the clerk: amendment offered by ms. titus of nevada. at the end of the bill before the short title insert the following, section, none of the funds made available in this act may be used to issue rules or regulations to allow an individual on an aircraft to engage in voice communications using a mobile device during a or enter that aircraft flight intra-state except for crew member of board the aircraft or officer on board the aircraft. the chair: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. titus: after speaking with the committee, i plan to withdraw my amendment. i want to take a moment to speak on the underlying issue pause i think it's very important. my amendment would prohibit the department from engaging in rule making to allow the use of voice communication devices in flight. in other words, cell phones. when the federal communications commission first floated the idea of allowing cell phone usage on airplanes, the response from the american people was so clear you could hear a pin drop. something that would not be possible if you were sur

ms. titus: thank you and thank you for yielding. mr. speaker, i rise in support of the democratic motion to instruct conferees. as a member of thehouse committee on veterans' affairs, i'm working hard to ensure the veterans in las vegas and around the country have access to high-quality health care in a timely fashion. believe the sanders-mccaine conference bill makes -- sanders-mccain conference makes good compromise. this should be passed as soon as possible. both pieces are legislation that i introduced to help veterans and their families. the first is h.r. 3441, the spouses of heroes education act. this legislation amends the post-9/11 g.i. bill to expand the scholarship by making surviving spouses and member of the armed services eligible for the benefit program. this scholarship provides full in-state tuition, fees and monthly stipend and book allowance for children of service members who died in the line of duty and for the first time the change would extend to spouses the same benefits. the second is h.r. 2527, the national guar

so when you were responding to ms. titus question earlier about robbing peter to pay paul, and you also mentioned that we need to make better decisions about how resources are allocated, do you have some recommendations for the vba or for the committees of oversight in terms of how we should be spending that money in a smarter fashion? >> i would like to see that you ask vba to do a good static analysis for its initiative -- staffing analysis, and its work in us. there are too many areas that are being under addressed at this point, are what i would consider under managed. i think at some point if you were to put the right resources on some of these things, such as temporary 100% disability evaluations not being managed effectively, and the associated financial impact that we report in our reports, that would start to reduce and would have a better operation, not only from the fact that veterans would be served quicker with whatever decisions and reviews that were needed to make sure their claims were accurate, and then we w

after ms. titus, the next speaker, next will be roberto [speaker not understood] i can't here. i think she had to leave. okay. dr. ga linda, you want to speak in public comment? i assume i read your statement right. then julisa hernandez, miguel peirez. [speaker not understood]. michael t -- i don't know her last name, i can't read it, then [speaker not understood]. thank you. >>> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is lottie titus. i'm a resident of bayview hunters point and grandmother of five. my daughter is a diabetic and her 9 year old diabetic. she's a full blown diabetic. since finding out sugary sweetened beverages affect the health disparities of our youth and families, we support the tax. i will continue to support this tax because i have a strong desire to live in a healthy community. it's very, very personal for me. thank you for your support of this tax as well. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >>> good afternoon, my name is theresa hernandez. i am an organizer for ufpw local 648 and [speaker not understood] has diabetes. my mom is currently 74 yea

to ms. titus. the chair: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. titus p.c. i'm pleased to join -- ms. titus: i'm pleased to join with my colleagues to increase the summer food program for children by $3 million. across the country one in every five children is at risk of going hungry. in nevada, more than $233,000 children qualify for free or reduced lunch that means 54% of nevada students come from low-income households that struggle with hunger. while they eat free or reduced price lunches in the school yearering the vast majority are left without adequate nutrition in the summer. the summer e.b.t. program helps fill the gap by giving families additional snap benefits in the summer months. it works. in 2012 it served almost 67,000 children who might have otherwise gone hungry and participation in this program is dramatically higher than in other programs serving up to 75% of eligible children. that's why i believe that we should meet the president's budget request and increase funding to feed as many hungry children as possible. a vacation from school shouldn't mean a hungry child. t

