mr. lynch: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm pleased to join my colleague, meadows of north carolina and mr. reid of new york, in the consideration of h.r. 3765 a bill to designate the facility of the united states postal service located at 128 baker street in corning, new york, as the specialist ryan p. jayne post office building. a native of elmira, new york he, graduated in 2008 from corning east hollywood where he received the -- east high school, where he received the judy mccord award for exemplifying courage, hard work and responsibility he subsequently attended corning community college and enlisted in the united states army in 2010 in support of -- in support of operation enduring freedom in afghanistan. he was assigned to the 178th engineer battalion, 412th theater engineer command, u.s. reserve base in oswego, new york, and served as a combat engineer. as mr. meadows indicated, on november 3, 2012, specialist jayne and two of his fellow soldiers were tragically killed when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle as they

i yield back. >> well, i now recognize the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch. five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i think sometimes the search for conspiracy is interfering with the meaningful oversight that we should be doing. i think sometimes my colleagues are reaching for the most grandios conspiracy theory and we forget that we do have evidence of wrong doing that we should we going after. despite all the conspear as yay legations there is some evidence before us. i have been hearing from some of my colleagues that there's no evidence of wrong doing. i'm not here to make excuses nor the irs or protect the irs to down-play what they've done. there was serious wrong doing on the part of the irs here. there's evidence that they used improrp search terms. they use the quote/unquote tea party search terms. patriot search terms if you had a complaint in your file about government spending or statements criticized how the government was run, the irs targeted you. the ir ises withey asked for inappropriate information. they asked for the name of donors and wha

lynch, ms. mooney, and mr. huff to compel them to put up here before us if they decided to -- to compel them to appear before us if they decided to decline the invitation. unfortunately it takes repeated requests and threats of compulsion to get the v.a. to bring their people here. i look forward to hearing what they have to say. i now recognize the ranking member for any statement he would like to make and then we will proceed with questioning. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. tonight we find ourselves in a very difficult position. i do appreciate the witnesses appearing before us this evening and for the additional production push of materials that came overnight. unfortunately, as you heard from the chairman, those materials and the release of the interim i.t. report today did not provide the answers we saw but rather just grazed additional -- raised additional questions. i share your passion for getting to the bottom of this issue. sohave been bipartisan on many things within this committee. continueful

mr. chairman. dr. lynch, in the last two weeks the number of veterans that contacted my office asking for help while trying to see a doctor has more than doubled. one veteran described how he was referred to get a bye top story si done on his thyroid to determine whether or not he had cancer, only to be told that h couldn't be seen for two months. i can't imagine having to wait for two months to even just get a test done. when you have a possible cancerous growth. tell me what options, please, are available to the denver, va medical center to expedite biopsy poimt based on medical necessity and the possibility of a life-threatening condition. >> what you're telling me if services not be provided in less than 30 days, that's an unacceptable waiting time. and the denver va facility should be able to identify a community provider to offer those services. >> and that would be the fee-basis approach that we've talked about. >> that's the uss of nonva care or the fee basis approach, yes. >> so 55 days for that typ

i know mr. lynch will not agree with this but he sited a number of reports august 19th, 2013 and a follow-up report. i want to make it clear april staff report of april 17th, debunking the myth the irs targeted conservative groups. it comes after these questions. i know none of you are here for the core question. it's my time. for the core questions of who was targeted. we're going to lead that aside and let the report speak for myself. >> i actually asked the witness though, mr. chairman -- i derived that information from the witness using the documents there. i had independent reassurance from the witness what the document indicated. that's why i used it. >> mr. ms. o'connor. >> yes. >> somebody who had absolutely nothing to do with the underlying investigation. >> she was actually there when the witnesses from the irs had come 94ed a come forward and targeted conservative groups. >> ms. o'connor, what is your independent knowledge that progressive groups were targeted and treated unfairly by the pe

mr. chairman. dr. lynch, you mentioned earlier that $312 million has been made available to accelerate access to care for veterans who have been unable to receive it thus far. where did that money come from? >> the money was recovered from funds that were not being used across va. i believe there was some activation moneys that was repurposed to cover the accelerated care initiative. >> and what are activation moneys? >> activation moneys are sometimes moneys that are used for new projects. i don't know the details, but i would assume that it was felt that the moneys were not absolutely necessary at this time and could be repurposed to address the immediate concern, which was the provision of timely care to veterans. >> will you or the va be coming back to congress to recover those moneys after we get through this crisis? >> i don't think that's our intention, congressman. >> okay. >> i think our immediate attention is to provide timely access to care, and at the moment, we're trying to use the funds that we

