mr. gibson. needless to say the other issues that i know that members of the can he are going to be asking is what actions the department has taken to reprimand employees who have lied or manipulated data. that is something that nobody on this can he toll rates. what has the department done to ensure that this manipulation no longer occurs? what has the department done to improve other areas of concern identified by the inspector general, the g.a.o. and other auditting organizations? so with that let me give the mike over to the ranking member senator burr. >> thank you mr. chairman and acting secretary gibson, welcome. since our last hearing there have been several developments relating to the scheduling irregularities among the v.a. and its negative impact on patient care. v.a. has begun to take the necessary steps to address the systemic problems and the corrosive culture that have been identified and substantiated by several independent sources. however these changes will not happen overnight

secretary gibson is accompanied by mr. philip matkovsky the assistant deputy undersecretary for administrative operations. in your prepared remarks will be submitted for the record. secretary gibson, senator tester you have 40 major statement. secretary gibson please begin. >> mr. chairman forgive me if i dispense with the traditional niceties and get straight to business. as has been recounted this morning we have serious problems. here's how i see the issues. first and foremost veterans have waited too long for care. second, scheduling improprieties were widespread including deliberate acts to falsify scheduling data. third, environment it has forced many staff members are free to raise concerns or offer suggestions for fear of retaliation. fourth, an attempt to manage performance at a number of metrics have become the focal point for staff instead of focusing on the veterans we are here to serve. fifth, the va has failed to hold people, both for wrongdoing and negligence. at last, we lack sufficient clinicians direct pat

mr. gibson. needless to say the other issues i know members of the committee are going to be asking is what actions the department has take to know reprimand employees who have lied and manipulated data, what are they doing to make sure it doesn't occur again, what are they doing to deal with other areas that have been identified by other organizations. let me give the mike to senator burr, the ranking member. >> thank you, senator and welcome secretary gibson. since the last hearing, there have been several developments on the scheduling issues and the problems. the va is taking steps to address the culture that has been identified by several independent sources. these changes will not happen overnight and this committee must provide the oversight to ensure the changes occur and are effective. even with the steps va has taken, there will continue to be reports and allegations regarding va facilities and workers. these reports will not only highlight critical areas of needed reform, but identify

mr. gibson. needless to say the other issues that i know that members of the committee are going to be asking is what actions the department has taken to reprimand employees who have lied or manipulated data. that is something that nobody in this -- on this committee tolerates. what has the department done to ensure that such manipulation no longer occurs. what has the department done to improve other areas of concern identified by the inspector general, the gao, and other auditing organizations? so with that, let me give the mike over to the ranking member senator burr. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and acting secretary gibson, welcome. since our last hearing, there have been several developments related to scheduling irregularities across the va and its negative impact on patient care. va's begun to take the necessary steps to address the systemic problems and the corrosive culture that have been identified and substantiated by several independent sources. however, these changes will not happen o

mr. gibson -- mr. gibson and mr. matkovsky for your service to our nation. i think you folks are in a typical if not impossible position because you are temporarily before us without the head of an agency and my hope is that there will soon be a secretary of the va but right now in effect there is an empty desk where the buck should stop and i think that situation has to be remedied as soon as possible and that's on us, not on you. leadership has to include an overhaul top to bottom of the people who run the agency. very simply my view is that there has to be accountability for what's been done in the past but also a change in leadership which you are commendably seeking as well top to bottom. my experience over the last few months has been that their failure of the accurate and some of what it is saying to the public is actually aggravating its credibility and trust problems. senator burr raised one incident earlier with the press release that he mentioned. i have found that there simply have been no answers to some of the questions that i have posed in let

mr. gibson will be talking about that in his testimony. let me just go through the numbers to understand the scope of the issue we are dealing with. 46,000 are on lists waiting to be scheduled for medical appointments. over 8,000 of them have waited over 120 days. we can have an argument, though i don't think there is much whether 14 days was an appropriate number. i think it was not. i think it was overly ambitious, but i don't think we have the resources to deal with it. i don't think there's much argument when you have over 8,000 veterans waiting over 120 days to receive an appointment, that's 120 days before they are told when they're going to be seen, that that is unacceptable. more than 600,000 vet advance have an appointment that is more than 30 days from the date that the appointment was initially requested or from the date that was desired. that's not acceptable, et cetera, et cetera. the numbers are staggering. that is an issue we are obviously addressing right now and will hear from mr. gibson as to how he is going to go forward

