when he came home he experienced severe posttraumatic stress. he stands up in front of a bunch of cowboys telling a story. he said one night he came home drunk and he pulled out a shotgun and looked down the barrel. gun intoly, to put the another room and locked the closet and went and got therapy. last year, he graduated from u cal berkeley with honors. he interned in the u.s. stock exchange. i don't know why he did that. we invited him to join us today but he is in swaziland. he went from looking down a shotgun to traveling around 11 countries and 11 months to build bible schools and teach english, math, science and working in the field and digging water wells. inspiration to our vets and he should be to our fellow americans prayed he is living proof that pts does not have to be in oslo -- obstacle to a successful life. his story also highlights one of the more uplifting aspects of veterans returning home. many of those who have served in uniform have devoted themselves to helping other vets. many have not worn the uniform also help. according

doctors diagnosed him with depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder.e said he didn't pay attention to the diagnosis and tried to move on. problem is his military continued to haunt him. >> certain sounds remind you of certain things. when helicopters fly over i'mk of that. being in a room with my back to the wall, seeing entrance and exits. >> when he finally sought help, it took him weeks to get response from a medical professional leaving him feeling hopeless and dejected. >> backlog with the v.a., posttraumatic stress is 14 months. >> retired navy commander says michael's situation is all too common in our area. he wanted to find a solution, created operation vets haven. >> the best thing. >> best thing to do is get them in. >> that's at the core of this nonprofit program which connects veterans is to get help with people 48 to 72 hours. >> i can get this kind of quality help and not have to come out of pocket for it. el learned about operation vets haven we was in school with a counselor. having mental health problems after returning from work does

don't identify as a consumer, but i also identify as a family member of someone who struggled with posttraumatic stress. for a good portion of her life. my sister jasmin, was in treatment for over a decade, due to an incident in her own personal life, her posttraumatic stress was activated in the early 90s, and she attended a community clinic for over a decade. she was a known patient at this facility. and a volunteer. and she had a psychotic episode at this mental health facility down in southern california, and the emergency dispatch called this place from the clinic to the local station where two officers were dispatched. and this is an agency that does not have a formal crisis intervention training program or any sort of training program that deploy deputies that are specifically trained to approach a situation with known or with individuals who have known mental conditions. and within eight minutes of the caulk placed my sister was shot dead and this was within eleven seconds of four deputies entering the known mental health facility and within eleven seconds two tasers were deployed and tw

. >> former army vice chief of staff discussed posttraumatic stress. other topics include getting adequate health insurance, education and employment. this conference on veterans was hosted by the george w. bush institute in dallas. it is moderated by abc news chief global affairs correspondent martha raddatz. is is just under an hour. >> we want to talk in this panel about some of the obstacles our veterans face. some of the obstacles certainly the wounded face. and the opportunities to empower those veterans. i want to start with general pete chiarelli, who i will say i have known since early in the iraq war. we went through a lot together. we have visited the wounded together. and pete chiarelli, since retiring as vice chief of staff of the army where he was deeply involved in issues of post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, i truly think no one cares more than pete chiarelli about the future of our wounded veterans and he is now with one mind, where they and he dedicates his time to continue to help those same veterans. general chiarelli, i

when he came home he experienced severe posttraumatic stress.res, had trouble maintaining relationships this is guy stands up in front after bunch of amarillo cowboys telling his story. he said one night he came home drunk and he pulled out a shotgun and looked right down the barrel. fortunately he put the gun into another room, locked the closet, went and got therapy. last year he graduated from ucal berkeley with honors. interned at the new york stock exchange. i don't know why he did that. [laughter] he, he volunteered with team rubicon to deliver disaster relief. we invited him to join us today but he is in sawsly land. the guy from looking down a shotgun to traveling around 11 countries in 11 months to build bible schools, teach english, math, science, working in the fields to dig water wells. he is inspiration to our vets and should be to our fellow americans. he is living proof pts does not have to be a obstacle to a successful life. dave's story highlights one of the more uplifting aspects of veterans returning home. many of those served