mr. chairman. dr. lynch, in the last two weeks number of veterans in my district in colorado springs have contacted my office asking for help while trying to see a doctor has more than doubled. one veteran described how he was referred to get a biopsy done on his thyroid to determine whether or not he had cancer only to be told he couldn't be seen for two months. i can't imagine having to wait for two months to even just get a test done when you have a possible cancerous growth. tell me what options are available to denver medical center to experiod dit a biopsy appointment in particular especially based on medical necessity and if there's a possibility of a life threatening condition? >> congressman, based on what you're telling me, if services cannot be provided in less than 30 days, that is an unacceptable waiting time. and the denver va facility should be able to identify a community provider to offer those services. >> that would be the fee basis approach that we've talked about. >> that's the use of no

mr. kaufman. dr. lynch, how long have you been with the va system >> about 30 years. >> how long have you been in senior leadership? >> about a year and a half. >> you know, what surprises me and i certainly commend the va for having this access to care initiative. i think the problem is that, and i think we need to be convinced because what we're asking is the same people that drove us into this ditch, to figure out how to get us out of this ditch, and what amazes me is the fact that in the leadership with the va, all of the issues that have come forward through whistle blowers. and i know that you went -- when the story -- i think it was a catalyst for this, which was the phoenix va scandal, i think you personally went down there to look at it. i mean you didn't -- >> i've been to phoenix four times. >> when you testified before this committee you went there, you came back, you didn't talk to the schedulers that were actually doing the work, you didn't talk to dr. foote the key whistle blower. you made no

mr. kaufman. dr. lynch how long have you been with the va system >> about 30 years. >> how long have you been in senior leadership? >> about a year and a half. >> you know, what surprises me and i certainly commend the va for having this access to care initiative. i think the problem is that, and i think we need to be convinced because what we're asking is the same people that drove us into this ditch, to figure out how to get us out of this ditch, and what amazes me is the fact that in the leadership with the va, all of the issues that have come forward through whistle blowers. and i know that you went -- when the story -- i think it was a catalyst for this, which was the phoenix va scandal, i think you personally went down there to look at it. i mean you didn't -- >> i've been to phoenix four times. >> when you testified before this committee you went there, you came back, you didn't talk to the schedulers that were actually doing the work, you didn't talk to dr. foote the key whistle blower. you made no

. >> mr. lynch? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for the witnesses for coming forward to help us with our work. i've been involved on the oversight committee and this committee on dealing with some of our trade agreements, and just trying to rebalance our export/import imbalance with a number of countries, spent some time recently in south korea, india, france, germany. i noticed in my trip to south korea, in connection with the south korean trade agreement, i couldn't help but notice, the only u.s. cars -- now, south korea is a booming economy, very modern, big highways. the only u.s. cars i saw there on the days that i was there was the one i was riding in and the one that had my security detail from the embassy. so no u.s. cars. in japan, same thing. you needed a detective to find an american car. so obviously those companies have closed markets in order to boost their domestic car production. i walk outside this door here, i can't spit without hitting a japanese or a korean car. so they have highly protective efforts.

mr. lynch. >> i want to raise the issue while the irs isn't held high repute, neither is the united states congress. i want to thank you for your willingness to testify. i would like to refocus on the evidence here. i am a little bit surprised at the chronlogical order that has been laid out here where you originally invited my -- mr. camp and the ways and means committee to testify and then it seems like when mr. issa found out, you were subpoenaed here to testify before you and you will testify tomorrow at the other hearing and then mr. camp jumps in front of him and now i have billboards and a video clip up there. i am worried i will come in here tomorrow and there is a 16-piece orchestra to cap out the show. that is not the way this is supposed to happen. that is not the way this is supposed to go down. there are serious issues here we have to get to. all of this fanfare and showm showmanship is doing a dissatisfaction to the american people. we are failing meeting the expectations of the a

. >> chair now recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the witnesses for their willingness to come before the committee and help us with our work. i've been involved on the oversight committee and this committee on dealing with some of our trade agreements just trying to rebalance our export-import balance with a number of countries. spent a little time in china recently, south korea, india, france, germany. i noticed in my trip to south korea in connection with the south korean trade agreement, travel there for a few days. i couldn't help but notice that this is just anecdotal, but we're there for several days, and the only u.s. cars -- now, south korea is a booming economy, very modern, big highways. the only u.s. cars i saw there in the days that i was there was the one i was riding in and the one that had my security detail from the embassy. so no u.s. cars. okay. in japan, same thing. you need a detective to find an american car in japan. so those countries obviously have closed markets in order to boost their domesti

. >> chair now recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. lynch. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank the witnesses for their willingness to come before the committee and help us with our work. i've been involved on the oversight committee and this committee on dealing with some of our trade agreements just trying to rebalance our export-import balance with a number of countries. spent a little time in china recently, south korea, india, france, germany. i noticed in my trip to south korea in connection with the south korean trade agreement, travel there for a few days. i couldn't help but notice that this is just anecdotal, but we're there for several days, and the only u.s. cars -- now, south korea is a booming economy, very modern, big highways. the only u.s. cars i saw there in the days that i was there was the one i was riding in and the one that had my security detail from the embassy. so no u.s. cars. okay. in japan, same thing. you need a detective to find an american car in japan. so those countries obviously have closed markets in order to boost their domesti

