that the gains that we have had, even when covid-19 is still in our state and in our nation, the gains we have had our because we took this seriously. there is a reason why we have literally the lowest positive tests and hospitalizations per capita in the nation, and it is because of what we as montanans audited together -- all did together, and i ask you to continue that same degree of vigilance as we reopen other areas, because it really is on all of us and all of us working so weer that will make it can keep both the low numbers and the opportunities we are having, so thank you so very much. >> here's a look at our live coverage wednesday. at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the head of the environmental protection agency andrew wheeler

testifies before the senate environment and public works committee about the epa's role during the coronavirus pandemic. and two: 30, the senate energy and natural resources committee holds a confirmation hearing for the deputy energy secretary and on c-span two, the centered -- senate is back at 10:00 a.m. eastern to consider judicial nominations. >> as of this morning, about a quarter of the debts are in new york city area, the new york area has been the hardest hit region of the country by this virus.

four v.a. centers have 26260 debts, but the other deaths are spread out across 110 different v.a. facilities. this is all over the country. everyone has been touched by this in some way. some places it is just two deaths, other places, philadelphia has been hit hard, new orleans has been hit hard, chicago has had around 60 deaths so this is not a regional problem, this is not just one area that has been hit. it is really a nationwide issu >> if you look at the overall numbers, and these have probably changed, but cumulative cases, over 12,000, active cases around 2000, deaths up to 1060 now and 30, soe deaths around how have the v.a. hospitals responded? do they have the resources, the equipment, and personnel to respond to veterans coming in

with? covid-19 leo: that has been the -- with covid-19? leo: that has been a lot of the frustration with the v.a.. initially, the leadership had said they had a plan and they are seen numbers go down. the number of active faces -- cases as of this morning dropped over 2000. deaths come as you mentioned, up to 1060 now. an employee deaths, around 30. so how have the va hospital's responded ---- how have the va hospitals responded? do they have the equipment and personnel to respond to those with covid9? that has been the source of a lot of frustration and finding within the va. the leadership officially said they had accurate resources and had a plan, and they are seeing numbers go down, thehe number of active cases as of this morning dropped under 2000. it was as high as 3000 at the beginning of this month. that is a positive trend. a third fewer active coronavirus cases. what we saw the last two months were a lot of fights over just how much personal protective equipment was available, whether or not facilities were reporting accurate numbers, or how much of a like time there was. the folks i have talked to say they have been generally pleased with the care they have received. as we hear from va all the time. but employees have been frustrated that there were not protections i hoped would be in place. we heard from dr. stone, head of the veterans health administration, and the secretary of veterans affairs, and both said that they believe

the supplies were adequate, that they had enough, but they acknowledge that they did not necessarily have everything that they wanted. they did not have all of the equipment, all of the protective things, all of the masks, all of the gowns. one thing they have insisted that they have had plenty of is beds. at the beginning of all this in march, they changed some of the rules for elective procedures for nonemergency procedures and opened up some beds by moving some things around, shifting some arrangements within hospitals. they have said they have maintained an adequate reserve of critical care beds through this whole thing, so many that they have been able to accept some members of the community who are not veterans. this is the fourth mission of the va, to serve as a sort of backup systems for general medical populations in the country. they have provided some care that way, too.

it is interesting. there will be a lot written when this is over about what the response was. we are talking about a population that was more vulnerable than the rest of the country to this virus because most the folks who use the va health system are generally older. our veteran population is older and these are folks who could have comorbidities, other health issues to deal with, so they are more likely to suffer worse and even die from this virus. greta: we want to invite our veterans to call in and join the conversation. our line for you is (202) 748-8000. all others, (202) 748-8001. we are talking about the impact of the pandemic on our nation's veterans with leo shane of the military times. how much money or resources were denoted to our nation's veterans in the first cares act passed by congress?

