mr. randall williamson, director of gao health care team. and mr. christopher labonte, the united states army veteran. i ask the witnesses to please stand and raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear under penalty of perjury that the testimony you are about to provide is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. >> i do. >> thank you. please be seated. mr. murray, you are now recognized for five minutes. >> good afternoon, chairman coffman, ranking member custer and members of the community. thank you for talking about the care of veterans by contracting with community providers. mr. chairman the subject of this involves complex procurement process and legal interpretations and the processing of hundreds of thousands of purchase care transactions per year. i know we will be discussing these areas in detail. and that the committees' oversight is important. it is depending on a mix of in-house and community care and with the care in the community continuing to grow to ensure veterans get the care they need in a timely way as close to h

mr. williamson said. and mr. williamson said there is not that much -- not that much follow-up on this behavioral health autopsy rowe gram or learning anything for it. can you remind me what you said in your testimony because it is contradicting what dr. kudler said. >> we were talking about very little oversight at the local or nationalal level to see whether it is accurate or complete. >> dr. cudler you said you are doing over site and the g.o. says you are not. what is going on. >> the difference is the two years since the report was written. i'm not questioning the report. in fact it is helpful as a spur to do more. at this point we're making a real difference in -- >> can you show me the result of the over site you've done in the last two years. can you get that to me in a reasonable period of time? like within a month. >> that is not the way it is. to respond to our recommendations on oversight, i don't think v.a. has completed those yet. it is not the two or three year lag at all. i think what we're talking

mr. williamson graduated from college in south carolina with a bachelor's degree in theology. she then went on to complete a masters in social work from louisiana state university, that has gone on to receive distinguished alumni reward from both schools. in october, 2013, mr. williamson appointed to her current position after serving as president and ceo of the louisiana association of nonprofit organizations and cabinet secretary from louisiana department of social services. in less than two years in her position in utah, mr. williamson has never seen the state successful efforts to obtain a federal title of 4e waiver, and the launching of the child welfare demonstration project onwards that aims to reduce use of foster care for occurrence of child abuse and neglect and needs for social services intervention. i welcome each of our witnesses to the committee here today as we proceed the opening statements, i urge you to keep your remarks to the minutes if you can. so we'll start with you, then. >> good morning. thank you chairman hatch. member whiten and member thes of the co

mr. nyby, would you do the same and miss williamson? great. >> senator scott. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank members of the panel for your participation and certainly your rich testimony and it is good to know even utah find incredible assets in south carolina, well-educated at winthrop i think i heard. god bless you. we'll talk later why you left but we'll get to that later. not part of the hearing. i will tell you that i, this is a moving topic and a hard topic to digest and to confront. know we often times $9 billion through one program. if we look at it through only prism of the finances we miss the point of the as far as which is to try to make a way for every american to experience their full potential. i had an opportunity last year to visit one of the foster care homes in south carolina and spent i think it was the week of thanksgiving going to a couple of locations and talking to the kids about their goals, their dreams, their expectations. one of the points that i believe, miss killlet, you made is important point that seems to ring true consistently, what their

mr. williamson, in the years since the michael brown shooting, where has the aclu tried to focus its efforts when it comes to police reform? >> well, as you may know, the aclu is a national organization that also has at least one local affiliate in every state, in addition to puerto rico. and so as a national office, there are several programs and projects within the organization that are focusing on criminal justice issues and it really runs the gamut from police encounters to what happens once you get arrested to what happens once you get to court and go to trial and are sentenced. and then our local affiliates do a lot of really important work on the local level dealing with the particular issues that may be affecting the communities where they are based. so we are both a litigation shop and organization that recognizes that a lot of these problems can't be solved simply by going to court. so we think it's a multifaceted, multipronged approach that needs to be taken. >> in trying to make change, where would you say your group or local affiliates have been the most successful in the last y

mr. williamson if you would tell me were any government entities or nonprofit associations helpful to you in any way any government agencies, or nonprofits helpful to you since the storm? >> if they were if you would identify them. >> okay. yes. certainly. >> mike directly under. you sorry, certainly american red cross has been helpful, the department of housing urban development has been helloful, fema. has been help full. there have been lots of. federal agencies that have given me aid. >> has local government been helpful any entity local government. >> i think there are organizations such as i believe they are called strong families is an organization here that's right -- been helpful again, one of the biggest things has been, that most of this has been rather chaotic. so help has been there, it has been sporadic it has been unorganized certainly, i think there has been great effort at offering help. >> miss keeley. >> with me the american red cross in florida. it was not consistent, louisiana texas, arkansas other blazes i went to because they gave different things but american red c

mr. nyby and ms. williamson. four oregon, i think it is -- for oregon, i think it is differential response, right? and then homework in oregon. tells about what works in both and what you hope we would deprive from those two -- what we would derive from those two approaches. i know we are limited on time. ms. williamson: you heard consistency, i would highlight that. evidence-based assistance. there was a mention of evaluating risk. being very purposeful in structure, family support that is strictly tied to the risk revealed. the other element i would highlight is very consistent between utah and oregon. it is family engagement, listening to the family. when families have a voice, children included, and a vested interest in their success and in the case plan, that allows them to achieve that sustained safety and permanency. we will rely those outcomes much more efficiently and effectively. ms.uickly i would echo what williamson said in terms of different parts. dealing thing i would add is that in order to suppor