in health care, delivering more disability pay to veterans of agent orange, helping deal with posttraumatic stress, brain injury, improving care for our women's veterans -- women veterans. he helped reduce veteran homelessness and helped more than one million veterans, servicemembers, and their families pursue their education under the post 9/11 g.i. bill. his commitment to veterans is unquestioned. the service to our country is exemplary. i am grateful for his service, as are many veterans across the country. he has worked hard to investigate and identify the .roblems with access to care but as he told me this morning, .he v.a. needs new leadership he does not want to be at the -- a distraction because his priority is to get our veterans the care they need. that was his judgment on behalf is

we did great studies up there on posttraumatic stress, the first is on posttraumatic stress when i was in committee counsel. prisoner of war experience, the hospital system. there was a big push back in the late 70's to do away with the veterans affairs hospital system . but we did not have the backlogs in our system that you do today. 30 million veterans, 24 million today. end one of the things i was most surprised about when i got into the senate was that just in terms of getting it claims evaluated, there is a 600,000 backlog when i got there. well after it was 900,000 backlog. there are reasons for this. the adjudication process is more complicated today and it was. we have the post 9/11 veterans moving in and needing assistance also a lot of vietnam veterans are leaving their careers and they're going to be relying on the viejo for medical care, but that does not matter. there is no excuse for having this kind of a backlog in getting people into the system. it is not a political question. it is a question. how you put your assets into place to solve the problems. one of my great h

we don't know how many soldiers who have posttraumatic stress disorder struggle, but we know that some of them do. we don't have a single effective drug to stop this process. >> why is that? >> i think it is, in part, because we are just beginning to learn the causes of these diseases. we thought for a long time that we understood them, but in the last five years your senior dramatic change. we think now that each one of these proteins, an alternative should this house should approaching stimulus more. that is at the root. it's never sure, that's the number that's out there. the pipeline, as most people at this conference know is filled with anti-cancer drugs. sixers 700. and alzheimer's disease, we are spending 500 billion, one-tenth for the research it goes on. in part that is because alzheimer's disease was not even listed as the cause of death by the cdc until 1978. in fact, it was not thought to be a disease. it was about to be a condition of old age. now we know that the number is much higher than we ever thought the cdc finally came to a number of 80,000. some very interesting e

so the idea is maybe, if you have posttraumatic stress disorder? >> the idea is huge. landmark paper and journal of nature out of scientists from california. basically what they did, they manipulated brained cells of rats by using different techniques but at end of the day they were able to instill a memory in those nerve cells and then erase it. which is huge. now we know memories are electrical impulses that get embedded into your brain tissue. we truly don't understand the whole concept yet. but this type of research is quite important because let's look at alzheimer's. we have millions of people with alzheimer's every year. continues to be global problem. there is a lot of research that needs to be done. we know for a fact that in alzheimer's we have beta deposits in the brain cells which interfere with the synaptic juncture of brain processes therefore people forget, they don't remember, memories get erased. so the mechanism is there. the key is that if you're able to do this with, you know, with manipulating cells using electrical impulses and also light i am pul

>> i'm 100% convinced that i believe that the posttraumatic stress disorder, this kid, you know, tried. that's why they claim they treated him so badly. >> yeah. >> but he does not feel comfortable at all when he's thrown in with a bunch of thugs. who would? >> that's right. >> this kid is suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder and they ought to take that into consideration. there is president for that. there was an old ehrmahrmann in 80s who crossed the boarder with a gun and had alzheimer's. they incarcerated him for awhile but they let him go. >> the president of the united states and the vice president have to walk out and tell everybody, everybody that we believe that the sergeant should be released on humanitarian grounds and then he will be. >> absolutely. the president needs to -- absolutely. the president needs to call the president of mexico and say this is a priority for we. you're our allies. we give you a ton of foreign in foreign aid and we have people in congress that are going to get very, very ugly if this doesn't have a good resolution. >> i don't think we need