mr. gibson, the acting secretary, a very direct question about my situation, my whistleblower complaint was liebed to sherry williams. he claimed he couldn't do anything not after an office of special counsel review process took place. however, i was contacted by someone from his office, saying they were doing it under this authority for me to meet with them on tuesday, prior to the hearing, sign some type of form where i could no longer talk to you and the media or veterans service organizations or other whistle-blowers about the bad things going on at va. so i'm not confident in these new rules. rules mean nothing if people don't enforce them. and unfortunately thus far, mr. gibson has shown no desire to enforce any rules in relation to my case and other whistleblowers in terms of retaliation we're receiving from va management. >> talking about the acting head of the va. maybe with the permanent head coming in, things will change. hope springs eternal. a reminder for you folks back home, mr. davis suffered financially for speaking out as he did. so he got no financial gabe gain from comin

secretary gibson, please begin. >> mr. chairman, forgive me if i dispense with the traditional niceties and get straight to business. as has been recounted this morning, we have serious problems. here's how i see the issues. first and foremost, veterans are waiting too long for care. second, scheduling improprieties were wide spread, including deliberate acts to falsify scheduling data. third, an environment exists where many staff members are afraid to raise concerns or offer suggestions for fear of retaliation. fourth, in an attempt to manage performance, a vast number of metrics have become the focal point for staff instead of focusing on the veterans we are here to serve. fifth, v.a. has failed to hold people accountable for wrongdoing and negligence. and last, we lack sufficient clinicians, direct patient support staff, space, information technology resources and purchase care funding to meet the current demand for timely, high-quality healthcare. furthermore, we don't have the refined capacity to accurately quant few

secretary gibson is accompanied by mr. philip mruczkowski, the assistant deputy under secretary for health for administrative operations, and your prepared remarks will be submitted for the record. secretary gibson, senator tester, you have already made your statement. okay. secretary gibson, please begin. >> mr. chairman, forgive me if i dispense with the traditional niceties and get straight to business. as has been recounted this morning, we have serious problems. here's how i see the issues. first and foremost, veterans are waiting too long for care. second, scheduling improprieties were wide spread, including deliberate acts to falsify scheduling data. third, an environment exists where many staff members are afraid to raise concerns or offer suggestions for fear of retaliation. fourth, in an attempt to manage performance, a vast number of metrics have become the focal point for staff instead of focusing on the veterans we are here to serve. fifth, v.a. has failed to hold people accountable for wrongdoing and negligenc

mr. gibson, mr. mcdonald is exhibiting extraordinary courage and commitment for taking on this role at this very important time. i also would like to thank the veterans service organization for joining us today. you have been strong and relentless advocates for the well being of our veterans. you have done an excellent job in holding all of us in congress, in the department accountable. you are a key stakeholder in this whole debate of the department of veterans affairs. you need to be active, engaged in the process of long term reforms for the department of veterans administration. so i want to thank all of the vsos as well for your continued effort you have been doing and keeping an eye on what is happening with the department, and for joining us today. once again, mr. chairman, i want to thank you for having this very important hearing. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you very much. to my friend mr. michaud. i want to recognize some participants in the audience with us fro

mr. gibson, mr. mcdonald is exhibiting extraordinary courage and commitment for taking on this role at this very important time. i also would like to thank the veterans service organization for joining us today. you have been strong and relentless advocates for the well being of our veterans. you have done an excellent job in holding all of us in congress, in the department accountable. you are a key stakeholder in this whole debate of the department of veterans affairs. you need to be active, engaged in the process of long term reforms for the department of veterans administration. so i want to thank all of the vsos as well for your continued effort you have been doing and keeping an eye on what is happening with the department, and for joining us today. once again, mr. chairman, i want to thank you for having this very important hearing. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you very much. to my friend mr. michaud. i want to recognize some participants in the audience with us fro

mr. gibson, what is the history of lounsbury quick >> lounsbury was a british company founded to new england27 years ago in the u.s. company was started in 1998. so we are now 16 years old here that we publish a lot of books together with our colleagues in the u.k. we have an indigenous program here, but most of what we publish across the atlantic, whether it's originated in a red door which made it here. >> what kind of books to look for? >> i could give you a sense will example in sacred works, but that is too simple. we look for story. if it's fiction we look for great story writing. nonfiction is about story also. sometimes a different story. one is always looking for this style, the quality of the writing and the caliber of the