mr. williamson if you would tell me were any government entities or nonprofit associations helpful to youn any way any government agencies, or nonprofits helpful to you since the storm? >> if they were if you would identify them. >> okay. yes. certainly. >> mike directly under. you sorry, certainly american red cross has been helpful, the department of housing urban development has been helloful, fema. has been help full. there have been lots of. federal agencies that have given me aid. >> has local government been helpful any entity local government. >> i think there are organizations such as i believe they are called strong families is an organization here that's right -- been helpful again, one of the biggest things has been, that most of this has been rather chaotic. so help has been there, it has been sporadic it has been unorganized certainly, i think there has been great effort at offering help. >> miss keeley. >> with me the american red cross in florida. it was not consistent, louisiana texas, arkansas other blazes i went to because they gave different things but american red cro

mr. nyby and ,iss williamson, or ms.killett give us a response to that quickly, but if you don't mind sending me a written response, that would be helpful. look at the legislation and tell us what you think about this idea of coming up with the uniform definition. a uniform have definition, but i would like to say that i would like to follow up with a written response because i think it is worth and to a lot of thought to give you that information. >> that would be great. >> mr. nyby and miss swainson, would you do the same? -- miss williamson, would you do the same? >> i thank the members of the panel for your participation and your rich testimony and it is good to know even utah finds incredible assets in south carolina. [laughter] god bless you. we will talk later on why you left, but we will get to that later. this is a moving topic and a hard topic to digest and confront. i know we oftentimes second-guessed $9 billion from one program, but if we only look at the finances, we miss the real point of the service, which

mr. nyby, would you do the same, and ms. williamson? great. thank you. >> senator scott. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank the members of the panel for your participation and certainly your rich testimony. it's good to know that even utah finds incredible assets in south carolina. well educated at winthrop, i think i heard. god bless you. we'll talk later on why you left, but we'll get to that later. not the point of the hearing. i will tell you that this is a moving topic and a hard topic to digest and to confront. i know that we oftentimes look at the $9 billion spent through one program, but if we look at it only from the prism of the finances, we miss the real point of the service, which is really trying to find a way to make sure that every american experiences their full potential. i had an opportunity last year to visit one of the foster care homes in south carolina and spent -- i think it was the week of thanksgiving, going to a couple of locations and talking to the kids about their goals, their dreams, their expectations. and one

mr. chairman. >> last but certainly not least we will hear from ann williamson. ms. williamson completed a masters in social work from louisiana state university and has gone on to receive distingiushed awards from both schools. she served as president and ceo of the non-profit for louisiana and cabinet director for louisiana's social services. ms. williamson has helped the state of utah obtain a federal title 4-e waiver and the launching of a child welfare demonstration project that aims to reduce the use of foster care child abuse and neglect, and the need for services and intervention. i welcome each member to the committee. i urge you to keep your remarks to the allotted five minutes if we >> good morning. thank you chairman hatch and members of the committee for the invitation to be here today. i am a divorced single mother who raised two sons who are now 22 and 20 years of age resided new york city and am currently employed at the child welfare organizing project its self-help advocacy organization of parents who have been affected by new york city children's s

mr. chairman. >> thank you. >> exec difficult director of my state's -- ms. williamson graduated from in south carolina with a bachelor's degree in theology. and has gone on to receive distinguished alumnae awards from both schools. in october 2013, ms. williamson was appointed to her current position after serving president and ceo of the louisiana association of nonprofit associations, and cabinet secretary for louisiana's department of social services. in less than two years in her position in utah ms. williamson has overseen the state's successful efforts to obtain a federal tight and the launching of a child well fair project homeworks which aims to reduce the work of foster care, and neglect, and the need for social services intervention. i welcome each of our witnesses to the committee here today. as we proceed to openings statements, i urge you to keep your remarks to the allotted five minutes, if we can. we'll start with you. >> good morning. thank you chairman hatch, ranking member wyden and members of the committee for the invitation to be here today. my name

mr. chairman, i do want to say as we listen to all of this, the cost effectiveness that ms. williamson talked about, we are about getting ready to go into a debate on the budget where there's willingness to add money. we're not yet at a bipartisan agreement to defend our families, the things that we can do that will make a tremendous difference. i hope when we go into discussion about appropriations, we will remember what we had heard here. senator and i were very pleased to offer a private project to address mental health and substance abuse in the community. it's not 50 states. it wouldn't take a lot to make it 50 states. and so i appreciate that we are able to move forward on a pilot. my fus -- frustration is there are things that we can do and should do. i hope they would wand to -- want to do it. i have questions -- >> yeah. >> regarding one piece of this that i worked on with senator portland to be cospon -- coresponsorring a bill. you know what can be done in that front i wonder if you can speak about that a little bit and therapeutic faster care services. >> senator, i can't sa