ms. titus: over the last 50 years, women have broken barriers in business, science, education, and government. yet in nevada, the arch woman still makes only 85 cents for every dollar a man earns so that leads to a pay gap of more than $6,300 per year this not only harms individual women, it hurt theirs families, our communities, and the national economy. in a country where we strive for equal opportunity for all this inequity is simply unacceptable. that's why i'm calling on my republican colleagues to bring the paycheck fairness act to the floor for a vote. how can they say to their wives, you deserve less pay than i do? how can they say to their daughters, you're worth less than my sons? how can they tell their staff the women aren't as valuable as the men? it's unconscionable. i say pass this bill now because when women succeed, nevada succeeds and america succeeds. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from new

m ms. titus. >> over the past week we've had a lot of discussion about how to integrate metrics into evaluating the system. we keep hearing metrics this, metrics that. then just recently the v.a. said they're dropping the metric of 14 days as a way to measure the scheduling appointments because that was unrealistic. now they've changed it to 30 days. i know we can't abandon performance metrics. but when i talked to the people at the las vegas hospital and they go into all these details, then they tell me, but this doesn't really measure what we're doing because it doesn't count the first appointment that they have when they come in on the very same day. so it's not an accurate reflection. i wonder if we're not suffering from the ecological fallacy. we just can't see the forest for the trees. do you have some suggestion about how we better use metrics or we get rid of some metrics or how we can do evaluation better? anybody? >> yeah. you know, in our industry, we tend to be gluttons for punishment

ms. titus: thank you, mr. speaker. nevada lost a good man, and i lost a good friend this past week when jim rogers lost his long battle with cancer at the age of 75. those who knew or briefly encountered jim quickly realized that he had no fear. an usiness ackuemen, if i ropic made him a game changer. while it was improving the education or strengthening the integrity of the media, jim never shied away from his convictions or back down from his steadfast commitment to progress and quality. he started the conversation, directed the dialogue and produced results that propeled nevada, sometimes kicking and screaming, towards a brighter future. my thoughts go out to his wife, beverly, his son, his other family members and the people who worked with him and for him at channel 3. they brought the world into our living rooms every evening. we all miss him very much and so will that. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania

m ms. titus. >> over the past week we've had a lot of discussion about how to integrate metrics into evaluating the system. we keep hearing metrics this, metrics that. then just recently the v.a. said they're dropping the metric of 14 days as a way to measure the scheduling appointments because that was unrealistic. now they've changed it to 30 days. i know we can't abandon performance metrics. but when i talked to the people at the las vegas hospital and they go into all these details, then they tell me, but this doesn't really measure what we're doing because it doesn't count the first appointment that they have when they come in on the very same day. so it's not an accurate reflection. i wonder if we're not suffering from the ecological fallacy. we just can't see the forest for the trees. do you have some suggestion about how we better use metrics or we get rid of some metrics or how we can do evaluation better? anybody? >> yeah. you know, in our industry, we tend to be gluttons for punishment

ms. titus for five minutes. >> i just want to echo some of the comments of oregon made by my colleagues and the concern about performance awards going to people who may or may not have earned him but i think it was the chairman pointed out earlier that the director of vsm 21 which oversees part of nevada turned out had put false information on a resume where she'd gone to school or she had gone to school but she goes all the way through the ranks to be the director of that? that's an enormous task overseeing tens of thousands of veterans that stretches all the way from guam to renew. i wonder if you could tell us how you verify people's resumes or when the file applications, how to look to be sure that this wouldn't happen again? this woman also received these bonuses as she moved up the letter but i think she out to get some of them back now but could you address that issue for a? >> congresswoman, when we receive resumes we call references. we do background checks. i have just heard of this r

and with that, yield to the ranking member, ms. titus. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would just say, first, ms. gipson, my colleague, mr. beto, was certainly right. yours is a powerful and eloquent voice for change, and thank you very much for being here. i would just ask you at any point during the process were you asked by anybody or did you take a survey about how it was working, what could have been done better, if you were satisfied? did you feel like anybody was asking for your feedback? >> yes, ma'am, i do. the issue with the survey is you -- i have some familiarity with surveys, and when you survey people makes a difference in what their response will be. so, for example, if you survey a service member who has recently entered the ides process and they're within that first 0-day window -- 30-day window, their comment about the va, about the ides system is not going to be negative at all because they've only participated in the process for 30 days. if, however, you survey that same service member, say, for example, within six months of them exiting the service