mr. gibson, for five minutes. mr. gibson: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to address a solemn and pressing issue that unfortunately has not received the attention that it is warranted. this issue is the illegal capture, transport, ongoing detainment and upcoming trial of first lieutenant shochenko of the ukrainian separatist and now the russian government. the lieutenant, who's first name is nadia, means hope in ukrainian, is a true patriot and hero. she was born in 1981 in what was then the ukrainian soviet socialist republic and grew up in that soviet union aligned republic. at the early age of 16, one year younger than myself when i joined the united states military, nadia joined the ukrainian army as a radio operator and started a groundbreaking career to serve a free and independent ukraine. now 33 she has not only been trained as an elite paratrooper, she became the first air force pilot in ukraine military. her time in uniform includes service in iraq between 2004 to 2008 as a member of the ukrainian peacekeeping troops during which time

mr. gibson, succeed with this current vba leadership, or should we hold this current vba leadership accountable and start with new leadership? mr. soto, yes or no? can the acting va secretary, mr. gibson, succeed with this leadership? >> my answer would have to be i apologize, i don't know. they have been in office for some time now. if the problems are still persisting, it's time for a change. that's my opinion. >> yes. thank you. >> no. >> ma'am, would you like to respond? >> i think that the people under the level of the undersecretary are letting the undersecretary down. i don't think they are being truthful to the undersecretary about the regional offices. so i feel like somebody is responsible for the va and all of its problems, but in my office, there's far too many people to hold accountable. >> thank you very much for your testimony. i yield back, mr. chairman. >> thank you. mr. takano, you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. soto, i understand you had worked at this office for four years, is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> had you served the va in this capac

mr. gibson nor mr. neighbors have responded to this fact. my employment records were illegally altered by cbo manager joyce deet terse. i was illegally placed on a permanent work detail by phillip mccofsky. i was placed on involuntary administrative leave curiously at the same time the oig investigation was taking place in atlanta by acting hec director greg becker. unfortunately, my experience is not unique at va. darren and irene owens who work at the atlanta va medical center have experienced the same retaliation for reporting medical errors and patient neglect as well as misconduct by senior va police officials. our local 518 president daf any ivory is routinely harassed of assisting me and other disabled employees with retaliatory action by members of management. mr. owens, mrs. owens, miss ivory are all veterans. in fact, over 50% of the staff that works at the hec are disabled veterans. in 2010 allegations surfaced that applications for va health care were being shredded at the hec under the direction of the hec director and deputy di

mr. gibson would like, but we do provide them with the doctors and the nurses and the medical staff that they need so that we do not continue to have long waiting lines at v.a. hospitals all over this country. so that we do not come back here two years from now in the same position with veterans not being able to get timely care. mr. president, i have worked for a month and a half with my house republican colleagues, led by chairman -- veterans affairs chairman there jeff miller, to find a compromise. everybody knows the house works differently than the senate. we all know that. and if we go forward, we need a compromise. we have put good-faith offers on the table time and time again, and we have tried to meet our republican colleagues more than halfway. but, mr. president, i am very sad to say that at this point -- and i hope this changes -- but, at this point, i can only conclude, with great re-luctance, that the good faith we have shown is simply not being reciprocated by the other side. standing here and saying this is the last thing i want to be doing. our veterans deserve a respons

mr. gibson and mr. neighbors and neither of them have responded to this fact. my employment records were illegally altered and i was illegally placed on a permanent work detail by the acting chief business officer stephanie martin. the was placed on involunitary administrative leave by acting hec director greg becker. unfortunately, my experience is not unique at va. darren and eileen owens who work at the atlanta va medical center have experienced the same retaliation for reporting medical errors and patient neglect as well as misconduct by senior va police officials. our local 518 union president is routinely harassed as a direct consequence of assisting me and other employees with retaliation by members of management. mr. owens, mr. owens, ms. ivory are all veterans and in fact 50% of the staff at hec are disabled veterans. and allegations surfaced that applications for veteran's health care were being shredded under the director of kimberly h hues. they discovered this allegation and discovered 2,000 applications didn't appear as new enrollments. the invest

