[inaudible conversations]

>> well, thank you, everyone, thank you for being here. let me begin with -- let me begin with some thanks, thank you to my colleagues who are here today from both the house and the senate, we are going to be joined by others and we are going to speak briefly each of us because we are literally in the middle of votes. i want to thank all of the union leaders who are here today who are representing the great workers in this building and all around the country who serve our heroes and most important i want to thank the veterans who are here today. [cheers and applause] >> raise your hand if you're a veteran. raise your hand. raise your hand. memo to elon musk, 9 million veterans are watching you. 9 million veterans are watching you give them the middle finger

and we are not going to stand for it. we are going to fight elon musk's plan to slash and trash the va in the big forest power grab and haste of valuable information and money in our nation's history. we owe our heroes better than what we have seen in the force reduction plans, you know force reduction is a nice way of saying, massive layoffs, attrition based reduction in the numbers of people and we are seeing already, already the impacts on our va facilities and veterans benefits all around the country. these reports come from people who work in the va, new facilities unable to open, inpatient mental facility thes,

cut, operating rooms closed indefinitely, that's only the beginning of the practical real-life impact of elon musk trash and slash approach to the va and other federal agencies, but the va and our veterans are different. they have earned, they deserve as a matter of moral policy what elon musk is trying to cut and we are here to say we are going to stand with the va, we are going to fight for our veterans, we will not tolerate. we will not tolerate. elon musk disrespect for veteran and giving them the middle finger. now, what elon musk says he's doing is cutting waste.

in fact, he's laying waste to democracy. he says he's ending abuse, but he is abusing our veterans and many other americans and 9 million veterans across the country depend on the va disability benefits, health care day in and day out, real-life impacts cannot be ignored and here in the shadow of the vai am here to say we will honor our heroes. >> thank you. >> we will keep the faith with you, we will not surrender, we are not going away, we are not abandoning you, we will fight elon musk and his tech bros who are exploiting you and enriching themselves and the billionaires who are with them, so with that, let me again thank everyone who

is here and i'm going to turn it over now to a hero of the american labor movement, the american federation of government employees. >> thank you, sir. [applause] >> first of all, let me thank ranking member blumenthal and thank ranking member and to all of the other house representatives and senatorial representatives, thank you for being here. my own senator chris vaughn holland is not here but on his way i'm sure. labor has no better friends defending what the va does as our nation's heros. welcome to my brothers and sisters from organized heros, i know all stand in unison opposing the trump administration disaster policy towards the va, i know that all

of us. like a third of the va employees i myself am a veteran and i say that va is the finest public healthcare system, not just in this country but worldwide. a leader in care, a leader in training and research and innovation, a leader in compassion but president trump, the va leadership, federal workforce like never before. this is unprecedented. they want to do nothing more than seek laws into the va's 300 billion-dollar budget and funnel that money to the corporate health care. now we know that's not right. is that? they want to give it to private entity thes and put ahead of well-being of veterans and we will not the stand for that. veterans serve the best health care possible and we are here to make sure that that does not go

any further. we are here, i think that's a disgrace. what do you think? it's a disgrace. university founders said that veterans who need medical care are more likely to survive compared to private care. now if dodge believe in efficiency which they don't and we all know that, they should study what the va does and not destroy the va. they need to study, they need to talk to the employees that are actually out here doing the work every single day. we are going to have folks from the va that is going the talk to you and tell you what they do every day and it's vitally important. brothers and sisters we are here to stand with you, amte is going to stand with you every step of the way and i know all my colleagues and all brothers and sisters are going to stand with you so we need to send a loud message not just today but until we get the job done, how many of y'all are in agreement with me? we are going to get the job

done, so thank you, thank you, thank you, and i would like to bring up to share a few words. >> thank you. >> thank you all for being here. my name is mj burke, national va council proudly, proudly representing 280,000 employees. i like many other came to the va because we like the va clinical environment and the mission that has been entrusted to us. i believe that va's mission is the greatest of all federal agencies. the goal of the current administration, flurry of executive orders regardless of whether it's eliminating telework or enacting hiring freezes or potentially replacing us at 1 to 4 ratio is ultimately forcing federal employee

reduction so as to turn more va care over to the private sector with the results of diminishing the quality of care that we internally can provide because if you have 3 of 4or nurses leave despite being on excluded list, these nurses can go to another job but under va policies, manager wills not be allowed to hire enough nurses back quickly enough at the rate enough in order to replace them.

