mr. secretary, that your office did provide to us regarding terminations and i have 958 were probationary perminations out of that number. mr. o'rourke. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you mr. secretary dr. tuchschmidt, for your answer, your testimony and service to the country. i had a town hall meeting this saturday and as with almost every town hall that i have, it was dominated by concerns about access to the v.a. and primarily mental healthcare access which seems to reflect your own recent rankings as of july 1, out of 141 mental healthcare systems within the v.a., el paso ranks 141st, we're dead last. one of the veterans who came up, wonderful young man, incredibly patient and polite, said that that friday, the day before, he'd had a mental healthcare appointment that had been scheduled for some time at 9:00 a.m. at 7:30 a.m. he was called to inform him that his provider would not be available and somebody would call him back to reschedule that appointment. no one called him back so he came to the town hall to let me know. i immediately called gail graham, interim director, and she got him an appointment this week and he's going to be seen but i tell you that anecdote because even though we're

mr. secretary and dr. tuchschmidt for your answers today and your testimony and your service to the country. i had a town hall meeting this saturday and as with almost every town hall that i have it was dominate bid concerned about access to the v.a. and primarily mental healthcare access which accesses your own recent rankings out of july 1st, el paso ranked 141st we're dead last. one of the veterans who came up wonderful young man, incredibly patient and polite said the friday the day before, he had a mental health appointment scheduled for sometime at 9:00 a.m. at 7:30 a.m. he was called to tell him his provider wouldn't be available and somebody would call him back to reschedule. in one called him back and he came to the town hall to let me know. i called gale graham the new interim director and she got him an appointment this week so he will be seen but i tell you that anecdote because even though we are ranked last, you show us that at about 17 days. when i asked the veterans in my community, we did a statistica