i want to recognize secretary mcdonagh. i'm grateful for his hard work and his dedication and wish him all the luck in the future. with that, i recognize senator blumenthal. >> thank you, and as well as to your family, lisa, conner and veteran. i'm thrilled to be the ranking member and to have as chairman my friend and colleague senator moran. he and i have a strong working relationship and it exemplifies, i think, the kind of bipartisan work that has characterized our work. we have been a paragon of bipartisanship in the face of the winds of political change on other topics. i was chagrined that there was no mention this the inaugural address by president trump that did not include veterans. i was dismayed to see that a hiring pause will be imposed apparently on v.a. and i am hopeful that you, congressman collins, i'm going to be very blunt, will be the kind of advocate the v.a. and our veterans will need in this administration. there will be potentially help pressures on you to cut and slash, to reduce, access and eligibi

will also understand it and we've discussed some examples like supply chain the capitol secretary mcdonagh mr. dell have wisely stepped back and reassess requirements and restructure the efforts and smallness expensive less risky pieces. processing the va convert dbms into a modern modular system and this is encouraging but as long as va leaders continue to answer the song ofs, i'm afraid that we will see more poor results overspending and budget problems printed no project should be too big to fail especially when feeling because it is done that way and finally, i would like to think you and the staff and i understand samples separately at everybody is behind us this help us to this work, represented mccormick in the ga over all of the information that they have helped us with, secretary mcdonagh and i truly enjoyed working with him in the va and all of us, working together to identify the problems that we are facing, and i some incremental steps towards result met in several of the big issues which have plagued the va for years have plagued the va for years and i was so you that it is be

finally, secretary mcdonagh and their teams came to their senses before moving forward with a nearly $1 billion human capital management modernization contract. mega-projects sound good in theory but in reality, they're always overdue, overbudget and that's unacceptable for the veterans and taxpayers. at time when a v.a. has come to us with more than a $6 billion budget deficit, the department literally cannot afford to operate this way anymore. mega-projects are also incombattable with the best practices that took told the software industry more than a decade ago. i'm talking about agile incremental development, small scale deploys, testing by real users and component-based architecture. we're going to hear about successful use of these practices from our panel of independent experts and hopefully, from our v.a. witnesses as well. we've also seen some encouraging examples when they are solving problems with smaller systems. they recognize the outdated benefit management system and they have been proactively seg men. and modernizing it in individual parts. as with most things in gove

. >> reporter: john mcdonagh is also a playwright and radio host and not a fan of the plan. >> it willrriers. so ten cars gives you congestion. but the money is go to go to improve public transport and that helps everybody. >> it does? we had a woman that was burned on the subway. we had people being pushed on to the tracks. there is robberies. if you take the subway in new york, jumping the turnstiles is an olympic sport. >> reporter: it's called turnstile jumping, or more politely, fare evasion. and the mta projects it will lose $800 million a year because of it. around the same figure congestion pricing may bring in. >> 47% of people taking the bus aren't paying at this point. >> people quit paying on the bus fares, et cetera. the mta has installed cameras so that they can catch people. they are providing police, even the national guard is in our system to make sure that people pay their fare. >> reporter: kathy wylde is president of the partnership for new york city, which mobilizes business leaders to help the think thrive. she is a long-time advocate for congestion pricing, and h

secretary mcdonagh had the good sense to pull the plug on a system after it went so poorly. the second supply chain effort has been on indefinite hold since the subcommittee exposed its poorly defined objectives and more than $9 billion lifecycle cost estimate. finally, the secretary and their teams came to their senses before moving forward with a nearly $1 billion human capital management modernization contract. i am glad to see some of the v.a. resist the contractors expensive promises and the temptation to use major i.t. projects to build their bureaucratic empires. megaprojects sound good in theory but in reality, they are always overdue, overbudget, and that is unacceptable for veterans and for taxpayers. at a time when the v.a. has come to us with more than a $6 billion budget deficit, the department literally cannot afford to operate this way anymore. megaprojects are also incompatible with the best practices that took hold in the software industry more than a decade ago. i'm talking about agile, incremental development, small-scale deployment, testing by real users,

and bobby mcdonagh up the street, came home with one leg, you know, and then so how how vietnam and watergate gave you this outsider. stewart mentioned iowa. we didn't talk about the iowa caucuses before jimmy carter. it was not a thing. so he was he was the ultimate outsider who changed our life and changed our politics in so many ways. and interestingly, from covering the white house for ten years, it was very rare to see jimmy carter come back. and doug mills, i think, made the point in this fascinating new york times photograph that ran the other day where he was a little bit more distant when the former presidents were together. he also almost seemed to always want to be a little extra step away from the group. right. an outsider, even in the ultimate insiders club, which makes makes him, to me, just a fascinating person in history. but but i do think that the trademark of humility and that washington is not all that important. home is more important than washington or lessons we could all spend a little time on. >> one of the things that watching this plane land at joint base andrews, a

i supported the secretary of the va and the obama administration with secretary mcdonagh.secretary wilkie when he went on to be a va secretary. the implementation of the electronic health record is a bipartisan multi-administration disaster. there is no way on god's green earth we should have spent $10 billion to have only a fraction even touched so do i have your commitment to go through that program and get it moving again and get an integrated health chart that also can integrate with the dod so we can finally have a seamless transmission from active status or reserve status to veteran status and provide premium care at the va? >> for the very reason of this, what you said about seamless care is a safety and security issue. >> it is. the electronic health record. i have a real problem. i don't know if it's an inspector general's report but large scale systems implementation work for the vast majority of my career, i've done that more than i've been a us senator or state representative. this is a disaster and i would like the people involved, not only the contractors but

also, person who's hoping to benefit from all of the festivities is seamus mcdonagh. he's got his pedicab ready to take people to and from their destinations. i can't recall how good it is, but it's better than regular nights and hopefully we'll have some fun. you know, whatever people's plans, it looks like they're going to ring it in >>>>on >>a positive note. >>>>look at >>>>a bright 2025. happy new year, san francisco. hear that? that's the sound of your life. perfectly imperfect. but every time you drive after drinking, the music gets drowned out. your life sounds pretty great. don't let a buzz ruin it. buzzed driving is drunk driving. don't drive buzzed. ur countdown to 2025, here is kane brown!

also, person who's hoping to benefit from all of the festivities is seamus mcdonagh. he's got his pedicab ready to take people to and from their destinations. i can't recall how good it is, but it's better than regular nights and hopefully we'll have some fun. you know, whatever people's plans, it looks like they're going to ring it in >>>>on >>a positive note. >>>>look at >>>>a bright 2025. happy new year, san francisco. - man, i need some serious help with this health insurance stuff. - check out covered california. it's a free service from the state that helps you get health insurance. millions of people have used it. - wait, for real? - mmm hmm, they even offer financial help to lower the cost. - nooo... how you know about all this? - that's how i got my insurance. i got a great plan for about $10 dollars a month. - okay, i see you. - if you've got questions, covered california can help, every step of the way. enroll by december 31st. covered california. this way to health insurance. - [announcer] the following is a paid presentation sponsored by lifelock. - i tho