75% of the members reported that they need more administrative staff, 77% reported vacant positions that they have not recruited. these will only make things worse. vacant positions need to be funded and filled. to fill the need of the population, to fill the need of aging vietnam population.

[applause] >> and now mark who is the ranking member -- we work closely together. >> thank you for organizing this press conference. i know that you're the ranking member of veterans affairs committee, i'm the ranking member. my name is congressman mark tocano, i probably served as the ranking member of the veterans affairs committee. we both worked on getting the

pact act in congress. for the past few years i dedicated my congressional service to addressing veterans issues from ending homelessness to working with nursing staff at va to ensure that they have the tools they need to serve our nation's veterans. i take this calling very seriously. attacks on va staff. these same ones who wave the flags and talk about supporter of troops, but now -- but now they have trying to destroy the

system that our veterans rely on. treating our nation's veterans and employees like disposable parts instead of the essential caregiver that they are. you're attacking the nurse who administers their toxic screening exams. >> yes, sir. you're attacking the mental healthcare counsel and even worse, they have the audacity, the sheer audacity to hand over veterans private information to

an unaccounted billionaire. all of it handed over. this is not a game. >> no, this is not politics as usual. these are people -- [applause] >> the lives of the families, lives of dedicated va employees who serve them. so to president musk and president trump, have you ever sat with a veteran during a ptsd episode? have you ever helped a veteran learn to walk after losing a limb.

we are not just going to fight b this but we are going to fight with everything that we have. when you come after us, you are coming after veterans. you have grossly miscalculated. >> yes, sir, to every va employee, your work is sacred. your dedication is noticed, your role is essential, we will not let them throw you aside. >> no, sir. and to our veterans, we see this for what it is, a direct attack on your care, your privacy, your dignity and we are going to fight like hell to protect both you and the people who serve you. [cheers and applause]

>> just like the sun coming out, we are going to shine the sun because it's the best disinfectant what musk and minions are doing, president musk because we are not going to stand for this kind of betrayal. it is a betrayal of our veterans. now it's time to present amy klobuchar.

>> i tell you if i hear one more time that america voted for the president so he can do whatever he wants, no, they voted so the prices can go town. they are still waiting. they certainly didn't expect what we are going to get elon musk and all our data systems, they didn't vote for trump to put all kinds of hiring freezes including for veterans and i think this is how important veterans are to the country that he actually had to walk back that hiring freeze.

they had trouble hiring people fast enough to take care of all of our veterans. we also passed legislation to enable more money to go to the people that work with the va because retention is really important. here is something that i found out, 70% of the medical professionals in our country at some point they worked at the va. they were trained. did you know that? that's how important our va system is and important to keep all of that going so we stand in solidarity with all of you to make sure that this president doesn't get to keep on just

sewing fear and chaos wherever he goes. we need to the use our voices and that goes to elon musk that's not even elected to anything. so here we are once again the standing up for the people in our country who deserve our support

we are not going back, that is why the middle of iraq war, afghan war, we realized there weren't enough people taking care of our veterans we realized we needed to do something differently. than when we saw that our vets that had come home from serving next to notorious burn pits in afghanistan and iraq when we realized they needed help and our democrats led the way in the united states senate when they tried to stop that and the veterans slept out on the steps of the senate until that changed. maybe john steward showed up and

that helped too. but in any case, for our nations 9 million veterans they rely on the va for health care and when you start freezing things, why do you think happened, in less than a month in office the president has disrupted the va's critical work including by initially stopping the department from hiring nurses, doctors and hospital support staff just when there's a shortage of medical staff across the country.

