deputy secretary sloan gibson will be testifying before the house veterans affairs committee again on thursday. we need congress's help modernizing and clarifying va's purchase care authorities. above all else, this needs to get done to insure a strong foundation for veterans access to community care. we need congress's help, streamlining va's care in the community systems and programs. last october we submitted our plan to consolidate and simplify the overwhelming number of different programs and improve access to va care in the community. we need congress to enact legislation that will allow us to better compete with the private sector to get the best medical professionals to choose to work in va. that means flexibility on the 80-hour pay period limit for certain medical professions and compensation reforms for network and hospital directors. likewise we need to treat health care executives more like their private sector counterparts. that means expanding title 38 authority to vha senior executive level medical center directors, other directors and health care executive leadership p

later this week deputy veteran as fairs sloane gibson will testify about the house set ra raps fair commuteess the need for funding to overall haul the department. >> a passing a new law to encourage the whitehouse administration to work with small cyber security firms. if proposal becomes a law it givers the department of homeland security six months to develop a strategic plan to work with cyber startup. >> embattled small catholic school in rural maryland has a new leader. mount st. mary has a new interim president timothy trainer. trainer was stevshs as dean on academic board as west point. the school made national headlines january after the former president made controversial comments about students being shot who were struggling academically. >>> millions of ticket master customers are getting free ticket vouchers offer stems from 13-year-old lawsuit. ticket master september free ticket vochers to neighbor who made purchases on the site. those customers aid order processing fee never refunded and this after a 2003 lawsuit accused ticket master after charging excessive and deceptive f

one of the things we did when i actually started under sloan gibson was a long-term study of, where do we want to take the veterans hospital administration? one of the thing that differentiates v.a. care from the private secretary is it is integrated and holistic. we deal with mental health, physical health, spiritual health. we deal with nutrition. one of the things we want to do is move care from curing disease to preventing disease. one of the things that bothers me, and into about 300 v.a. facilities -- i have been to about 300 v.a. facilities and one of the things that bothers me is seeing obese veterans. obviously that creates all kinds of bad outcomes. these are individuals who at a time in their life were exercising every day. were taking physical fitness tests. become thatet them way? why can't we work with them in order to maintain their fitness once they get out of the military service? we are moving toward preventing disease and we have a special medical advisory group chaired by jonathan perlin who is the chief medical officer of hca. he is helping us along with other medi

i know that your program says it's sloan gibson. the deputy secretary was going to be here. mentioned. he servels as -- before he became the chief of staff, he served as the executive director of the my va task force which i think some of you have heard about. he also led the largest organizational transformation in the department's history which is my va. mr. snider joined the department of veterans affairs in june 2009. he was appointed the executive director of the va dod collaboration service where he saw the development of joint policies and programs between the va and defense. and that is a union that the government has been working on for sometime and it really is important. he's also a career military officer, army. thank you. mr. snider served as a field artillery officer in various operational assignments. he was also on the faculty of west point and he's also served as strategic advise tore the chief of staff of the army and also the office of the secretary of defense. so, ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to introduce bob snider, the chief of staff of the de

with called the doer -- to the harder right and easier wrong, a leadership of deputy secretary sloan gibson the service organization, members of the staff, we said we are going to lock the door, slip food under the door, you are not coming out of the room until you come up with a new law. we have a new law but it has to be passed by congress. if we can get the laws passed, veteran outcomes, we said if we get this law passed, as we work the backlog, eventually we will deal with an appeal in one year, not five years. it is a matter of solving the problem but get congress to pass the law. >> coming back to this? we are going to get you a microphone so c-span audience -- >> by any real measure this vietnam veteran, we are definitely making progress. >> thank you for your help. it is unfortunate that 3% announced to 630,000, the most vocal. >> we are working on it. >> give us a status update on the choice program. >> in fall of 2014 in response to the access, greater opportunity to send people for care. and sending the community to the care, the choice act is an attempt to make it more broad. li

deputy secretary sloan gibson will be testifying for the house veterans of heirs committee again on thursday. monitorcongress is help rising and clarifying the v.a. purchase authorities. above all else is needed to get done to ensure a strong foundation for veterans access to community care. we need congress is help streamlining care in the community systems and programs. last october we submitted our plan to consolidate and simplify the overwhelming number of different programs and improve access to be a care in the community. we need congress to enact legislation that will allow us to better compete with the private sector to get the best medical professionals to choose to work in v.a. that makes flexibility on the 80 hour pay period limit and compensation reforms for network and hospital directors. likewise we need to treat health care executives more like their private sector counterparts. that means expanding the title 38 authority to vha senior executive level medical center directors and other health care executive leadership positions. then we can hire these employees more quickly wi