whatever the injury, what their blindness, loss of a limb, genetic brain injury, posttraumatic stress, no veteran should feel as though he or she is alone. >> let me take off my congress had been put on my united states marine corps hat. i had two surgeries. i did two tours in iraq and one in afghanistan. private health care. does not work. i knew that. i had it done with private health care. not everybody is that lucky you for those of us to go in a combat time at the time the united states is at war we know the enemy states intends to kill us. if you make it home, we intend to go back to our jobs, our families, and we trust the v.a. to provide for us and give us the care and attention that is needed. no one -- and i emphasize that, expect the v.a. to fail in their duty. no one expects the v.a. to threaten the same safety and well-being that our military so dutifully defends. it's quite simple. trust between the v.a. and our veterans, the trust between the v.a. and me, the v.a. and the men that i served with and four is broken. it's broken and needs to be fixed. we have the first up

the government may not be prepared to treat the increasing number of posttraumatic stress disorder. >> fun despite spending billions of dollars a lack of standards reporting an evaluation as her treatment efforts. >> vice president biden think groups like the boys and girls club for being a vital linchpin. >> spend the bulk of my career and the judiciary committee. there is an absolute correlation between children getting in trouble and having access to boys and girls clubs. it matters. you have to give children chilis as. >> president obama speaks of the this afternoon. the supreme court has blocked the obama administration from acquiring permits for some industries that generate lots of greenhouse gases. they split 5-4. >> only players can do that. industries have complained the new rules will cost billions of dollars in debt and thousands of jobs. >> the rulings of the prohibited thousands of the rockets. >> the highly anticipated report found what prosecutors labeled crucial missteps that delayed the investigation. >> the reports released today found no evidence that politics infl

and so, that is my thing and is that the other thing, and some of the homeless, and suffer like posttraumatic stress disorder from abusive family and sexual trauma that they might have from things like that and i think that is part of the plan. and the plan on ending homelessness, and it feels and it implies that you are supposed to close some of the shelters and put that money into housing and i am hoping that we can really fix ate on putting the money more into these. and these housing units. thank you. >> thank you. >> and are there any other members of the public that wish to comment on items one or two? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, in members of the public i want to say thank you. and for those who have been here today, and yes, ma'am? >> okay. >> mj isabel and i am 68 years of age and i have been openly gay all of my life and i have lived through being homeless when i was a youth and now i am teter tottering on the edge of being homeless again, when i first had my housing i had a job and i got a better job and i got my better job because i was living in the hous

eventually i became disabled like i am right now with posttraumatic stress disorder and i'm living on disability. i ended up in an s-r-o. i've been in the s-r-o for 10 years. thank god for the subsidy because i live in -- without the subsidy i couldn't afford to live in -- where i'm living now, $700 for an s-r-o. i've been in there on the waiting list for social housing for two years trying to get a place. you know what, i haven't had a bath in ten years. you know why? because i live in a room. i have a desire to have an apartment where i can sit in a tub instead of standing in a shower. right now i have a daughter who makes $18 an hour. she has one child. she lives in public housing because the rent is so high in san francisco. she can't afford to have a place. she can't afford a first-time home buyer program we looked into. right now i have a brother who has been living in a house that my parents deceased, they've been living there for 25 years, okay. in san francisco the person -- somebody else purchased that house. my brother right now is handicapped and he's being displaced. we'r

many suffer from traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder. the lengthy and conclusive were produced and array illnesses from suicides to alcohol addiction to domestic violence, unemployment and long-term disabilities. equally compelling story is the healing efforts of families, medical professionals and friends. but try as they might, they were not always successful. david's extraordinary reporting makes it clear that the bones will be with us after the purchase of iraq and afghanist afghanistan. wounded warriors are something that cannot be allowed to continue since the wounded warriors will be with us for many years. the big truck that went by and the author. they killed several hundred thousand. today he is still devastated this time by a failure to rebuild. this is despite billions of dollars of pledges, special attention from united nations and ongoing engagement of notable such as president clinton and sean penn. he was the only american news correspondent living in hawaii at the time. and that major unleashed on the four community. he