by the way, there's a reason it's sunny today because they might, sunshine in what they are doing today. >> all right. >> they fired the directors of offices serving women's veterans, the largest growing group of veterans and they attacked initiative that make it easier for rural and disabled veterans to access va benefits, none of this is going to make life better for our veterans. none of this treats our employees at the va with the dignity they deserve. i watch every say when i'm in minnesota and one in our va facilities how the employees treat our veterans with dignity. they deserve dignity too. that's what this is about in the end and as my friend and dick blumenthal's friend, john mccain said, nothing in life is more

liberating than to fight for our cause larger than yourself. >> all right. >> standing up for our veterans and our employees that work with our veterans, that's the cause worth fighting. that's the cause larger than ourselves, thank you. with that, okay. go ahead, dick. >> thanks, amy. >> we are really proud to have with us congressman delia ramirez, thank you for coming. >> thank you. thank you. >> thank you, senator. >> the hypocrisy, you know, i get to serve in the veteran affairs committee and i'm the top democrat on oversight and investigations and let me tell you, we have a lot of work to do. >> that's right. we have a lot of oversight to do and we have a lot to investigate because the reality is that this administration which by the way has been in power for 24 days

but i promise you i have at least 24 gray hairs, it has felt like pain and feels the same way for all of you, the uncertainty, the fear, this is the administration that takes about accountability but apparently in the definition for them in the glossary accountability means retribution, retaliation and loyalty for the trump-elon musk administration. that's what accountability means to them. they are doing everything in their power to attack everything that we care about and let me tell you, i serve in the committee with many of them who say we care nothing more than for our veterans. we are going to do everything we can to protect our veterans, when it comes to veterans, we are about bipartisanship, well, let me be honest that's what they are saying, but you know the word, hypocrisy is what i'm going to say now.

i don't want to get in trouble here because the reality is that they don't care about our veterans because if they could about our veterans they would make sure services are uninterrupted when they've --what i want to make sure you n understand right now is that we are going to use every single authority in our power and we are going to work with every one of you because it's going to take the every one of us here to be in solidarity to work together and to do everything to ensure that there's oversight and we are calling for investigation, that when they decide to fire inspector generals oversight, these are the inspector generals that they say are doing the accountability but then they fire them overnight because they don't care about accountability, they care about loyalty that we do everything in our power to make sure that we are centering our veterans by protecting the

workforce, protecting the benefits and protecting our veterans first the and foremost. so let's make sure that unelected felon musk, because you can't spell felon without elon understand that the criminality that they think they are getting away with, they will not get away with as long as we stand together and fight like hell for our veterans. let's get it done, thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> another great labor -- another great labor leader randy irwin. >> thank you for having me, thank you all the member of congress and senators, most importantly thank you veterans, thank you for your service. i'm randy irwin, we represent 10,000 nurses, doctors and

healthcare professionals across the country. these workers amaze me every day for their commitment to caring for the american veteran, to all the va employees out there, thank you for your service every day. >> yeah. >> yes, sir. >> thank you. [applause] trump and musk have been routeless in their attacks on federal employees. threatening them or intimidating them or face being fired.

that is exactly what is happening right now. most people don't know but veterans make up 30% of the federal workforce. when the so-called dodge intends to cut 70% of the federal workforce that means they intend to fire half a million veterans in this country. >> yes, sir. >> unacceptable. this is not what the american people voted for, this is absolutely cannot happen. now let's talk about what happens if we lay off 75% va workforce. make no mistake, this would decimate our ability to care for veterans in this country.

