the government has done, they always say they've done stuff to help us get jobs, but there is still a lot of those like myself. i've been going on three years and still it's difficult to find a job. and today is veterans day and i'm still jobless. guest: this issue of employment

is still a tricky one. loosing overall numbers are lower than the rest of the american population. that is the good news, if you're a veteran, you're slowly more likely to find a job. , itou can't find that job gets really tricky. it gets problematic if you're having trouble explaining what your skills are and how they translate and just where you fit. we hear from a lot of folks that they will get that first job and within a year they are looking for another one because it wasn't the perfect fit. we have seen a lot of government programs. there are still folks on capitol hill talking about it today even with the unemployment numbers being lower. there is really this worry about how do we make sure these folks are a good transition. i've talked to a lot of companies about this. upe companies are shoring communities and trying to look at not just the issue of how to

buy them in the door, but keep them. , they aredo this still there be folks can't make that transition and have trouble and that's where you get into the real key v.a. services. how do they -- are the run of limit benefits, there are some, the trump administration is looked at rolling some of those back to save on other things, healthcare services obviously, that's good to be an issue. reliable to have a v.a. or community care services. but it's one that even if the numbers get better, we really just see congress so trying to keep an eye on that. host: fort lauderdale, florida. good morning. >> i'm a first-time caller. problem've never had a with my health care. i've been dealing with cancer for a number of years and they've never let me down.

whether it was resolved or not is where records get transferred if the want to go to an outside doctor, there's a lot of complaints the records take a long time to get there and by the time they get there, some of it is incomplete, i don't know whether it's been taken care of. secondly, the soldier who testified, i wanted to know whether the gentleman, whether or not he had talked to other veterans and how they felt about this guy's testimony. i personally feel he had a job and it was not his business to give the opinion publicly. he wasn't there to do that. on the impeachment question, we heard from both sides, the veterans community is just a divided as the rest of the country depending on where

they are coming from. in terms of the health care issue and just, the gentleman mentioned he has cancer but really enjoyed his v.a. care. we hear that a lot from veterans. that accesses the main complaint with the system, not so much the treatment they get. for the most part they are happy with the doctors when they can get in there. the wait times have continued to be a problem at a point of frustration. try trim ever the last issue he brought up -- host: i think it was those two. harold in detroit. caller: good morning. problem, i was drafted , a1966 and i did two years year in the states and a year overseas. myn i came home they took army identification, but i still had four more years with the service.

two year reserves in two years standby. i was wondering why would they take my id and i still had four more years with the service? draftees at six years. host: are you familiar with the circumstances? guest: i'm not totally clear on that. this goes back to the records v.a. are adod and massive bureaucracy. there will always be folks who will find the problem or get into these issues and really how you can judge the system is how they figure out when there are anonymous -- anomalies and problems. the caller had asked about this issue of records and taking them outside, this gentleman obviously is a records problem. the v.a. has made a lot of efforts to digitize records and are moving to an electronic system that the same record system. this potentially transformative for both part -- departments.

it may take another eight to 10 years to finish all this, the $12 billion worth of work. end if hope is that the you go to a v.a. dr., they can know exactly where you been, that issue i brought up before, is this doctor going to talk about ptsd or exposure, they will have a note in that file. saycan see more of that and i see you've complained about having breathing problems, i'm going to treat you for your broken ankle and they may want to schedule another appointment down the line. we will look at those other issues. it's going to take a while to get there. in some ways that put the cart before the horse because we are pushing them and how well can they keep track of those separate lines of medical care. pennsylvania, mary, and veteran, when did you serve? to 78.rved in 73

the united states army reserve and i did ,verything, kept records different things like that. i finished up as an e4. i didn't go overseas to serve, but i'm calling because it's not just my problem in this unitede have a lot of states army reserve personnel people who live in this area and we have been trying to get id,rds for something like the man before who would talked about. so i just don't understand even though some of us did not go overseas, why we aren't considered as important because

-- sayhe first thing i would you have sulli are supporting those folks overseas. among women,ly folks who don't consider them subs veterans, saying i didn't see combat or didn't serve, maybe i won't go get those services because i don't really deserve them as much. veteran,rve, you are a the country owes you a debt of service. it doesn't matter. it was part of the larger mission. areissue of records really ones the v.a. and dod struggled with. we still had a majority of records on paper and if you went to see one doctor, you had to carry a big fold around with you. and you wanted to prove your military connected service and disability, you really had to carry those several hundred pages of records to each

appointment with you, hope they have the time to look through it. this pushing everything electronic now and on the medical side, it's going on, there's been a lot of success. but still a lot of veterans out there who from 30 years ago or 40 years ago have to rely on paper records to get there. so the point of frustration and it's just a matter of time and money to get it all digitized. you are a: kenneth veteran as well. caller: yes ma'am. inerved two years in vietnam the first thing i would like to say is to my fellow vietnam veterans, welcome home. and i know it was -- you haven't had an easy go of it. best, as far as your guest host there, i have a couple of comments i would like

to make if that's all right. in 1979, i received my disability, i started pretty soon after i got out of the service. and i kept ons going to the v.a., our local , upital for many years until the 1990's and then i got andll from agent orange diabetes and just a whole range of medical problems. program and a that's where i could pick a

iivate doctor in my area and had him for 20 years, the best doctor ever had in my entire life, he was also a vietnam veteran, was the colonel in eve that over in vietnam, so we had a pretty cool connection and he did a lot of stuff the doctors do. hisnor surgery room in clinic and he did some minor surgery on me, he gave me mythly phlebotomies because account stopped -- host: do you think it worked to be able to access the private doctor? is that the point? host: i'm almost there. i won't take up too much time.

this fee basis program worked and of courser me there's a time when people retire. my doctor retired, left me without a doctor and i had to go searching for a doctor. i had a mini clinic over here in the north coast of oregon. called the north coast by the way. in the change was so horrible and i got so frustrated, probably said something to the that wasn't politically correct i guess you could say. me and around that time, trump became president and i got on this community care.

which is what they are using now. tri-westes through insurance company and everything has to be preapproved, you can't choose your own doctor, they assign you to a doctor. and if you don't like the doctor, you stuck with them. and my care is like i would say 50% worse now than it was when i was on fee basis. host: do you have a question based on every thing you said or? caller: basically that is my comment and i wanted to know if he could give me any feedback on why this is. fee basis is one of the outside care programs. there were seven or eight community care programs that were pushing the veterans could use to get care from private sector doctors and part of the

mission was consolidating all these different things. some of those work finds -- work fine. a lot of them the providers had complaints about how the rigging paid. certain once we get paid in different ways. part of it was consolidating all of this and simplifying it was on one thing. when you're getting bit of any program there will be folks who like it and some folks who do not. and it sounds like he got caught in this mix, his doctor retired so it's a shame he had to lose him. other point i wanted to bring up because i want to thank him starting off and welcoming on the other veterans. i found it very interesting in my coverage of the last 15 years or so here, just the amount the vietnam veterans have really tried to bring in the younger generations and try to make sure that mistakes of the password thatted and that's a group

the younger generation really is looking to to understand that they weren't welcome home the same way and there's a lot of issues. glad he threw that welcome home and there. thinking of all the generations of veterans now. host: nancy in nebraska. welcome to the conversation. caller: thank you for taking my call. -- >> we are live at madison square park in new york city, present troublemaking remarks here for veterans day and participating in a wreathlaying before the parade begins. father, a leader in the veterans community, working tirelessly on behalf of the united war veterans council. ladies and gentlemen, our leader, our friend, our chairman , doug mccowan. >>