mr. walz. >> thank you mr. chairman and that's a valid point. i think we are trying to separate adequate resources from effective use of those resources and if we conflate the two together we end up going in the wrong direction. i would like to point out and i don't know if this has happened since i've been here, it may have but is certainly to me gratifying. oftentimes we see people testifying and you stand eager to wait and physically behind them. i want to make note that the actions as we all know words are cheap especially as we know around here. this is a pivotal moment. the decisions that are going to be made over the next weeks and months are going to i think have a decades long impacted i think you're absolutely right to flex your ability of pressure points to get situations done but keep in mind and they are right when you can turn up the heat or whatever but now there's going to be a race to get something done by next friday. getting it done and getting it done are not necessarily synonymous. my concern is as we work together and bear

that is what needs to be done now. >> mr. walz, my concern is again as my colleagues just said, this is a temporary fix. i think we're heightening the expectations of veterans and not going to be able to meet those expectations. i think, in the end, i think we could even be weakening va instead of making it stronger. we need to make sure in the end that va is stronger and they're able to fulfill their mission to veterans. >> can i say briefly, my biggest concern with the conference right now, is the house and senate passed several really good bills. you went into the conference with our understanding being that the jurisdiction of it would be to merge those two bills, make some tweaks and pass it out. now everything, it seems like, everybody and their brother is wanting to throw in extra things because they see this as one of the only, if not only moving trains on vets issues perhaps before the end of the congress. now, in you all could focus on, and you certainly have our support doing so, americaning and tweaking finalizing what

we have the benefits administration, the third is the semester semesterry administration, and as mr. walz, it hasn't been without his its issues. coming from bucks county, we have a national sem teary. so the veteran community, the families of military and the bigger communities is left with a very positive view of the veterans administration because of the semester ry administratin there in the community. not so much with the benefits administration. mr. secretary, i'm sure you are familiar with the hearing last week. there was a whistle-blower from philadelphia, an outstanding employee, very dedicated employee, who is a whistle-blower for her work, providing direct outstanding service to veterans, and indirect service by going to her managers by pointing out flaws in the system. she's pointed out backlog and delays, thes pointed out duplicative payments that should be recalled. she's been vilified. i know that you were in philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. my staff really appreciated your time and commitment in going there, but based on what you saw in philadelphia, and based on what y

mr. walz brought up quadrennial defense review. i think most of us sit on that committee believes the d.o.d. does the same thing. they tweak the requirements to meet the budget. they don't lay the whole thing out to congress and allow us to say, at some point we are going to have to prioritize what we are going to do because there's only so much to go around, but we have to know what's out there. and when we are dealing with a crisis like this, and i ask the question to undersecretary hickey last week, i said, when we are attacking something and maybe the chairman -- the claims backlog, that's a category of claims. now, when you do your analysis to say we need this much money to solve this problem, are we going all the way back into everything from -- it changes on a daily basis. could you do it on a quarterly basis. to say to eliminate all of the claims in -- whether it's death benefits, whether it's burials, whether it's education, pension, all that kind of stuff, is that even possible to move the overlay of what we are making de

mr. walz, you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. again, i will associate myself with my colleagues. thank you all for the work you're doing because you understand that the corrosive nature of this is not just the personal damage that's done to you but as each of you have so clearly stated and eloquently and with passion have stated, it hurts our veterans. that's at stake here, too. mr. davis you summed up what i have been beating this drum for years. there is no national veterans strategy. when ski them, they give me a goal they're going to get there, there's no strategy to get there. it doesn't stris me when you call the white house they don't know who to send. i have been questioning for a vets review like we do in dod so we can have a strategy, resource it correctly, and have the things to place to make the corrections but that is lacking. i would go further on this and i could tell each of you that we're coming to this how do we get this. i'm with dr. mathews. i am not putting my veterans health care or the reputation on the dat

and as we heard from mr. walz, congress has addressed this issue before, passed legislation before, said they were going to fix it before. yet, the problem has not only gotten better, it's gotten worse. i have heard a lot of testimony today about ideas to actually reform the system and make it better. the hipaa issue i think is one that the committee would agree needs to be addressed. i'm particularly interested in the pilot program that sergeant renschler participated in. my question would be about daniel. daniel's experience with the phoenix v.a., like many, many veterans' experience at the v.a. was one of lack of concern, lack of care, lack of follow through, and a discombobulated system that didn't allow veterans to get the care they needed. in particular, one of the struggles daniel faced was as a individual who served in classified service, he was unable to participate in group therapy. because he was not able to share the experiences he experienced while in service. and yet, at the phoenix v.a., he was unce

mr. walz you are recognized. >> thank you mr. chairman for holding the hearing and to each of you and i was going to say dr. mccarthy i was going to say it's not personal but i got to thinking enough that's not true there's nothing more personal than this. we had daniel and brian and klay of this is pretty personal stuff. the thing i'm most amazed about is i'm amazed at the lack of anticipating what's going to be asked of you when you come here and it shows me it's a lack of self-reflection on this. i could've anticipated the question the chairman was going to ask. you probably could anticipate what i'm going to ask because i asked it to everyone who sat here and yet it might be symptomatic that why would we go and look? my answer is to you because we are reflecting what the public is telling us. if this place is working correctly we should be marrying and channeling that so i guess that's the most disillusioned. again i along with umn eternal optimist. nothing matters but results. nothing matters except to get this fixed right.