. >> did i hear this right in the answer to mr. lynch that when the treasury inspecton general was doing their back that they wer, when they were doing their work knew about it. >> when they did their review of the determination process was aware that her e-mail had crashed and i said i do not think that they were. >> so the inspector general is trying to get to the bottom of this matter and nobody informed them that her computer had crashed and that her e-mails were lost. >> nothing from my understanding, no. >> were they withholding information from the inspecton general. >> he has access to all i mails and records he would like. i have no indication that anybody did not provide it to him. >> did they ask? >> i have no idea, i was not there. >> do you think that would be unreasonable to ask that question? >> you can ask the inspector general. >> on page two, he did ask the names, titles or any officers involved on whether tax organizations in 501 c 4 should be subject to rules. that was in 2011. he's asking for all of these e-mails. wh

mr. chairman. dr. lynch, you mentioned earlier that $312 million has been made available to be accelerate access to care for veteran who have been unable to receive it thus far. where did that money come from? >> the money was recovered from funds that were not being used across va. i believe that there was some activation monies that was repurposed to cover the accelerated care initiative. >> what are activation moneys? >> sometimes monies that are used for new projects. i don't know the details but i would assume that it was felt that it the monies were not absolutely necessary at this time and could be repurposed to address the immediate concern, which was the provision of timely care to veterans. >> and will you or the va be coming back to congress to recover those monies after we get through this crisis? >> i don't think that's our intention, congressman. >> okay. >> i think our immediate attention is to provide timely access to care and at the moment, we're trying to use the funds that we have. >> what

mr. chairman, just have a very quick follow-up. dr. lynch, i want to go back to the fy 149 appropriations question i asked you for a point of clarity. i understand you mentioned the va is in the process process of working with outside providers. is that just a general statement or are you suggesting that the demonstration project kong depressionally directed in the fy '149 budget is currently being implemented? >> it is being implemented, congressman. can i get you information on the sites where that is being provided at this time? >> yeah, you certainly could. there are about six or seven of us that wrote a letter to the secretary on may 7th asking for an update on the implementation. i know you've got a lot of letters coming your way right now. but it is a matter of concern because it was done with such specificity. even the criteria were put in the congressional report as to how the centers were to be evaluated. so i just want to make sure we're talking apples and apples here that this is the fy 14. >> let me work with our was office of m

lynch. how quickly ask va hire clinical staff under current authorities? >> mr. chairman, i don't have the answer to that question. i know that our current processes, particularly in human resources, are slow. we are putting processes in place to speed those processes. to speed that process so that we can hire physicians more efficiently and more quickly. >> are there any impediments that we as a legislative body can do to assist in removing some of the barriers? >> at the moment, mr. chairman, i can't think of any. >> i would simply add that -- >> sorry about that. i would add that some part of the reason it takes a bit of time is the credentialing and privilege process which i think you would all want us to be rigorous about. we're investigating ways to try to speed that up but the human resources part is probably one. >> what is the expected cost of accelerating access to the care initiative and how are you funding it currently? >> right now the expected cost that we have invested is approximately $312 million. it is being funded based on monies that we had be

mr. gomez, you're probably familiar with the gentleman by the name of michael lynch who did a documentaryg to america. i think he is either doing a sequel or has completed one. he has reported recently there are approximately 2000 of these people crossing the border every day. the border patrol in texas cannot even control them thomas so they are taking them to other states. i know jan brewer is getting flooded with them. one more major comment to everyone listening out there. why should you be concerned about this, especially if you have children? we have these dreamers in our country right now who are being educated, getting scholarships that natural born american citizens children should be getting and are not and legal immigrants should be getting and or not. with all these children coming in, the next idea will be chain migration. for those of you who do not know what that is, parents or grandparents, the and send uncles will be pouring in to take care of the children. we already have a lack of jobs in the country. we are stifled with medical care right now. we are no longer a meltin

merrill lynch, bought by bank of america, bought and sold over 240 million barrels of oil. mr. president, the only reason that these firms were betting on the price of oil was to speculate and to make money. goldman sachs, bank of america, they do not use oil. their only function in this process is speculation, driving up prices and making huge profits. mr. president, the rise in oil and gasoline prices were entirely avoidable. the dodd-frank wall street reform required the cftc to impose strict limits on the amount of oil wall street could trade in the energy futures market by january 17 of 2011, over three and a half years ago. unfortunately the cftc has been unable to implement position limits due to opposition from wall street in a ruling by the d.c. circuit court. this is simply unacceptable. millions and millions of americans who are filling up at the gas tanks today are disgusted. they know they're being ripped off and they want us to protect our needs. mr. president, the time is now to provide the american people relief at the gas pump before the situation gets even wor