to do. if the v.a. er has another new hospital built, and that is a question in and of itself, the corps of engineers ought to build it. the v.a. should be out of that business. that is one lesson learned from what has happened in new orleans, las vegas, orlando, and denver. so, you learn lessons from your mistakes. this is a disaster. and it is a disaster of many facets with many people responsible, but we should learn from the mistakes that were made and make sure we correct it for the future. rebecca adams: just to clarify in the short run, the the v.a. has asked to shift some money towards the denver hospital. do you think that is clearly not going to happen? what do you think will happen? senator isakson: well, as i speak now, the end solution is not quite clear, so i could -- i could quote it, but let me just say this. we realize that shutting down the progress of the hospital would be dangerous at the point we are at, but at the same token, the v.a. running on with a blank check is equally dangero

no disrespect to the v.a. it is not within their job description to manage these multi-million dollar, in fact, billion-dollar projects on which the future of v.a. health care depends and when you and i go to build a house, we don't ordinarily we are not our own contractors. maybe some of you are but we tried to get a little professional help and that may be an inexact analogy but for all the government agencies, not just the v.a. there should be some professional center of management that maximizes resources, reduces costs, makes it energy-efficient, decide what material should be incorporated so i think we have a lot to discuss going forward. i welcome your participation in i thank chairman for this hearing. thank you all. sen. isakson: thank you, senator blumenthal and let me echo everything that richards and point out a couple of things. originally in our first hearing , the v.a. testified told us on the 40-mile world in terms of distance driven versus growth line that was going to expand the number of peop

go to craig or the v.a., they want to go to the v.a. mr. coffman: good. one issue that i'm concerned about is the transition from active duty military into civilian life. on the enlisted side as an n.c.o. and also on the officer's side. but enlisted army n.c.o. officer marine corps. i had an easy time going from enlisted army to civilian life because i actually went to college under the g.i. bill. it was much tougher as a junior officer leaving the united states marine corps and going into civilian life. i wanted to be in business management but didn't have a business degree and had an in the army and marine corps infantry and i was so frustrated at one time instead of putting on my resume that i had been an infantry officer in the marine corps, i put down i was involved in international real estate specializing in the acquisition of beachfront property. that didn't work. i had to start my own business. coy do that because i was a young person, officer, i had more savings than had i been an enlisted person. what do you all envision bei

v.a. brand, but folks do not want to work in the v.a.. have to incentivize them so that they can only work of the v.a., but serve veterans. that has to be a called action that the president makes saying, we have a suicide problem, and we need every american to step up. you can step up, work at the v.a. go back to school, and amazingly, in all these areas, i think the undervalued resource is us. the post-9/11 vegans are standing by to help each other. baldessari to interrupt you, by want to make sure i -- >> sorry to interrupt you there is a 100% chance that when you need to see that mental health provider, it will be world class care. there is a trade-off that if you have the flu, diabetes, or something that may not be uniquely connected to service, you will get referred out -- maybe not 100% of the time. what do you think about that? >> this is the age-old false choice that goes to the veterans. nobody should wait. that is the bottom line. >> i do not think that will fix it. >> i do not think a lot of these ideas will work that we have h

go to craig or the v.a., they want to go to the v.a. mr. coffman: good. one issue that i'm concerned about is the transition from active duty military into civilian life. on the enlisted side as an n.c.o. and also on the officer's side. but enlisted army n.c.o. officer marine corps. i had an easy time going from enlisted army to civilian life because i actually went to college under the g.i. bill. it was much tougher as a junior officer leaving the united states marine corps and going into civilian life. i wanted to be in business management but didn't have a business degree and had an in the army and marine corps infantry and i was so frustrated at one time instead of putting on my resume that i had been an infantry officer in the marine corps, i put down i was involved in international real estate specializing in the acquisition of beachfront property. that didn't work. i had to start my own business. coy do that because i was a young person, officer, i had more savings than had i been an enlisted person. what do you all envision bei

go to craig or the v.a., they want to go to the v.a. mr. coffman: good. one issue that i'm concerned about is the transition from active duty military into civilian life. on the enlisted side as an n.c.o. and also on the officer's side. but enlisted army n.c.o. officer marine corps. i had an easy time going from enlisted army to civilian life because i actually went to college under the g.i. bill. it was much tougher as a junior officer leaving the united states marine corps and going into civilian life. i wanted to be in business management but didn't have a business degree and had an in the army and marine corps infantry and i was so frustrated at one time instead of putting on my resume that i had been an infantry officer in the marine corps, i put down i was involved in international real estate specializing in the acquisition of beachfront property. that didn't work. i had to start my own business. coy do that because i was a young person, officer, i had more savings than had i been an enlisted person. what do you all envision bei