and as we heard from mr. walz, congress has addressed this issue before, passed legislation before, said they were going to fix it before. yet, the problem has not only gotten better, it's gotten worse. i have heard a lot of testimony today about ideas to actually reform the system and make it better. the hipaa issue i think is one that the committee would agree needs to be addressed. i'm particularly interested in the pilot program that sergeant renschler participated in. my question would be about daniel. daniel's experience with the phoenix v.a., like many, many veterans' experience at the v.a. was one of lack of concern, lack of care, lack of follow through, and a discombobulated system that didn't allow veterans to get the care they needed. in particular, one of the struggles daniel faced was as a individual who served in classified service, he was unable to participate in group therapy. because he was not able to share the experiences he experienced while in service. and yet, at the phoenix v.a., he was unce

and as we heard from mr. walz, congress has addressed this issue before, passed legislation before, said they were going to fix it before. yet, the problem has not only gotten better, it's gotten worse. i have heard a lot of testimony today about ideas to actually reform the system and make it better. the hipaa issue i think is one that the committee would agree needs to be addressed. i'm particularly interested in the pilot program that sergeant renschler participated in. my question would be about daniel. daniel's experience with the phoenix v.a., like many, many veterans' experience at the v.a. was one of lack of concern, lack of care, lack of follow through, and a discombobulated system that didn't allow veterans to get the care they needed. in particular, one of the struggles daniel faced was as a individual who served in classified service, he was unable to participate in group therapy. because he was not able to share the experiences he experienced while in service. and yet, at the phoenix v.a., he was unce

as we heard from mr. walz, congress has addressed this issue before, has passed legislation before, has said they will fix it before, and yet the problem has not gotten better. it has gotten worse. i have heard a lot of testimony today about ideas to reform the system to make it better. the hipaa issue is one the community would agree needs to get addressed. i am interested in the pilot program sergeant renschler are dissipated and. my question to dr. and jean somers would be about daniel. his experience at the phoenix v.a. was one of lack of concern, lack of care, lack of follow-through, and a discombobulated system that did not allow veterans to get the care they needed. one of the struggles daniel faced was with individuals who served in classified service, he was unable to participate in group therapy because he was not able to share the experiences he experienced while and service. and yet at the phoenix v.a. he was unceremoniously put into group therapy, and when requested private therapy he was not able

. >> thank you, mr. walz. >> thank you all for being here. it's incredibly helpful. you hear the members talk. when the democracy is talking you hear what's coming from their constituents and obviously the nation is focusing on this and it's incredibly disappointing to hear how you have been handled. it's beyond the pale that some of this would go on. the flip side is there are dedicated people that keep coming out for the veteran. it's about the veteran. we need to figure out a national veterans policy. we need to have a national focus on this and then getting at it and i keep hearing and first sergeant, you are exactly right on this that we hear it. i've been in some units where they told us change was coming. that meant the enlisted troops were going to get hammered because that's the way the leadership thought. then they said change was going to come and we knew we were the best and going to move forward. this issue comes back to leadership. how they are enforced. they can have the ar-670-1 but not every unit looked the same. some were more rag tag. and the issue

we have the benefits administration, the third is the semester semesterry administration, and as mr. walz, it hasn't been without his its issues. coming from bucks county, we have a national sem teary. so the veteran community, the families of military and the bigger communities is left with a very positive view of the veterans administration because of the semester ry administratin there in the community. not so much with the benefits administration. mr. secretary, i'm sure you are familiar with the hearing last week. there was a whistle-blower from philadelphia, an outstanding employee, very dedicated employee, who is a whistle-blower for her work, providing direct outstanding service to veterans, and indirect service by going to her managers by pointing out flaws in the system. she's pointed out backlog and delays, thes pointed out duplicative payments that should be recalled. she's been vilified. i know that you were in philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. my staff really appreciated your time and commitment in going there, but based on what you saw in philadelphia, and based on what y

well as players such as mile j - smiley givehart, david murray, jerry, marsh walz, mike mcgee, woodson emens and possibly others. mr. speaker, i now close with these words. to a man, each of my brother wildcats, i am sure feel as i do, that moment of hard work, sweat, pain and sometimes disappointment, all of those things were worth it. and we are all better men because of it. such a common experience even a half century ago bonds us together forever. indeed, we were then as we are today and always, even when we no longer answer that roll call, we'll be known as the meridian high school wildcats, a true band of brothers. mr. speaker, today i want to express a heartfelt tribute to the leaders of our wildcat band of brothers. coaches bob tyler, charles garrett, and all wildcat coaches living and not, and to all of my brother players living and not, for all of you have done for our town, our school, and especially for me. with that, mr. speaker, i yield ack. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced spoifl january 3, 2013, the gentleman from iowa mr. king is recognized for 50 minutes as the designee of th