congressman murphy calling for major reforms the the clinical psychologist to treats soldiers before posttraumatic stress he has 700 local veterans in his hospital. your advice in particular because of your background carries weight. widely make this this complicated? why can congress come up with the plan alleys to provide vouchers that if you're not getting them at the v.a. hospital -- v.a. hospital then go down the street to get the help that you need. >> that is a great idea for those who need urgent care it should be that they don't have to wait at all. we have the veterans administration that doesn't even understand its own problems. keep in mind all these issues are driven by whistleblowers. when the chairman of veterans affairs committee subpoenaed people to come forth you know, you have a culture that does not know enough to know when enough that they have problems. i recommend a few things it is extremely important whoever the president chooses this summer with the competence and knowledge of how to read the largest health care system. no more people that have greater military or busines

after 13 years of war, a new survey of veterans today found many suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder are not satisfied with the care they are receiving from the veterans administration. here's wyatt andrews. >> reporter: kevin o'brien, says his p.t.s.d. therapy at the v.a. can be excellent one day but horrible the next. one of his counselors, he says, is caring and helpful, while the other is cold and bureaucratic. o'brien is on four different medications for anxiety and depression but says the drugs don't work. >> i still have, like i said, my terrible days. so in that sense, no, my p.t.s.d. not get anything better. and the fact that they just throw medication at it doesn't do anything. it just prolongs it. >> reporter: two recent studies confirm widespread concern with v.a. mental health care. in an american legion survey of v.a. patientes, 59% of veterans report that their p.t.s.d. symptoms are not improving or are getting worse. that figure comes when the v.a.'s budget for mental health has risen 61% in six years to $7.2 billion. jeffrey greenberg conducted the survey. >

. >> former army vice chief of staff discussed posttraumatic stress. other topics include getting adequate health insurance, education and employment. this conference on veterans was hosted by the george w. bush institute in dallas. it is moderated by abc news chief global affairs correspondent martha raddatz. is is just under an hour.

don't identify as a consumer, but i also identify as a family member of someone who struggled with posttraumatics. for a good portion of her life. my sister jasmin, was in treatment for over a decade, due to an incident in her own personal li

traumas' someone went through to look at the experience in he had the classic symptoms of the posttraumatic stress. but with your experience to talk to these soldiers and their families weather battle fatigue or shell shock, are we just now learning about it nor is there something about modern warfare that is more of a problem? we know that some guys say their father was silent. >> thank you for your service eventually he is a that this treatment program in northern california on the grounds for the veterans home. here are 24 guys surrounded by 1,000 other survivors from experiences that were not i rapport afghanistan. that was the difficulty. of course, it has always been around more people going through it now because the battle armor is better because people who would have died previously but now have traumatic brain injury. there may be a higher percentage that needs some kind of help but you are a reader to know this has been around is just a little more in the open bin not the guy in the attic whose screams now and then zero or the neighbor and we grow up with these stories. may be mo

war wounded you come back to the united states from iraq or afghanistan and have a war wound or posttraumatics or treading brain injury, a top priority. even after discharge. lou: when we have a veteran. >> should be given vouchers for private hospitals, anything. our government has to make it a priority. lou: thank you. vote in our online poll. should they have terrorist leaders for soldier who it is alleged abandoned his post? tweet your response. a leader of the tea party patriots today filing an ethics complaint against harry reid. over the majorit majority leades frequent attacks over the koch brothers. accusing use of government resources for a campaign. putting aside the ethical issues, isn't it odd a tea party group meant to represent the popular will of ordinary americans is fighting for the interest of two billionaire brothers? are you kidding me? we are coming right back. lou: nasa can't get anyone to be spaced dish without the help of the russians. wwe're joined here would it be ok if i sat here? is she serious? ♪words, can't bring me down♪ ♪so don't you bring me down today♪ jamie