mr. gibson, i think we sit here today, and that's the same topic. how are we going to restore the trust to our american veterans and the american people? what i have heard from you today so far has been that we'll give you another $17.6 billion, somehow that will restore that trust. i don't think that does that for my constituents. certainly not for my veterans. i have some very specific questions i'd like to ask of you first of all. have all secret waiting lists been eliminated and identified? >> to the best of my knowledge, yes, they have. >> you have identified at least, mr. mccloskey, identified those on the electronic waiting lists, there are 18 different schemes identified internally? you're absolutely certain every one of those waiting lists have been identified. >> i don't know where the number 18 comes from. >> that comes from the o.i.g. report and actually from a memo in 2010, from your department. i just -- >> i.g. is in over 80 locations right now and i'm not privy to what they are finding. until the i.g. completes the reviews in all tho

mr. soto, let's talk to you for a second, you probably saw the letter, the memo from acting secretary gibsondated june 13th saying we will not stand for retaliation against whistle blowers. in this memo there is a great line that says protuckecting employees is a moral obligation and a priority for the department. we will take action to hold those accountable for those engaged in behavior identified as whistle blower and that provides punishment. so the memo says those who punish whistle blowers can be subject to treatment. congress protected whistle blowers 25 years ago. mr. soto, is it true you were retaliated against after the memo came out? >> i believe so, yes. >> could you explain that, please. >> i was, again, and i am still trying to piece it together. i believe i was laid off june 30th. i believe that e-mail and other memos. >> the memo i quoted from was june 13th. what was the reason given for you being laid off? >> my services were no longer required. >> had you been acting as a whistle blower prior to that time? >> yes, sir. >> can you explain what you did? >> i put out notices o

mr. davis, if ms. lerner can shed some light on this -- you indicated folks from your association had met with white house deputy chief of staff ron neighbors and secretary gibson about these issues. were you in on those meetings? >> i was. mr. bachman was as well. >> mr. davis does note that he believes that deputy chief of staff of the white house ron na bors leaked his whistleblower complaint. did you visit with mr. nabors about this possibility about what the problems and penalties might be for doing such an action? >> my meeting with mr. nabors did not focus on this matter. i don't know anything about it, quite frankly? my guess is that -- and i am guessing here -- that mr. nabors was trying to intervene to help and not to leak someone's name in a definitive kind of way. >> this goes to the highest levels. the allegation tonight was that the very folks at the highest levels that we are relying on were violating whistleblower laws. , want to ask dr. tuchschmidt how do you inform employees about their rights under whistleblower protection? >> we have training that electronicake in our education system, so there is online training available to all employees,

mr. chairman and secretary gibson. in your testimony you said we would work hard to earn your trust. and your trust being the trust to congress. your background and my background or similar we are both senior-level officers and the organizations into the u.s. chief financial officer and chief executive officer. now, in those positions each of us have to report to the boards that were responsible in the fiduciary matter for the oversight of the resources of those organizations. so, i'm going to lay out the following sort of environment to see that you are the cfo of an organization that looks like this in the culture. it has performance measures that aren't trustworthy and senior executives that manipulated information to receive bonuses and past financial projections include a request for funding that caused them to be higher and we are not actually in this case by billions of dollars and then most of the funds were programmed in other purposes without letting the board no then you have a system that isn't accurate. so why do you think the board of reaction would be i need a whole bu

mr. soto, let's talk to you for a second, you probably saw the letter, the memo from acting secretary gibson dated june 13th saying we will not stand for retaliation against whistle blowers. in this memo there is a great line that says protuckecting employees is a moral obligation and a priority for the department. we will take action to hold those accountable for those engaged in behavior identified as whistle blower and that provides punishment. so the memo says those who punish whistle blowers can be subject to treatment. congress protected whistle blowers 25 years ago. mr. soto, is it true you were retaliated against after the memo came out? >> i believe so, yes. >> could you explain that, please. >> i was, again, and i am still trying to piece it together. i believe i was laid off june 30th. i believe that e-mail and other memos. >> the memo i quoted from was june 13th. what was the reason given for you being laid off? >> my services were no longer required. >> had you been acting as a whistle blower prior to that time? >> yes, sir. >> can you explain what you did? >> i put out notices