the first trillion dollar package passed by congress? leo: a little more than $19 billion. a question on the hill right now is, how is that money spent and where did it go? there haven't been any accusations of impropriety or waste, but we have heard some cash from both republicans and democrats on capitol hill saying it is a pretty hefty sum and we need to know you spend it wisely and it is still being used. a lot of that money was just designed for the immediate need, the idea of more protective equipment, more equipment coming in, and just a rush of new patients. and for that fourth mission, for outside folks. we have not gotten for -- a full accounting yet. there have been some reports of problems with getting masks, with getting those gowns. we will see how that shakes out in the next few months, but i know that folks on capitol hill are already talking about the next round and the continued need for va to be able to stand up and be ready to take on

additional patients, be able to take on that threat if there is a second surge. greta: the v.a. secretary is supposed to o testify on capitol hill and probably would have been asked about that money. why isn't he testifying? leo: i do not think it is anything insidious, just got postponed for a week or two. with the holiday and scheduling issues, i know the secretary is supposed to appear at a cabinet meeting with the president later this afternoon. i think there may have been a conflict there. i reached out to the committee to talk to them about what preparations they would take, and it was to be the highest ranking official up on capitol hill in a hearing situation, at least. i know vice president pence has been speaking at some of the republican lunches. but holding hearings on capital here right now -- capitol hill right now is a whole different

adventure. it involves the number of staff and rearranging hearing rooms. usually when we see these, the secretary has three or more people by his side and five or six people behind him to address things that might be brought up on a host of funding issues, program issues, local and district issues. so there may be some logistics stuff, maybe some other things, but i know the secretary is expected to be at the white house to talk about coronavirus later today. that might be the official reason why there is a slight delay on that. conniewe will go to first in maryland. your question or comment about veterans and the coronavirus pandemic? caller: hi. i work in, like, crisis response, and we answer calls from the whole population. with veterans in particular, i am concerned that thisolatio

for some of the veterans that have a pts diagnosis, it is really hurting them. my first part of the question is, do you have a number for how many veterans have died in the va hospital from conditions not related to coronavirus and a total number of deaths from the v.a. in the same time period, say, the month of april versus the month of april from 2019? second part is, what services might you puin place for veterans that suffer from mental health that have not had access to v.a. services that they used to get because of the virus? thank you.

leo: so we do not have those numbers. that has been an issue, and i have seen a few places do a really nice job looking at the overall deaths and looking at if they are attributed to coronavirus or not. v.a. has been pretty good over the last few weeks about putting out a lot of coronavirus numbers but it has been problematic with releasing other information in recent years, especially when it comes to suicide. there is a twowo-year lag on the v.a. suicide numbers, so it t is difficult to track in real time. we know that a number of calls to someone in the veterans crisis center and for mental health services have increased significantly, and that has been a concern from lawmakers, from officials, from veteran advocates, that some of this isolation and self distancinis going to put more strain on veterans who need the community, who need to reach out and be

seen by the folks and need to see other folks. we know there has been an increase, and some of that increase is just folks trying to figure out where they should go. some have called the veterans crisis line, which is meant for folks in distress or in emotional need. some have called asking about general benefits. when will i get my g.i. bill check? but there is also an uptick in folks who need those services and need that outreach. in terms of specifics of what v.a. offers, a variety of mental health programs. they are trying to increase all of their telehealth, telemedicine issues, some more appointments with doctors and psychiatrists online, just more available resources. congress has purged them to go even further. not iticizing but saying this is important, something going into the future, so please expand this as much as possible. host: when the v.a. secretary

testifies next week, what questions should he expect to get from members of congress? leo: first and foremost, this is going to be in front of the house appropriations committee. so it is a budget hearing, and it will have to justy the president's budget from earlier this year, $240 billion, a pretty substantial increase from last year, but also have to justify additional money on top of that. talking about what we just talked about, how much money is needing moving ahead talking about a reset and repositioning of v.a. resources that will be needed over the next few months, possibly next few years, over this coronavirus threats. typilly, there is a broad array of various issues in these hearings, so some local questions about how specific facilities have dealt with this. there will be some questions about whether or not specific resources have been set aside

for women veterans, for homeless veterans, for various subgroups of veterans. one thing that i am going to be looking for now, v.a. announced just yesterday afternoon that they are, to a certain extent, reopening 20 facilities spread out across the country. these will be the first test sites for post coronavirus care and will start allowing some collective procedures, some non-emergency treatmenents, some face-to-face appointments that had been closed for the last two months because of the potential spread of coronavirus. so i imagine that any lawmakers who have those in their state will be very interested to see what that means. what precautions are being taken. of the 26th the v.a. announced, 16 of -- of the 26 the v.a. announced, 16 of them still have active coronavirus. so that means they will reopen with patients still under treatment for coronavirus. we will see what that means. we will see if v.a. plans to

keep them sequestered in an area to make sure it does not spread. v.a. says they're confident they are ready to take the next step and get back to noal operations, help more veterans, but that will be a concern for every community where they are located. greta: louisville, kentucky, dean, welcome to the conversation. caller: i tell you, i am a veteran, and all v.a. is -- health care. that's all it is. thank you. greta: you said what? did you hear that? leo: i believe he said all v.a. is is health care, and that is what a lot of folks think about. there are quite a few benefits, and there is also the national cemetery administration which will get extra attention this weekend with memorial day. they have announced that they will open v.a. cemeteries this weekend, but they are asking folks not to congregate in big groups, but individuals, americans, will be able to commemorate memorial day.