rather than easier wrong, we got everybody in the room under the leadership of deputy secretary sloan gibson, veteran service organizations, members of congress, their staffs and so forth. we said, you know, we're going to lock the door. we'll slip the food under the door. you're not coming out of the room until you come up with a new law. we now have a new law, but it has got to be passed by congress. so if it we can get these laws passed, the ones i talked about, veteran outcomes are -- we said if we get this lay passed, as we work down the backlog, eventually we will be able to deal with an appeal in one year, in one year. not five years plus. so it is just a matter of taking the problem, solving the problem, but then you got to get congress to pass the law. >> comes back to our audience, yes, sir? >> [inaudible]. >> general, just hold on one second. we're going to get you a microphone so the c-span audience can -- >> first i would like to say, mr. secretary, by any real measure, this vietnam veteran thinks you have turned corner. >> thank you, sir. >> i think we are definitely making sol

i know that your program says at sloan gibson, the deputy secretary was going here. sloan was unfortunately delayed on travel and kwond his control, was not able to make it we're very lucky to have bob snyder here. he is the chief of staff as i mentioned, he serves, before he became the chief of staff, he served as the executive director of the my va task force, which i think some of you have heard about. he also led the largest organizational transformation in the department's history. which is my va. mr. snyder joined the department of veterans affairs in june 2009. he was appointed the executive director of the va dod collaboration service, where he saw the development of joint policies and programs between the va and defense. that's a union that the government has been working on for some time. and it really is important. he's also a career military officer, army. mr. snyder served as a field artillery officer in various operational assignments, he was also on the faculty of west point. and he's also served as a strategic adviser to the chief of staff of the army

deputy secretary sloan gibson was talking about it and said if veterans who do not begin to seek community care, v.a. will refer resources from internal v.a. care, dramatically undercutting our ability to provide care to the unique needs of veterans. can you talk more about this? guest: there's some extremely -- there's legislation that proposes to give the choice program to every single veteran and eliminating those barriers like the 40-mile rule and the 30-day rule, which would allow a veteran to call and get an appointment at a private care facility, that v.a. officials are extremely concerned that veterans would then just choose to go to their nearest doctor that took the choice program and not go to the v.a. and then you have a spiral if all veterans are seeking private care, not going to v.a. -- v.a. needs patients that -- and serves patients that have unique service-connected disabilities. amputations, hearing loss. there are specialty services that v.a. prides itself on being one of the top places to go for prosthetics. there's fear that if veterans are going outside constantly, th

. >> i know that your program says it's sloan gibson, the deputy secretary was going to be here, sloan unfortunately delayed on travel is and beyond his control. very lucky to have bob snyder here. he is the chief of staff, as i mentioned. he which i think some of you have heard about. he was appointed the executive director of the v.a./dod collaboration service, where he saw the develop of joint policies and programs between the v.a. and defense. it really is important. he's a career military officer. army. mr. snyder served as a field artillery officer in various operational iams. he was also on the faculty of west didn't point and also served as a strategic adviser to the chief of staff of the army, and also the office of the secretary of defense. so ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to introduce bob snyder, chief of staff of the department of veterans affairs. his flight got canceled last night, but i'm honored to pinch-hit in his stead. he does send his best regards this morning. just a couple more notes about myself if you'll indulge me. mime dad was a world war ii veteran,

in a hearing yesterday held at toma, sloan gibson admitted agency mistakes saying at the end of the day this. joining me now is marv simkusky. his son overdosed, and he testified yesterday. marv, thank you for joining us this morning and your courage at that testimony. tell me a little bit more about yesterday's hearing. what were you -- what were they taking a look into and what did you find out? >> well, they took a look at, you know, a lot of different things that had happened in the past at the v.a. facility. and all the problems that happened in the past, that, you know, they're trying to correct and they brought a lot of the problems to light with -- at the hearing. >> marv, you know, what's -- the details of your son's case are so tragic. and i know you know that more than anyone else, but an internal report found that the opiates were being overprescribed, but it was kept under wraps. your son died five months later of toxicity. do you feel like if that report had been exposed that things would have changed? >> you know, i think a lot of things should have been done prior to my