mr. gibson and the and they migk in november is coming around. he will be gone. i have to tell you and this pains me more than anything this breach of faith and i sat up here for eight years and i am the staunchest supporter but i will be the hardest critic i've listened to this today and it floors me that i don't believe with one fiber of my being that you are going to get that right and it's disturbing which makes me then come back and say if i were you sitting there asking what are you going to do about it that's what i'm asking for. i want us to take this back. i want us to pull this back and and know that the data is true. so i ask you is there a way to do this? is there a way to have the third-party validation to have that accountability? we can be the most accountable because we have to stand in front of the voters that are the constituents every two years. they are never going to see my veterans ever. so how do we restructure this and are we trying to fix a broken system beyond repair on trying to fix this? >> i said before i'm an optimist. >> i supervise

mr. gibson, succeed with the current vba leadership or should we hold this current vba leadership accountable and start with new leadership? can the acting va secretary succeed with this leadership? >> my answer would have to be i don't know. they have been in office for some time now. if the problems are still persisting it is time for a change. that is my opinion. >> no. >> ma'am, would you like to respond? >> i think the people under the secretary are letting the under secretary down. i don't think they are being truthful to the under secretary about the regional offices. i feel someone is responsible for the va and all of the problems but in my office there are far too many people to hold accountab accountable. >> thank you for your testimony. >> mr. soto, i understand you worked at this office for four years, is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> had you served the va in this capacity prior to other offices? >> yes, but i prefer not to discuss that. >> i want to get a sense of how long your served the va? >> 15 year i have been a government employee. >> all at the va? >> no. >> how long at th

mr. gibson, i think we stood here today and not his thing topic. how are we going to restore the trust of our american veterans and the american people? what i have heard me so far today has been that we give you another 17.6 billion somehow will restore that trust. i don't think that does it for my constituents, search enough for my veterans. i have some very specific questions i would like to ask of you. first of all, have all secret waiting list been eliminated and identified? >> to the best of my knowledge, yes they have. >> have you identified, mr. matkovsky, but i understand his 18 different schemes internally. you're absolutely everyone of those we must have been identified? >> i don't know what the 18 number comes from. >> it comes from a memo in 2010 from your department. >> the i.t. to know for any location and i am not privy to what you're saying. that is why i say to the best of my knowledge they been uncovered. but until we complete those reviews and come back and issues reports i can't tell you that. >> how do we restore the trust if

mr. gibson, i think we sit here today and that's the same topic. how are we going to restore the trust to our american veterans and to the american people and what i've heard from you today so far has been that we will spend, give you another $17.6 billion, somehow that will restore that trust and i don't think that does that for my constituents, certainly not for mir veterans and i know there are some very specific questions i would like to ask you. first of all, have all secret waiting lists been eliminated and identified? >> to the best of my knowledge, yes, they have. >> you've identified at least -- identified those on the electronic waiting lists but my understanding there were 18 different schemes identified internally, you are absolutely certain that every one of those waiting lists have been identified. >> i don't know where that 18 comes from. >> that comes from the oig report. it came from your department. >> the ig is in 80 locations right now and i'm not privy so what they are fighting. that's why i say to the best of my knowledge, the

mr. gibson: i want to thank my friend, sean patrick maloney, we're working together on this amendment and fighting for our constituents. we just came through last winter one of the harshest winters for those in upstate new york where we saw gas and home heating prices rise. we saw our electricity prices double. and yet, as my friend, mr. maloney, just pointed out, we see that ferc wants to continue on and has moved forward with this new capacity zone which they claim is going to lead to more generation. but look, these rising rates, they're not necessary. we've already -- we've already had interest in our region for more generation. this is just more burden on our constituents and you take a look at how this is impacting across -- this is hurting hardworking families. it's impacting small businesses. so we're talking about loss of jobs, we're talking about heartache on families, all for something that's unnecessary and as mr. maloney pointed out, this is coming from ferc, which has really been unaccountable when it comes to our concerns. mr. ma he nee and i are, -- mr. maloney and i, our

gibson will all present please rise for a moment of silence. >> mr. speaker, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? mr. hoyer: i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the ouse will be in order. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, i think it appropriate that one of us ise to recognize the sacrifice made by detective gibson and officer chestnut. detective gibson was in the office of tom delay, officer chestnut was at the memorial door. allowing visitors to come in. he was shot in the back of the head. detective gibson in trying to protect not only then majority leader delay, but also other members of the staff and of the public did what we expect -- public, did what we expect them to do and they paid for that with their lives. all of us i know express our deep gratitude to the members of the capitol police force. who every day get out of bed, strap on a gun, put a badge to their chest or in their w