ruined when you come back to the united states from iraq or afghanistan and have a war wound or posttraumatictress or traumatic bra injury -- >> should be a priority. >> a top priority. if not even to remain in the military hospitals for a year, even after discharge. >> how about anywhere? when we have a veteran -- >> absolutely. absolutely. absolutely. should be able to be seen in private hospitals. should be given vouchers for private hospitals. should be able to get medicare or medicaid. anything. our government has to make it a priority. >> dr. mark siegle, always good to see you. >> good to see you, lou. >>> nasa can't get one of our astronauts to the space station without the help the russians. the last man to walk on the moon joins us here tonight. >>> joining me now, an american hero. he's captain gene cernan, former nasa astronaut, and he is the last man to have walked upon the moon. and we're going to use his words as our quote of the evening. quote, after "apollo 17," america stopped looking towards the next horizon. the united states had become a space-faring nation, but threw it

in san francisco a new report finds that the government has little evidence that treatment for posttraumatics disorder for veterans is effective. according to the l.a. times the government spend $3 billion on ptsd treatment in 2012 but they have not collected data on how effective the treatments are. while the virginia has trained mental healthcare providers on trained treatment, they find the v. a. is not meeting their own requirements to offering the treatments to every veteran in need. >> the family of a family waiting for a donation for their boy is now giving back. this boy had 80 blood transfusions to stay alive. he is now cured with a donation from his younger brother. now the parents are giving back to sponsor their own blood drive to give back to others. today's drive is from ten to four at the zion lutheran school in san francisco. >>> tomorrow is the toyota 350 nascar event in sonoma. it always creates a nightmare. also highway 121 if you coming in from the north. we have the details. [engines roaring] >> inside the raceway you are look at the nascar first right turn of the year,

have served in the military and whether they come back with a brain injury or they come back with posttraumaticdisorder, most of those conditions last a lifetime. >> tomorrow a task force from the central valley led by congressman jeff denham will visit the v.a. hospital in palo alto. . >>> the california senate has approved an increase in the state's minimum wage. the measure got threw thursday and would increase the wage to $11 an hour by 2015, $12 the following year and $13 in 2017. the current had minimum wage in california is $8 an hour. it will increase a dollar in july. also labor unions, in oakland there is a move to increase the minimum wage to $12.25. it will be going on the ballot. voters will decide. . >> a lot of people wondering is it too much too soon? caltrain is growing. coming up, what is the typical rider look like? we take a closer look at the cramped mayoral race in san jose and what it will take for the best candidate to emerge from the pack. mayoral race is heat ,,,,,, firsrefused all debates.rnly now honda's slinging mud, launching false attacks. isn't it time to put the

ruined when you come back to the united states from iraq or afghanistan and have a war wound or posttraumaticor traumatic brain injury -- >> should be a priority. >> a top priority. if not even to remain in the military hospitals for a year, even after discharge. >> how about anywhere? when we have a veteran -- >> absolutely. absolutely. absolutely. should be able to be seen in private hospitals. should be given vouchers for private hospitals. should be able to get medicare or medicaid. anhing. our government has to make it a priority. >> dr. mark siegle, always good to see you. >> good to see you, lou. >>> nasa can't get one of our astronauts to the space station without the help the russians. thlast man to walk on the moon joins us here tonight. (mother vo) when i was pregnant... i got more adve than i knew what to do with. what i needed was information i could trust on how to take care of me and my baby. luckily, unitedhealthcare has a simple program that helps moms stay on track with their doctors and get the right care and guidance-before and after the baby is born. simple is good right

ruined when you come back to the united states from iraq or afghanistan and have a war wound or posttraumatics or traumatic brain injury -- >> should be a priority. >> a top priority. if not even to remain in the military hospitals for a year, even after discharge. >> how about anywhere? when we have a veteran -- >> absolutely. absolutely. absolutely. should be able to be seen in private hospitals. should be given vouchers for private hospitals. should be able to get medicare or medicaid. anytng. our government has to make it a priority. >> dr. mark siegle, always good to see you. >> good to see you, lou. >>> nasa can't get one of our astronauts to the space station without the russians. the last man to walk on the moon joins us here tonight. you used to sleep like a champ - then boom... what happened? life happened. stress. fun. bad habits. kids. kids. kids. now what? not milk. not sheep. not that. let's think smarter. let's get some science in here. let's build a bed. another bed? no, a smarter bed a entirely new sleep number bed that tracks your movement, your heartbeat, your breathing - s