>> that's right. >> let's not forget that we make a solemn promise to every man and woman who wears the uniform that they are going to be cared for when their service is complete but if we lose 75% of the va workforce, we will no longer be able to make good on that promise. when they needed us to -- when we needed them to defend our freedoms, they were there. >> yeah. >> but now that they need us to make good on our promise to care for them, we won't be there. that is outrageous, that cannot happen, we simply cannot allow that to happen in this country. so this administration must pump the brakes on everything that they are doing to the federal workforce because they are unacceptable consequences just like what is happening to american veterans right now. >> and now another great colleague maggie hassen of new hampshire. >> well, thank you, dick.

i am here today because granite staters are deeply alarmed. well, we can never fully repay our veterans for the sacrifices they're made, we have an obligation to try each and every day and once of the ways that we can try is making sure that our veterans have access and care to the benefits that they earned and deserve but instead of supporting our veterans as you have been hearing from all of my colleagues and friends, the trump administration quickly issued half baked orders that are -- that will weaken and is already weakening the va, those orders included ordering hiring freeze including doctors, nurses and critical support staff and trying to push more va workers out the door through employee buyouts. this, of course, comes right on the heels of the trump

administration's illegal and dangers order to freeze all federal grants including funding its critical for providing care for veterans and providing shelter for homeless veterans. i will also just say are really expensive. when i talk with new hampshire veterans they make it very clear what they want. they want a restauranter and more effective da that can help them access benefits that they earned and deserve in our service. the last thing we need to do at a time when we need to be doing

more for veterans is to reduce the number of va doctors and staff or make it harder to hire people in the future. let's be clear, the administration's actions will make it harder for veterans to get the quality, prompt care and support that they have earned through their sacrifice. my dad served in world war ii and survived the battle of the bulge, he instilled in me that we should never take those who fought for granted and had a way of asking at the table, what are you doing for freedom today, a question he had a right to ask. one of the things we can do for freedom today is make sure that all our active duty men and women and veterans know that we have their backs. >> amen. >> i have a long history of supporting common sense ways to

save taxpayer dollars, but let's be clear, risking care and benefits for american veterans is simply wrong. i urge the president and mr. musk to reverse course. thank you. [applause] >> thank you for everyone. i'm delighted for being here. thank you for having me. i'm grateful to be here today

with the members of congress, union leaders and veterans. i have been a nurse for almost 40 years and, of course, i began when i was 2. i am trained in managing trauma and ptsd and it is the most rewarding work. our veteran patients value the care they receive in our facilities but we are scared of what could happen to the va, we are already dealing with a lack of investment and staffing, last

year tens of thousands of nursing positions were left unfilled across the va health care system. many of our facilities operate with unsafe staffing levels and the nurses are stretched thin. but our nurses are worried about patients and job stewart what we do know cuts will impact our patients. they will experience longer wait times than they are already doing, have the treatment delayed and will likely see

reduced access to specialized care. additionally, more veterans will be pushed into private sector care in the community which is what trump administration wants. as nurses, we know the best place for our veterans to receive the care they need is in the va healthcare system. [cheers and applause] looking at the men and women who have given their lives for the country, it is my honor to actually take care of them. all right, thank you. what we need is leadership that would prioritize veterans and listen to the workers that provide care, workers like me that are on the front line every

day, you need a nurse to save your life. it is me as the nurse who is standing there diligently mooring over my patient to see first sign to alert healthcare physicians, we cannot let the va be dismantled, i want to thank senator blumenthal and representative tokano and everyone else who was here inviting us to speak, our va workers are under attack and we need leaders like you to standby our side, fighting back with us. we are not going anywhere. [cheers and applause]

>> career development services, mental health counseling, primary care and specialized medicine, i can say to you with certainty that my care was excellent. more than the care itself what made it -- whether it was a doctor, a nurse, an administrator or social workers i was met with compassion professionalism and deep sense of duty. these individuals were more than employees, they were advocates, mentors and at times the very

reason i wasn't navigating this alone. too often the only stories we hear about va are the challenges, the delays, the frustrations are the success stories and i am one of them. when veterans receive the care and the support they deserve, we don't just survive, we thrive. we cannot allow they are taken for granted. the programs continue to function, i want to say clearly and on the record that their work matters. >> yes. >> it matters to me, it matters

to the thousands of veterans who rely on va every day war comes with a cost. that is a sea credit contract and one not cut or compromised, thank you. [applause] >> very good. greatly honored to introduce a colleague of mine, wonderful champion of veterans and represents the state of maryland where a lot of our va employees live. >> thank you. well, let me start by thanking all of our veterans.