there will be traditional wreath laying's, as there always are, but those will be closed to the public. i got a chance just last week to speak to the head of the veterans benefits administration about some of the work they have been doing as all of this is going on. disabled veterans, veterans who are going to school, they still need those benefits checks to come out. they still need those to go through. vba is very confident that they have handled this well. they said they have been setting up for more remote work, more telehealth work, more teleworking resources for the last several years as they try and broaden out the number of places they can send cases or the way they process cases. they feel like they have not missed a beat. we've heard from a few folks who have had concerns but not major problems. again, we will see in the coming months, when we get into the fall semester, for g.i. bill benefits.

what changes will happen? our student veterans going to have problems with classes or are they being categorized or will they get the same benefits that they had? will folks see changes in housing stipends? maybe not intentional but because the way the colleges have arranged things. still a lot of cross fingers as there is still a lot of uncertainty in the months to come. greta: virginia in florida, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to make a statement concerning my son who is a veteran. he had three seizures several weeks ago. we had to put him into a hospital. now, we are trying to get him into the bay pines v.a. center to get a primary care doctor. we have been unable to do so. greta: virginia, are you unable to do so because of the pandemic? caller: yes. greta: leo shane?

leo: i do not think bay pines is one of those 20, although i do think one in florida will start resuming. the hope is that in the next few weeks, maybe months, a lot more v.a. facilities will be able to open. it sounds like her son is in some sort of care. that may be a factor. i cannot speak directly to what is going on, but v.a. is making some tough decisions right now of, is it worth bringing individuals into the v.a. medical environment, which there is a lot of confidence in but also a lot of active coronavirus cases, or is it better to have folks stay-at-home or stay in another facility? what is the risk-benefit analysis of all that? i would encourage virginia to, if she feels like she is getting the runaround from v.a., to call some of the local veterans organizations like e vfw, american legion, american disabled veterans.

these groups have history working these things, and locally they will know the administrators. whether or not they can get change, they can at least get a better answer sometimes than individuals who have to navigate some of these hotlines in frustration of just offices that are closed. greta: we'll go next to james in oregon. your turn. caller: sure, i am a veteran. i have served in iraq and afghanistan. i would like to know why the v.a. hospital and the medical center of portland, oregon, which is a regional center, why they are handling this the same way they handled the h1n1? what i mean is this, if you are sick, don't come in, we do not want you here. just call. and if we determine, we will pl out a safe way for you to come in. ok?

second off, the biggest serious problem you have with that facility, sir, you know that new rule that came out where if there is certain name that is doing certain things and it comes up enough times, that people can be fired? well, at portland, if they cannot get you into the clinics, they will set you up to outside appointments. you go to those appointmts. then the v.a. denies the claims. when they send the denial, the only phohone number is two call centers, the national call centers. there are no names on thehem. there is no way to contact the office where the denials come from, and you spend three days trying to track down a name. you finally get upset and blow up because you have severe ptsd, you have depression, and you

have a tbi, traumatic brain injury. i have been blown up a few times. so then you are not allowed to have any names, so when you go to the ig, you cannot report anybody. so you go to report it and the ig blows you off. and then they tell you there is ig in portland. -- there is no ig in portland. when you go to the office, they tell you they have an office in portland. why is the v.a. still, in portland, attacking veterans? leo: so a handful of different questions there. to the first part, talking about the protocols for admitting patients, that is the v.a.'s decision right now has been to have patients call ahead of time to see if it is safe to come in and speak to doctors. i know that is frustrating for some folks who want to come see a doctor right away. v.a. has said it is for the safety of employees, other

patients, and for veterans who want to come in. this speaks to the larger issue in the country about how quickly we are testing folks, how we are diagnosing this, and if we're missing cases because we're letting people just stay at home and not answer that. i wish i had a better answer than what v.a.'s protocol is right now, still the call ahead and see,rying to convince someone you are in a situation where you have to do thi i do know that v.a. has increased a lot of their telemedicine options for anyone who hass got ptsd, tbi, any of those issues. they should be able to get some sort of conference just like this, you know, through their computer, through their phones, be able to talk to someone. the v.a. has promised they will make that available and if folks aren't getting that, i encourage you to contact me, to contact