row: the other thing that we have to do and the v.a. has had the capacity to allow veterans to go off, i saw -- as a physician i saw veterans in my office. and they absolutely make it so hard it's unbelievable you would make it so hard for a veteran who wants care to get outside the v.a. system. that is mind-boggling to me. if you have a service that's provided in the community, the veteran wants to go there, they can't get the service at the v.a., let the veteran do that. mr. minney, you are absolutely spot on. i as one congressman want to help you make sure we can get those blinded veterans, whether they were service connected or not. you are right. i work with the blind at home closely. you are correct. it's much cheaper to do what you're talking about doing than institutionalizing a veteran. my time has expired. senator isakson, you are recognized for five minutes. senator isakson: sergeant major overstreet, you may have been captioning performed by vitac >> we all know the ncos really run the military. so we appreciate -- we appreci

the v.a.'s decision? >> i think it is up to the patient to make the decision. i guarantee if you ask them, they are going to want to go to the v.a. >> one issue i am concerned about the transition from active duty military into civilian life. i had an easy time going from illicit army into civilian life. i want to be in business management. i was so frustrated. i put down that i was involved in acquisition of real

to do. if the v.a. ever has another new hospital built, and that is a question in and of itself, the corps of engineers ought to build it. the v.a. should be out of that business. that is one lesson learned from what has happened in new orleans, las vegas, orlando, and denver. so, you learn lessons from your mistakes. this is a disaster. and it is a disaster of many facets with many people responsible, but we should learn from the mistakes that were made and make sure we correct it for the future. rebecca adams: just to clarify in the short run, the the v.a. has asked to shift some money towards the denver hospital. do you think that is clearly not going to happen? what do you think will happen? senator isakson: well, as i speak now, the end solution is not quite clear, so i could -- i could quote it, but let me just say this. we realize that shutting down the progress of the hospital would be dangerous at the point we are at, but at the same token, the v.a. running on with a blank check is equally dange

we have to put this in context. yes the v.a. has dropped the backlog. they drove the car into the pitch. mr. reickhoff: they drove it into the pitch and want to be congratulated for partially pulling it out. we still see hundreds of thousands of folks facing an adversarial system. john appropriately addressed that. i would encourage everyone watching and listening to go to the way we carry dot org is a site that allowed veterans to show how long they have been waiting. by state, region, individual stories and see how long they have been waited so we can look ahead and help predict the next phoenix and prevent the next phoenix. but the key issue i encourage this committee to address, we know they are working on it. what do veterans do in the meantime? that is the problem that continues to plague our community. when you have financial stress emotional stress, where do you go for help in the meantime while v.a. sorts this out? they come to us. we are overwhelmed with demand and other nonprofits feel the same way. i encourage you to think creatively to provi

the v.a. self. it sounds to me like what we are saying is the v.a. should be making the decision about whether they are delivering the care or whether or not the veteran should be making that decision. it's -- it sounds to me like maybe we should take the other approach and say if we gave that toys to the veterans i would -- that choice to the veterans i would suspect that a number of them who have very great care of being delivered might very well might want to continue that out. but there are others that would suspect that would say i don't expect you to build a new hospital near me. you have looked at asking for the ability to have flexibility to make that choice. what happened if we took it as an alternative and once again we are talking about dollars and cents. what if we let them decide for themselves whether they want to have cured through a va facility -- whether they want to have the care through a v.a. facility or utilizing the choice program more fully and skip all of the extra stuff that you have talked about or whether or not they have al

the reason why we're not finished is that we need to make sure the networks are tailored to match the demand that exists in a particular market that's not able to be met by the v.a. facilities itself. the fact is that was a complicated program to set up. it was done under very short order. but it was training, if you will, for what was to come next. on november 5th after 30 days of work we were to stand up in support of v.a., the choice program. we had to partner with v.a. to receive a list of all eligible veterans. we had to design and produce a card and put it out with a personalized letter from the secretary. and we had to stand up a contact snor center -- center to handle all of the calls coming in n. after hiring and training of 850 people. no one went into three-hour waits. the phones were answered, but the work had only begun. and we'd been on a pathway since to try and mature the operations. the secretary talked about the 40-mile issue. there's additional refinements that may well be needed and desired in that area. and if so, we stand prepared to support what those might look like. there's some other changes that that may well be needed to the program a