. >>> a new report finds that the government has little evidence that treatment for posttraumatic stressdisorder for veterans is effective. according to the l.a. times the government spend $3 billion on ptsd treatment in 2012 but they have not collected data on how effective the treatments are. while the v.a. has trained mental healthcare providers on trained treatment, they find the v. a. is not meeting their own requirements to offering the treatments to every veteran in need. >> the family of a family -- a boy awaiting donation for a bone marrow match is now giving back. this boy had 80 blood transfusions to stay alive. he is now cured thanks to a bone marrow donation from his brother. now his family is giving back by sponsoring their own blood drives. today's drive is from ten to four at the zion lutheran school in san francisco. >>> tomorrow is the toyota 350 nascar event in sonoma. it always creates a nightmare. a traffic nightmare. also highway 121 if you coming in from the north. we have the details. [engines roaring] >> reporter: inside sonoma raceway you are looking at nascar's

. >> that's the classic way i try to describe posttraumatic stress issues.ost is psychological, it's not physical, you can see. when people come back with emotional scars you don't see the scars and you have to read through that. he's been through five years of trauma, regardless of what happened, how it went down. but he's going to have a new awaken and a different trauma, get back to his family, because it's a different scenario that he's been used to and there's an acclamation time, debriefing time, and it takes a period of time. eneveryone is different. >> in terms of that reuniting with family, that's not the first step. this is what officials call the third step in the long process. but a lot of times when someone who has been in a terrifying scenario like this, they can only reunite with their family for a moment of minutes, that's overwhelming. >> well, you have to look at it like exposure overload, you know? he's going through a step down process to make sure medically he's okay, nutritionally, psychological he's okay. nothing like seeing a family m

troops killed, tens of thousands who came home without arms or legs or burned, posttraumatic stress.eard hillary clinton in her new book saying she regrets she voted to authorize the war in iraq at the end of 2002. was that whole war a disaster? >> no, not at all. >> what did it accomplish? >> first of all, this is just a snapshot. it's a very disappointing snapshot. >> mosul is the second largest city in iraq. i was there with general abizaid 2005. things seemed to be moving okay. even then, he told me there was a potential of terrorists coming in from syria and there's no guarantee on any of this. >> i think the obama administration could have done more to consolidate the gains of the surge. when the bush administration left in 2008, this country was much more stable than it is today. >> it was always going to be -- >> nothing's inevitable. >> the american people did not want to stay in iraq. >> we still could have provided intelligence. logistics. training. we got completely out in 2009. >> once the u.s. leaves iraq, you know it's going to be -- they're going to go back to the shi

, like the long wait lists for people that are suicidal, because of traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress syndrome. madam chair, we must demand accountability at the v.a. and across government to ensure ivil servants are foe -- focusing on their position, not serving unions at taxpayers' expense. that's why the stand alone legislation i introduced would appeal the governmentwide use of official time, saving over $1.5 billion over 10 years. while we are not considering my stand-alone legislation on the floor today, i'm proud to offer this amendment as a small step toward reining in the use and abuse of official time. simply put, a federal employee hired to work as an air traffic controller should spend his or her time at work performing his or her duties as an air traffic controller, not serving as a taxpayer-funded union official. madam chairwoman, i want to make it clear i don't want to do away with unions. i want to increase the efficiency of the federal work force. this amendment limits federal activity during normal business hours to simply working, not carrying out union activ

consequence of the admission from the agent orange veterans as well as making it easier to apply for posttraumatic stress disorder disability claims, when it spiked, he went at it in a systematic way and we have coded -- cut it by 50% since last year or so. he is not adverse to them -- admitting where there is a problem and going after it. but we occupy not just an environment that calls for management fixes, we have got to deal with congress and you guys. judgmentnk it is ric's that he could not carry out the next stages of reform without being a distraction himself. and so my assessment was unfortunately that he was right. i regret that he has to resign under these circumstances but i have confidence in sloan and i share his assessment that the number one priority is making sure that problems get fixed so that if there is a veteran out there who needs help that they are getting a schedule and they are able to come in and see a doctor. and if there are facilities that do not have enough doctors or nurses are do not have enough space, that information immediately gets in the hands of decision make

