dr. lawren lawrence. >> dr. mary lawrence. the vision center of excellence has two locations in the national capital region. one our headquarters is at walter reed national military medical center in ba these da and we have an office in crystal city, arlington, virginia, and we also have a small office at madigan army medical center in tacoma, washington. >> and walter reed sunday the aegis of the dod, but this center for visual excellence -- one of them is located at walter reed, is that right? >> yes, sir. this is dr. mccarthy again. the vision center of excellence is a joint effort between dod and va, and of the centers of excellence, dod authorized navy to be involved with this. so it's a partnership between the navy on behalf of dod with va. >> that clears up something. i have been to walter reed and saw the center, and so i thought is that the same center? nevertheless we're still having problems with the registry being populated. the registry is waiting for the contracts to be filled and you're saying by the end of fisc

dr. mary lawrence in the deputy director of the vision center of excellence, and mr. pat sheehan, director of va's 508 compliance office. [inaudible conversations] >> i think we will continue, for a committee members will continue the process as stating your name so that those who are vision impaired in the audience can know who is speaking. i would ask the panel to do the same. dr. mccarthy, your complete written statement will be made part of the hearing record, and you are not recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. good morning, chairman coffman, ranking member kirkpatrick, and members of the committee. i appreciated the opportunity to discuss the department of veterans affairs contributions to the visual center of excellence, and the care and services are provided to veterans with visual impairment. i am accompanied today by doctor mary lawrence, deputy director of the visual center of excellence at the visual center of excellence, or vce, was established by the national defense authorization act in january of 2008. in october 2009, the dod and va memorandum o