all of us know that we can never pay the debt owed to our veterans but we can keep our promises that we've made to our veterans who have served us so well. and i want to thank all of the staff of the va who do that every single day. thank you to the nurses and everybody else who does it.

thank you to all of the workers at the va who serve there and take care of our veterans who help heal the physical wounds and the mental for wounds of war and are there to support our veterans overall in terms of education, benefits, employment efforts, attending to the sacred cemeteries where our veterans are -- are buried and so thank you all for what you do. now, right now i think there are 9 million, 9 million veterans being served by veterans administration. so we need people who are looking out for them and unfortunately the person that we have in the white house is somebody who i hate to say it but it's true, does not believe in service, does not believe in

sacrifice, in fact, he has said it, he said that he thought that the soldiers were to quote his marine general, former chief of staff john kelly, president trump has called those fallen soldiers, quote, suckers and losers. this is the person that is in the white house and this is the person who has turned the keys to federal agencies including the veterans, department of veterans affairs over to elon musk. this has nothing to do with efficiency as my colleague said. this is part of the most corrupt bargain in american history. elon musk spent over $280 million to elect donald trump and donald trump is now allowing him to rampage through federal agencies. their real ultimate goal is to

shut down very important services to the american people and provide tax cuts to the various wealthy like elon musk and the others who were behind president trump on inauguration day. >> yeah. >> we talked about the golden age, he was talking about delivering even more money to elon musk and the tech titans. we are about efficiency, you wouldn't start by firing the inspector general of the va or all the other inspector generals because all of us know that they are there to be our eyes and ears and to look out for waste, fraud and abuse. you only fire inspector generals when you're trying to actually open the door to more waste, fraud and abuse and that is what schedule f is all about, right? they now want to put in place a plan to replace 50 to 60,000

merit-based federal civil servants with political cronies, all of this is laid out in project 2025. you may remember that was the blueprint that when asked on the campaign trail about it, donald trump said, what is that thing, i don't know anything about it, but he justin stalled the key architect of that in the office of management and budget which, of course, is the command and control center for the budgets for all federal agencies. so when it comes to the va, we know that you're already facing staffing shortages, we know you already don't have the people power to serve our veterans and so when they put a freeze on top of that, that just means less care for our veterans, i mean, you work 24/7, you and your teams around the clock, but there's no way you can substitute for those huge cuts,

right? and so when they put a freeze in place that is hurting our veterans and we also have reports that they're getting into the databases and very important personnel sensitive information about our veterans. so we need to blow the whistle on all this, we need to make sure that elon musk can no longer continue his illegal raid on federal agencies and we need to remind our fellow americans that at the end of the day what this is all about has nothing to do with the efficiency and again everything to do with serving them, elon musk, and those cronies rather than serving the american people as our veterans did. >> that's right. >> so let's stand up again for our veterans and we call upon all of america to do it. thank you very much. >> thank you, sir. [applause] >> we are really privilege today have with us a number of members colleagues of mine who are members of congress and i'm just

going to call them up in this order

who believes in public service and paying forward the sacrifices of our veterans. it's clear as the senator just said, trump doesn't care about veterans, he cares about chaos, he cares about corruption and he certainly does not care about you. if he did, he wouldn't be guiding the very program that veterans depend on health care, disability assistance and even food. if he did, he wouldn't be forcing employees and if he did, he wouldn't recklessly freeze federal funding without warning, cutting off vital support to the organizations that serve our veterans every day. let's be clear, trump doesn't

care about our veterans. it's that simple and, again, it's cruel. but we are here today because we do care and we are going to fight for our veterans. we want to honor our veterans not just with words but with action. our most powerful tool is public pressure. we must stay loud and stay together and we must press on as our leader has said over and over again so i'm calling on each and every one of you reach out to your representative especially if they are republicans and show up at town halls, write letters and advocate for veterans in your community. supporting our veterans should not be a partisan issue, it's about keeping our nation's promise, it's about dignity, respect and gratitude. >> yes. >> our veterans stood up for us, now it's time for us to stand up for them. >> thank you.