posttraumatic stress. our veterans have problems because of conflicts they've been in, but they have problems because, you know, the national institutes of health says one out of four adult americans has a diagnoseable mental health problem. as i've asked the secretary -- the surgeon general of the army and the other forces about this, do you think that's reflected in the military in a hearing a couple months ago, the answer was yes. she said, we recruit from the general population. i would don't have any reason to -- we don't have any reason to believe that our population serving in the military doesn't reflect that same thing in mental health issues. some of those mental health issues, like post-traumatic stress disorder, the v.a. should be better. but a lot of other issues, you may have to drive to another state to drive -- drive by to get no another state to get to another veterans facility. or drive 150 miles in a veterans v.a. van transportation. if that's what you want to do as a veteran, i think we

bustos: and thirdly, research into posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, to care for our veterans' mental health while and well-being. these added investments honor the sacred commitment our nation has made to our brave men and women in uniform. for too long we have failed to systemically implement electronic health records to coordinate our veterans' care. by keeping electronic records, critical care can be coordinated between the department of defense and the department of veterans affairs. this will help redules the claims backlog and a-- allow our nation's heroes to receive the care in a more timely fashion. in recent weeks, we have all heard from veterans back home on the need for us to work together to deliver more timely care. this amendment is an opportunity to reduce the backlog and make good on the promise we have made to our heroes. additionally, more than 70 members of the u.s. military encounter unwanted sexual contact, sexual assault or are raped each day. that is every day. this is absolutely shocking and sickening. it is evident that we must do far

when 200,000 come home with brain injury or posttraumatic stress disorder we have to understand.people come home without arms and legs but the whole transition from the military, from the active-duty meaning of the national guard to going back to civilian life and reuniting with your family and kids and going out and getting a job that you may have lost theirs a lot of stuff we have to address. there are issues for example this bill does not address. we have folks, mostly women who are taking care of their spouses for 50 years. they need help. it's a 24 or/7 job. imagine being in an apartment with somebody that has lost legs or has posed traumatic stress disorder. they need support. this bill doesn't provide that. we have many and women who lost their ability to have kids in iraq and afghanistan, despite all injuries and others, i think we should help them get families. that's not included. dental care. many have better insight are rotting in their mouth and the va can't take care of them so i want to see that as well. it takes care of some of what we need to get done. talk to se

people men and women in uniform and on the battlefield. 100,000 people to serious injury including posttraumatictress disorder. how do you feel? >> it is disgusting but discouraged administration their foreign policy collectively titled think they could organize pannikin a submarine. it is the weakest policy in modern history. regardless of a person's view of what we first went into iraq in 2003 the truth is if we had stayed there in support of the government over a period of time i believe we would have stabilized to the point they could have held on and prevented the breakdown and a return to sectarian civil war on like civil where unlike afghanistan is always a basket case and we should not have been there long-term debt tactical was brilliant after 9/11 but iraq was a different matter. what we have done now is thrown its to say we're not contemplating ground troops but the iranians are. and right now they say we will not allow terrorist to take over iraq. stuart: incredible. thank you very much. back to the stock market have movement on but was a door stopper. look at intel the 10 year high

have come and to the system, many of them with very complicated health care cases, including gdi, posttraumatic stress disorder, and many of the needs of older veterans and older people generally have. despite this fact, it is still absolutely unacceptable that some veterans are forced on to long waiting lists for care, and it is totally intolerable. it is reprehensible that any va employee could be manipulating data in phoenix or anyplace else to hide how long veterans have been on waiting lists to see doctors. this is an issue that must be dealt with and must be dealt with rapidly and strongly. madam president, these problems are real, and they have to be addressed. but they should not be an excuse to walk away from a system that serves six and a half million veterans every single year and 230,000 veterans every single day. this is a system that we must fix, not a system that we should pitch. we must focus on the underlying problems and work to transform the va. and i think in general what our legislation does is it -- works in three basic areas. number one, we give greater authority to the s