we are working with senator johnny isakson and richard blumenthal. bipartisan,g on a on the bus bill that would solve many of the legal issues we have today with running the v.a.. number one, there are seven different ways of a veteran getting care in the community. each one has different criteria and different reimbursement rate. methods came from seven different laws that are very complex for v.a. to administer and virtually impossible for the veteran to understand. last october, we put together consolidated legislation and we are working to get past. as i have gone around the country visiting the a sites, i've been to about 300 and i've noticed emergency room's are being outsourced. why would you outsource and emergency room? that's a key capability. we discovered was there's a law that does not allow emergency room doctors who work 12 hour shifts. that is what is done in the private sector. hireresult, we cannot emergency room doctors. everyone agrees that rule should be changed and is archaic, but this is one of about nine different pieces of le

applaud the efforts of my friend from georgia, the chairmachairman of the senate as committee johnny isakson for his leadership and accountability at the v.a. one of the most disgraceful aspects at the v.a. is only a small number of senior v.a. executives responsible for the wait time scandal were fired. this was despite the fact that congress provided the v.a. secretary broad authority to hold corrupt executives accountable for wrongdoing. i look forward to working with chairman isakson and my colleagues here in the senate to pass legislation that would ensure we hold all those responsible for denied and delayed care, even the deaths of some accountable. mr. chairman, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk shall call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call:

we are working with senator johnny isakson and richard lumenthal. we're working on a bipartisan, omnibus bill that would solve many of the legal issues that we have today with running the v.a. i'll give you some examples. number one, there are seven different ways of a veteran getting care in the community. each one has different criteria and different reimbursement rate. most providers one of the one with the highest reimbursement rate. those seven methods came from seven different laws that are very complex for v.a. to administer and virtually impossible for the veteran to understand. last october, we put together consolidated legislation and we are working to get it passed. another simple thing, as i have gone around the country visiting v.a. sites, i have been to about 300 v.a. size in my 20 months. emergency rooms are being outsourced. why would you outsource and emergency room? that's a key capability. what we discovered is this is a law that does not allow our emergency room doctors to work 12-hour shifts. that is what is done in the private