[applause] >> thank you so much, thank you senator blumenthal and colleagues here. thank you to brothers and sisters of the movement in the union movement that take care of our nation's veterans inside va facilities all across america every single day. we are here because it is absolutely critical that people know that as we speak there are lawless cruel men trying to steal funding from our veterans. they hope that we will be silent, they hope they'll cow us into submission. they are no idea who they are messing with. >> all right. >> the proud union women and men

that work hard to ensure they are treated with respect and dig any. i'm proudly member of the only committee in congress that takes care of our military from the time they begin active duty all the way through their life cycle as a veteran and even along to their burial. that is a responsibility to i take very seriously and all of us here do. it's a sacred responsibility. i know what resources are needed to care for our veterans and the nonstop assault that the va and their employees face. but this fight is more vicious, lawless and corrupt than we have ever seen before and it's more personal. our most precious va resource is its people.

we consider that if they are going after you, that's like they are going after us. va employees who tirelessly provide mental health and basic health care and do awful work to process claims so veterans can get benefits they earn. it's not glamorous, it's critical. we have career employees, people who go to work every day despite the conditions, despite the fact that my va hospital has -- has elevators that slide 4 floors down at a time, decreped hallways, facilities in the 1950's in the middle of a downtown that can barely help them get on time to work because there's so much project. without your muscle, your smarts, your expertise, your sweat, the va could never accomplish this mission. it only took a few weeks to see who republicans would go after

when the white house tried to freeze federal funding, we made clear that 44va programs like homeless providers, suicide prevention, legal aid, disability grants were all subject to this naked larceny but the administration only backed off after democrats and the unions here today fought back with our allies and they offered a funding reprieve to the va. but it is only a brief reprieve. we know that. the real result of all these attacks will be reduced care for our veterans and higher operating costs, part of proinflation agenda that republicans have wildly. they don't know our unions or its people. we will never stop fighting back. we are relentless. we always have been, we always will be. trump knows he can't lawfully get what he wants. the republican agenda is too

corrupt and too unpopular so he resorts to executive orders that we fight in the courts that we just saw, we can't always count on that either but whether it's in congress, the courts or marching on the streets, we are going to protect va and its employees and the very democracy that our veterans fought for, thank you so much for all of you today. thank you. [applause] >> hello, everybody, i'm congressman dr. raúl ruiz. i'm emergency medicine physician and like dr. dexter i too was trained in veterans affair as medical student, surgeon intern in the boston va providing care to our heroes and we are here to stop the illegal funding freeze which will then come to become the funding cuts that president trump and elon musk are doing to the va. i want to also thank everybody who is here and all the veterans and all the workers who provide

care to provide to the counseling, process the benefits and all the services and the programs that our veterans rely on and why is it illegal, it's illegal because congress under the constitution wrote into law what programs need to be funding, they authorize it and then they fundit to a certain amount and it's up to the president to administer what congress allocated to those programs, single handily deciding what programs to cut or which fundings to cut is illegal under our constitution and you bet that there will be the judicial branch who will come in and put a hold on that. the other problem is the programs under attack and you will hear about the dog whistle. we are looking at efficiency,