i yield to the ranking member ms. titus for her opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for holding this hearing today. thank you for coming to provide us with needed information. today we are looking at the performance of programs that v.a. and d.o.d. utilized for determining fit for duty the status for ill or injured service members as well as programs designed to expedite the adjudication of claims. particularly we are going to focus on integrated disability evaluation system, ides that benefits delivery at discharge program, b.d.d. and the quick start program. all of the programs have been up and running for a number of years. ides is a follow up to poor conditions and fragmented care exposed at walter reed army hospital. bdd was launched back in 1995 as a pilot program and became operational in 1998. bdd was to assist disabled service members in making a seamless and successful transition to civilian life by allowing them to get the claim completed as early as possible while they have all medical information readily available. quick start was launched in 2

an issue i would like to get your thoughts on, and i really loved ms. titus' idea about getting more residencies in rural or hard to serve communities like ours. is this a question of where we are going to get the doctors in the capacity we need? already in el paso, which as my colleague mentioned is about a ten-hour round trip drive from the nearest vha hospital. we have a va clinic, but do not have a hospital. our patient-to-doctor ratio is on par with syria or panama. it's a developing country's doctor-to-patient ratio. we are having a hard time already. i like the idea of more incentives and ways to attract doctors and providers to our community, but when i meet with doctors, to your excellent suggestion of listening to the providers, they complain of having to perform functions that could much better be done by clerical staff. one doctor told me he actually had to write out a prescription for a veteran to be picked up by a van, taken to the greyhound station where he boards a bus to go to albuquerque, new mexico, five hours upstream on the rio grande. he

. >> ms. titus. you're recognized for five minutes. >> thank you for holding this meeting late to accommodate us who had to fly back from the west coast. we appreciate that. like my colleagues, i too want to get to the bottom of this waiting list problem in phoenix and across the country and many of my questions have been answered. the i.g. is not going to release, as i understand it, the names of the other facilities that are being investigated primarily to protect the whistle blowers. i've asked that nevada be added to that list because i want to be sure that the veterans there are getting the kind of services they deserve and there are not any secret waiting lists. i want to ask kind of a different line of questions because i think they go to the point of priorities. and i think priorities are kind of some of the problem that we are facing here as we look at the waiting list issue. dr. lynch, you mentioned that you went to, phoenix to check into the accusations that 40, that people had died as a r

ms. titus: today is the one-year anniversary of the historic decision to strike down the defense of marriage act. we celebrate the progress we have made for lgbt equality, but more importantly we must recommit to ending the injustice that remains. an announcement last week by the administration regarding ongoing efforts to extend federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples in the wake of that decision clarify what is i have long suspected. unless congress acts, legally married same-sex servicemens, veterans and their spouses will continue -- service members, veterans and their spouses will continue to face discrimination when accessing benefits from the v.a. that's why nearly a year ago i introduced h.r. 2529, the veteran spouses equal treatment act. it sheens -- ensures that no veterans or their families are denied benefits they redeserve regardless of where they live. members of the military don't serve in defense of the rights and freedoms of a particular state, but rather of the un

titus. >> thank you. i would just say, first, ms. gibson, my colleague was certain right. yours is a powerful and eloquent voice for change. i would ask you if at any point during the process, were you asked to by anybody or did you take a survey about how it was working? what could've been done better? did you feel like anybody was asking for your feedback? >> yes ma'am. i do. the issue with the survey is that -- i have some familiarity with the surveys. and when you survey people, it makes a difference and what their response will be. for example if you survey a service member who has recently entered the process as they are within the first 30 day window their comments about the v.a. or ides system will not be negative at all. they have only participated in the process for 30 days. if however you survey that same servicemember, say for example within six months of them exiting the service when they had an opportunity to reflect back on when what happened to them i think that numbers may look very different. to answer your question more specifically yes we were surveyed.