leaked to my manager sherry williams who stated that she was contacting me on behalf of secretary gibson and mr. neighbors. neither have responded to this fact. think employee reports were illegally altered. i was illegally placed on a permanent work detail. i was placed on involuntary administrative lead curiously at the same time the oi investigation was taking place in atlanta by acting director greg beckor. unfortunately my experience is not unique at va. darren owens has experienced the same retaliation for reporting medical errors and patient neglect as well as misconduct by senior police officials. our local 5/18 union president is routinely harassed as a direct consequence of assisting me and other federal employees with with retaliatory action by members of management. mr. owens, mrs. owens, ms. ivory, are all veterans. fact, over 50% of the staff that works are disabled veterans. in 2010, allegations surfaces that applications for health care were being shredded under the direction of the deputy director and former associate director, and her team, kimberly hues saw two,000 apl2,000 a

mr. wilson: sloan gibson v. ed the ryan dorn hospital. v.a.hairman jeff miller visited both hospitals in january, promoting the expedited health care for our veterans. the lack of treatment our veterans are receiving from the v.a. is inexcusable. sadly we have learned about lack of care at v.a. facilities across the country, leading to death, cancer and other progressive illnesses. a preview of obamacare chaos. this has been a failure by the president who was alerted by his transition team in 2009 that there was mismanagement. as the former c.e.o. of the u.s.o., acting secretary sloan has experience to restore accountability for our veterans. moving forward i have faith that the professional staffs at dorn and charlie norwood v.a. hospitals will ensure that those who fought for our freedom will get the health care services they deserve. in conclusion, we will never forget september 11 and the war on terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from oregon seek recognition? without ob

mr. delay's bodyguard, detective john gibson, was shot . despite being mortaly wounded, he returned fire and brought he shooter down. today both officer chestnut and in ctive gibson lie forever arlington national cemetery. may they always rest in peace. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does -- the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause it-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on july 24, 2014, at 10:43 a.m. that the senate agreed to senate joint resolution 40. signed, sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota rise? mr. kline: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on h.r

gibson and officer jacob chestnut. the presiding officer: without objection. mr.eid: s. 2649 is due for a second reading here in the senate. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. the clerk: s. 2648, a bill making emergency supplemental appropriation for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2014, and for other purposes. mr. reid: i object to any further proceedings with respect to this legislation. the presiding officer: objection is heard. it will be placed on the calendar. mr. reid: mr. president, many years ago, i came to washington, d.c., to go to law school. i came back here because nevada didn't have a law school. although i had opportunities to go other places, i came back here because it was kind of the thing nevadans did. i got a job through a nevada congressman. we only had one at that time, walter s.bering. it was called a patronage job. i was a capitol police officer. i was assigned here to the capitol, assigned to the house side. and that's what i did. my badge is still in my conference room. i worked the

mr. soto, let's talk to you for a second, you probably saw the letter, the memo from acting secretary gibson dated june 13th saying we will not stand for retaliation against whistle blowers. in this memo there is a great line that says protuckecting employees is a moral obligation and a priority for the department. we will take action to hold those accountable for those engaged in behavior identified as whistle blower and that provides punishment. so the memo says those who punish whistle blowers can be subject to treatment. congress protected whistle blowers 25 years ago. mr. soto, is it true you were retaliated against after the memo came out? >> i believe so, yes. >> could you explain that, please. >> i was, again, and i am still trying to piece it together. i believe i was laid off june 30th. i believe that e-mail and other memos. >> the memo i quoted from was june 13th. what was the reason given for you being laid off? >> my services were no longer required. >> had you been acting as a whistle blower prior to that time? >> yes, sir. >> can you explain what you did? >> i put out notices

mr. mcdonald can't come in here and hear what we are hearing. i know sloan gibson is scheduled to come that we need to get the new secretary and as soon as we can because he needs to hear the kind of thing so that we can move this in a new direction. we have a new hospital. i met with some of the emergency room doctors at my invitation they were scared to come. they are not as brave as you all are and they want to be sure that they knew that i invited them because they feared retaliation. you travel in small circles. have you had any contact with people at the hospital were for me or any whistleblower proble problems. we have had a significant number of the staff to relocate but i haven't had a whistle blower problem. >> i'm glad to hear that. one of the things i wanted to ask you, you mentioned that the first sponsor to the whistleblower is to try to impugn their integrity. one of the reasons you mentioned is that you often say they are just a disgruntled employee because you didn't get the bonus that you wanted. can you talk about the nexus between the bonuses an

