the national president of fleet reserve association, and the honorable dennis mcdonough, secretary ofapplause] ♪ >> distinguished guests, the president of the united states. ♪ [applause] >> distinguished guests, please remain standing for the procession of our nation's colors and those of our veterans service organizations. as we march on the colors, the united states marine band will play the national emblem march. please place your right hand over your heart or render a hand salute. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> distinguished guests, please remain standing for the invocation given by chaplin chamoli willis, executive director of the chaplin service for the united states department of veterans affairs and for the pledge of allegiance. >> good morning. please join me in a prayer commiserate with your faith. let us pray. sovereign architect of the universe, we summon your presence to this hallowed amphitheater where we congregate as one people. in the sanctuary of remembrance, we lift our collective voice to exalt those who have donned the uniform in our nation's defense. the stallworth guardia

host: secretary dennis mcdonough there. how significant are the changes he announced and more importantly how quickly did this happen compared to the burn pits or as far back as agent orange? guest: it is interesting. one of the biggest things he said during that speech was about the blood cancers, which were left out of the massive legislation for the burn pit exposure. the blood cancer thing, not just for k2 people. that is pretty significant. it is fairly rapid. in 2012, there were a handful of families that were pushing for burn pit legislation. they were sick. between that and 2022 when the pack was finally passed, that is a decade, k2 veterans have been sick for years. the reporting that actually exposed that based on that clip, they showed a picture of the major reporter who covered that issue. she started writing her stories and 2018 and 2019. it is five years later we are having some movement, some policy changes to help these veterans. things are moving a little bit faster. host: is there something out there that

ceremony and archer for the veterans day national committee and secretary of veterans affairs, dennis mcdonoughmr. secretary? [applause] >> thank you so much. john, thank you for that introduction, for your leadership of the fleet reserve association and a special thanks to your team for partnering with the v.a. and hosting today's ceremony. mr. president, dr. biden, madam vice president, mr. emhoff, ranking member connell, cabinet members, most important all of the veterans, your families, caregivers, survivors, good morning. in all of america, there is no place more sacred than the ground we stand on today here in arlington and across our country's national and state veterans cemeteries. here let internal rest, five-star generals, medal of honor recipients, anonymous heroes. there are war veterans from every america war since the revolution, including iraq and afghanistan buried in section 60 . every new grave dug from every benediction murmured come every tear shed, every solemn commitment to this hallowed ground tells the story of our nation's history. yet as i look around, i see something

there with the president and vice president kamala harris, of course, was secretary of the va, dennis mcdonoughmay not be familiar with him. major general, the joint force for the national capital region. i'm struck by sort of the overall symbolism of this moment, where we are in this moment right now with the change in administration coming only in a matter of weeks here. major general breddencamp, his job, one of his responsibilities is maintaining continuity of government, the military piece for u.s. northern command, and here we have two people standing there with him, president biden, vice president harris, both of whom have pledged to the american people only in the last several days that there will be this peaceful transition of power, and there we have the military face of the continuing, the continuity of government. that is one of his roles there. it's not lost on me just the moment that we are in right now, with all of those people in the roles that they have to play in this continuity government over the next several months. now, in addition to that, in the crowd there, i did see a

captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] announcer: veterans affairs secretary dennis mcdonoughet them for conversation and support with military and veteran families hosted by the washington press club. he emphasized suicide prevention is a top priority for his department and shared what the v.a. was doing to support mental health and veterans in crisis. this is about one hour. an also watch live coverage of those remarks on the c-span now video app or online at c-span.org. >> good morning. welcome to the national press club, the place when news happens. my name is emily wilkins. and the 117th president 17th president here at the national press club in d.c. correspondent for -- think your joining us. here as well as those tuning in for our headline event with united states secretary of veterans affairs denis mcdonough. we are happy to accept questions and after his opening remarks i will ask as many as time permits. if you're in room you can write on the card but if you're following along live you can go ahead and e-mail your questions to headliners@press.org and put veterans i

host: secretary dennis mcdonough there. how significant are the changes he announced and more importantly how quickly did this happen compared to the burn pits or as far back as agent orange? guest: it is interesting. one of the biggest things he said during that speech was about the blood cancers, which were left out of the massive legislation for the burn pit exposure. the blood cancer thing, not just for k2 people. that is pretty significant. it is fairly rapid. in 2012, there were a handful of families that were pushing for burn pit legislation. they were sick. between that and 2022 when the pack was finally passed, that is a decade, k2 veterans have been sick for years. the reporting that actually exposed that based on that clip, they showed a picture of the major reporter who covered that issue. she started writing her stories and 2018 and 2019. it is five years later we are having some movement, some policy changes to help these veterans. things are moving a little bit faster. host: is there something out there that