that's a dog whistle. what they are doing in the severe hiring freeze and the staff cuts is they're dismantling the processing in which veterans can benefit from the healthcare or the benefits that they need and that they deserve and that they have earned. you are going to hear, oh, we are not cutting benefits, what they are cutting are the people that process the benefits. >> all right. >> you're going to hear but we are not cutting health care. >> yeah b. >> but what they are doing is they're firing the nurses and the staff that take care of you in the hospital. >> yeah. >> now i have in this fight for 13 years and representative mark tokana knows i've been in the fight to make sure veterans who were unjustly exposed to burnt pits by our military and other toxins get the dignity and the care and the benefits that they need and that they deserve and in speaking to our veterans,

what i often hear is that the va employs a delay in strategy, delay the benefit, delay the care, they wait and wait and wait until finally it's too late or they're gone and this is another delay because who do you think is processing your benefits? who do you think is going to take care of you on the intake, in your healthcare services, what do you think is going to take care of you when you're in a coma or when you have pneumonia or difficulty to breathe because of your exposure to burn pits. it's men and women who have devoted their lives to take care of you. so don't believe the dog whistle. don't believe the fraud, waste abuse inefficiency, they are dismantling the system to delay until dead.

thank you. >> thank you, dr. ruiz. >> great job, dr. ruiz. i think we are at the end. let me take questions. the cause for veterans should be bipartisan. the pact act was bipartisan. democrats spear headed it. this cause should unite democrats and republicans so i challenge rep colleagues stand strong with veteran and i challenge veterans hold accountable all of your elected representatives, both sides of the aisle at the rallies and town halls an wherever you encounter them, ask what they are doing to preserve the men

and women who are saving our veterans literally day in and day out whether they have providing the benefits or standing over them as nurses or in the operating rooms as doctors, we need to stand with the va and we will. any questions nurses, technicians, housekeepers and, in fact, the

latest executive order says only one in four divisions will be filled across the government. the va is about people. it isn't a block grant program. it's about care. it's about making sure people get the benefits they deserve and this hiring freeze is having decimating effects not just on filling position but on recruiting, doctors, nurses, they're in short supply. they have other places where they will be paid more and the va has actually been telling people who have been recruited and hired, sorry, we can't pay you and then jerk them around and said, well, now we may have open position, but people can't live that way. >> can i ask something? >> sure. of course, you know what's

really all behind this. if there are fewer employees, fewer healthcare providers at the va, then that's going the mean that patient care takes longer, what happens when it takes past a certain point for a veteran to get an appointment at the va? they go to community care and we will have -- we are already sending $30 billion out into the community and we know that veterans prefer to get their care at the va. this is part of their i said use long-term goal to privatize the va. the longer it takes to get an appointment or the further away that a veteran has to go to get their care, the more likely it is that that care has to be received in the community and then we are on a slue and steady march to privatization, that's what it's about. >> here is the other thing that happened, when they don't fill the positions, when they don't pay the benefits, when they don't provide the care, the money goes to billionaire tax cuts, that's the agenda here.

it's real simple, starve the va, strangle it/and trash so that you can have more money for a billionaire tax cut. >> opm, deferred resignation offer to the entire federal workforce last night. there's a lot of parts of va that are exempt from that offer but what happens for the va and employees here, what are you hearing as far as the next steps for them? >> you know, that whole incentivized retirement deal is such a scam, look at what elon musk did at twitter, he promised the same kind of buyout, people who took it, most of them never saw a dime. don't trust this offer and they closed it but the effects on morale have been devastating.

>> doesn't hippa apply to the va? >> the laws do apply to the va, yes. >> file a lawsuit against somebody -- >> well, i used to be a real lawyer as attorney general in the state of connecticut, i'm not going to provide legal advice but i'm happy to talk to you afterwards. any other questions because i've got to get back to a vote. i'm sorry, on what? you know, we are here about betrayal of veterans. we are going the stand strong against that kind of betrayal and a great nation keeps its promises. the united states of america needs to keep its promises to

veterans. we are not going back, we are not going to betray our veterans, we are going the stand strong, we are going to be together and we are going to keep fighting, thank you all for being here today. >> thank you. >> thank you, sir. [applause] >> always good to see you.