dr. petsel or i are familiar with that legislation. if i may, i'll provide you with that for the record. >> the last comment if i can, if i can just add to my concern, we actually our last call was friday for someone who couldn't get through on the 1-800 call problem. we had to go through a whole revamping of the system, but our metrics that we had been measured by, that you can see -- you can see the metric of success. wait time, call time, i don't want to echo what my colleague on the side said i just anxiously want to see that. this is our number one work around the va issue, and the second is the 1-800 is cat. this is very current and customer service is the name of the game. how to make sure these veterans have everything they need. >> i think the only solution to your issue on the it is, your whole department should be a two-year budget process, versus a one-year and a two-year. that's my opinion, that you would solve a lot of problems. >> i just have a couple of concerns, the budget request includes operational efficiencies, the

dr. petsell said that and our tools are really reaching out to -- and we want highly qualified, we want talent. and our tools are what we're able to compensate, what we're able to recognize good people doing outstanding work and retaining through bonuses, the high quality ones, so our tools are limited. but we owe you the best efforts we can to go after that talent and the biggest challenges are in the rural communities and we have to circle our wagons here. >> i appreciate your sentence that you owe us that, we also owe our veterans that, but let me tell you i owe you every -- i'm not being asked to do something to solve the problem. what i'm asking for is tell us what we can do to provide the assistance so that when we have a hearing six months from now or we're back here next year talking about the budget, the answer to whether or not there's a doctor at a seboc, or that we're meeting the mental health needs in every community, it's not every provider, every rural county in the state is having that we are, help us solve this problem. >> do you want to respond really quickly? >> thank you, s

dr. petsel has indicated that he will put together a group to try to resolve the issue and get the access to care metrics in line, so that they do accurately reflect the business processes that are ongoing at v.a. i plan to talk about some of the access to care metrics in the private sector, but i think what i'd like to make are two different statements after hearing your opening statement. the first would be i think v.a. has a number of missions. they have a mission to provide health care. they have a mission to do research. they have a mission to train individuals who will work in the united states and elsewhere in the health care industry. they have a mission to be available in times of national disaster. and i think as individuals out there and hospitals decide how they're going to spend their time, those missions are generally accepted as being equal. there's not a waiting that says, the primary mission is the delivery of health care, and we will address those assets first as professionals schedule their time, or allocate their time. so i think when we have a crisis like we have, tha