their local veterans group and see what you can find out, why that is not being taken ca of. on the veterans issue, v.a., with the telework issue spoken of before, v.a. has shifted to a more national model on processing benefits. just because someone is in portland and files benefits there, doesn't mean that that case will be worked on in portland. i know when veterans get their disability claims denied or not knocked down somewhat, they don't get the full disability, it is a terribly frustrating process to go through, a lot of unanswered questions, problems figuring out who you can talk to and how to appeal. v.a. has tried to fast-track a plot of this, which for the majority of cases means getting decisionquicker, getting things resolved quicker. for folks who are not happy with that resolution, it can be incredibly frustrating. just because it is not being processed in portland does not mean that it is not an issue there.

again, i know that the veterans service organization, the vfw in particular over the last few weeks, has been sounding the alarm about the changes that have been made, separate from coronavirus, from the benefits review process, how they look at potential problems. they are trying to stay on top of this, so i would encourage the caller, if you cannot gett the right people at the v.a., call the vfw and see if you can get a better answer. greta: leo shane, here is a text from one of our viewers. what is the navy doing about the 13 naval members who retested positive? early numbers showed hundreds of positive cases on ships. what is the current number? leo: don't have the current number, i have to give a call to my pentagon reporter. i forgot to chat with her this morning. she has been on top of that for us. i know the navy is watching that closely, trying to figure out what that means. we have seen conflicting

reports about whether or not that is folks that have not recovered, a second diagnosis. there is a lot of uncertainty, and we saw with the view to roosevelt and some of the other ships in the navy. those are great breeding grounds for a virus like this, living in close quarters, where it is impossible to maintain that distancing and impossible to isolate. that will be an area that the military is extra focused on, and needs to be extra focused on. we still don't know. it is a major concern, it is a major problem. fingers crossed there is another solution to it. what we do know is there are another 13 sailors who are facing serious health problems. that is terrible news. greta: let's go to larry in illinois. caller: good morning. aag filed a lawsuit against the v.a. over saturday premium pay.

i wonder if you have any information on where that case stands after resolution? thank you. leo: not familiar specifically with that case. i'm not sure if you are referring to the issue of hazard afg, that is one of the largest federal government employee unions, represents 200,000 some v.a. employees. they have been pushing, several other unions have been pushing for hazard pay for these front-line employees at v.a. hospitals dealing with this. v.a. has said hazard pay isn't justified because they have provided adequate equipment, protections, adequate gowns, masks and all that stuff. the union has said that is crazy. they know of members who have had to recycle masks in the past few weeks, had to recycle their gowns, find ways to protect themselves because equipment was

being limited. v.a. is insisting now they have enough. they do acknowledge over the course of the past few months, some employees in nonemergency positions but still interacting with patients did not necessarily have all the masks and gowns and gloves that were needed. they said there were some adequate supplies, and rationing covered that. the unions and the v.a. have not had a great relationship over the last three years since the trump administration began. there have been a lot of fights over unionime, how much time can be spent on the clock versus how much time can be spent doing v.a. jobs. the amount of space allocated in v.a. facilities for union officials to be able to work with employees, troubleshoot their concerns.

the union officials have said they are under attack. v.a. officials are saying they are making sure that time and efforts are not being wasted by the unions. that has come to a head with this situation. v.a. has said they are doing everything they can to keep employees safe. the unions say we do not see it. you know, not much of a change there. i believe that will continue, and we will continue to see those reports. i know union officials have been crying as loud a as they can, saying someone has to listen to us, someone has to focus on eping the employees safe. ,reta connie mentioned before 1400 employees have contracted the virus, at least 30 have died. many of those in nonclinical roles, but still, some interaction with the v.a. system. very serious issues. greta: leo shane covers these issues and more for "military times," a deputy editor. you can go to militarytimes.com

or follow on twitter. thank you. leo: thank you. >> c-span's "washington journal," live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up this morning, we will discuss the latest on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. with michigan republican congressman fred upton and michigan democratic congressman and hilty and the american public health association's dr. georges benjamin talks about the potential risks states face as they reopen under the pandemic. watch c-span's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern this morning. join the discussion. president tmp talked about the u.s. food supply chain and how to help families in need. he also announced the coronavirus food assistance program to provide $19 billion to support the nation's capital. from the white house, this is 35

minutes.