mr. chairman. before i ask my questions, i do want to commend secretary gibson for still being here. it shows that your commitment to listen to the vso tos, i think this is the first time i've ever seen a secretary sit through another whole panel. so i really want to commend you for doing that. it shows that you're taking your job very seriously as well. and hopefully, we'll see action as well. for each of the panelists, as you know, congress continuously asks the v.a. about what they need for services, you heard my comments about secretary britain accept by was first secretary that showed the disconnect between what the needs were and what the administration asked for. my question is to each of you -- if you could keep it short, it'd be great -- do we need to do an independent audit to properly plan the v.a.'s budget? my biggest concern has always been, and i've made it very clear over the years, is i don't care how big of an increase it is within the v.a. budget, are you taking care of the needs of our veterans? as you heard the secretary mention earlier, it's always been budget-dr

mr. chairman. this morning we heard from acting secretary gibson and from his responses to our questions, your questions, my questions and others, the question for the $17 billion, $18 billion is stale work in progress. they haven't figured out how much people they really need and so i'm just cures why that's come forward at this time. i don't know if it's helpful or not. but in any case, that is a work in progress and i don't think they're ready to make that request to be honest. thank you. i yield back. >> has everybody said everything? >> i just want -- >> i didn't ask if you can say it twice. [laughter] > all right. >> we had an article in "the wall street journal" yesterday that the problem was money. written by one of the v.s.o.'s. the problem is money. we had 60% increase with 17% increase in demand. we increased money three times faster than demand has been placed on the v.a. system. throw money and if we money at this without the oversight that you have done in the past and needs to be done in the senate, we will have failed the american taxpayer. but most importantly, we will have failed the v

gibson. it's a rom solid plan that needs no further explanation. here to explain it further is the architect of six californias, please welcome tim draper. mr. draper, thank you so much for being here. (cheers and applause) i think you've explained it just perfectly. you say california cannot be governed because it's just too geographically large, right? >> yeah. >> stephen: is that why states like rhode island are such paradises? >> no, but they do have a choice in rhode island. they can drive 20 minutes to another state. >> okay you point out that california has a lot of problems. abyss all k-12 education, massive prison population, 20% living below the poverty line. do all these problem goes away when they are divvied up among six separate states. >> well, here's the situation that i look at. and i'm always looking to the future. because my business is all about the future, draper university of heroes is all about creating-- . >> stephen: sorry wa,. >> i started a cool called draper university of heroes. >> stephen: uh-huh. is that anything like the little lebowski achievers. >> yeah, but they are a little older. anyway all of these thing

mr. sanders: let me just wrap it up by saying this, the point that acting secretary gibson made this morning was a very simple but important point. what he said is that we must address the immediate crisis of ending these outrageously long waiting periods that veterans are now experiencing in order to get into v.a. and right now -- and i am proud of what he is doing -- they are moving very, very aggressively to get veterans all over this country into private health care when necessary and any other form of health care to make sure that those waiting periods go down. and i think they're doing a pretty good job at that. they're going to continue to do that. but we should be mindful that this is going to be a very, very expensive process. but the other point that he made, which is equally important, is that long term, if the goal is to end these unacceptable waiting periods, we have got to give the v.a., the staffing, and the space, the facilities and the infrastructure that they need. and he came forward with what i recognize is a very big price tag. his price tag was $17.6 billion, so that we

mrs. clinton a private citizen, wife of the governor, aggressively defended her client. the prosecutor in the case, maylord gibson, said she was a bulldog in the case attacking the credibility of the accuser, the young girl. she went after the forensic evidence which was mishandled by the authorities. she took some to an expert who confirmed the evidence couldn't prove anything. here is how clinton described what happened next. >> so i wrote back, told gibson that i had -- well, sorry, i can't remember his name but i cut out who's who. well, this guy's ready to come from new york to are prevent this miscarriage of justice. [ laughter ] so we were going to plea bargain. they said, what is this case. well, first degree rape. >> well, this all comes out of the jar of the bizarre. anyway, ultimately the defendant served less than a year in jail for what was a capital case in the old days, a rape case. joan walsh from salon and msnbc political analyst. michelle bernard is president of the bernard center for women, politics and public policy. joan, let's start with you. i have listened to the tape. she laughs throughou