since he left the agency he has been fighting to get the department of defense and v.a. to recognise that burn pit exposure sickened veterans. some were dying. we had claims from videos -- widows we have claims from young guys who have diabetes lymphoma or leukaemia. >> he is representing 31-year-old rodney weise, who lived a quarter of a mile from the burn pit. it covered several acres. everything, plastic, human waste, batteries, tyres, paint, old refrigerators went into the fire. >> they'd use j.p. 8 jet fuel to set it on fire. there was always a yellow haze over the base. everywhere you talked to had respiratory issues with it. >> reporter: for seven years doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong until he had a lung biopsy. >> it showed that i had titanium alum numb iron chromium, steel, silica in my lungs. there's nowhere else i could have got metals in my lung. i never worked in anything that would have exposed me to that. >> he was diagnosed with bronchial itis a rare lung disease. >> i get short-winded. it's like sucking through a small straw. >> we have been se

seamless to move them into the v.a. and provide opportunities for them including reasonable incentives and for them to want to affiliate as a v.a. medical professional. dod needs to credential the and listed personnel. if you can take care of an individual while in uniform, why can't you take care while they are a veteran. >> i will speak for my treasurer who would love to jump in on this issue. his son is a major in the air force and a neurologist. the bottom line is this, he is looking around to get out and the headhunters are telling him don't think about the v.a., they are not looking. despite the secretary having said he would go after my son, he never did. >> thank you again for your answers and the services you provide. >> i want to thank all of you for being here today and to thank all of you for your organizations and what they do for veterans and families. i will take this opportunity to yield to a ranking member brown or closing comments. >> i want to thank you all for your service and your comments. clearly w

the v.a. i think our goal is to strengthen the v.a. i think our goal is to be creative in terms of using the new program that we have developed so the people can get care in their community locally. that's a good mix. but i will oppose efforts to privatize the v.a. which is serving our veterans so very well. i wanted to get to another issue. and senator blumenthal touched on it today. i wrote a letter to secretary mcdonnell about an issue that has concerned me for a while. and that is the high cost of the drug savaldi, which is a miracle drug, so to speak, which is now treating the veterans of our country who have very high rates of hepatitis c. mr. chairman, to me, it is an outrage that you have a company whose profits have soared in the last few years. their revenues have doubled, i believe, in the last year. they've come up with the drug. they are charging the general public $1,000 a pill for that drug. they're charging i believe the v.a., i don't know if this is a great secret but i will tell it anyhow something like $540 a drug, is

open your eyes to a world in motion. >>> the veterans administration. the v.a. holds itself out as buying proud of those it serves. in recent months, mismanagement, poor treatment led to the ouster of its chief and scrutiny of the v.a. now the death of a young patient at a v.a. hospital exposed other flaws. christopher putzel found it is a tragedy bound to raise questions on how to fix the v.a. >> i never thought he would dive >>> marve and linda lost their son last august. the 35-year-old former marine didn't die in a combat zone, but at a medical center near his home in central wisconsin. >> we wept in his room, he was laying, sleeping, with his hand on his side, on his head. i said "jason, what's the matter with you." i said "jason, i can't understand you." i went to the nurse's stakes and said what's wrong with him -- station and said "what's wrong with him, he can't talk?" she said we gave him medication for a migraine he'll be all later. >> reporter: but he wasn't. he stopped breathing. the hospital said his death was caused by an aneurysm. an autopsy revea

the v.a. system. i look forward to hearing how the va is using the funding to increase the department's workforce and high demand occupations so that the nation's veterans have timely access to the high quality professional care that the v.a. is known for. thank you, mr. chairman and i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you. joining on our first panel is joan clifford, immediate past present of the nurses organization of veteran affairs. dr. samuel spagnola. the president of veteran affairs physician assistant association. jeff morris, the director of communications and external affairs for the american board of physician specialties. and dr. nicol salvo from the american podiatric medical association. miss clifford. we allow everybody five minutes. so should be a little light there when it goes red. that means you're up. thanks. >> hi. thank you. chairman ranking member and members of the sub committee on behalf of the nearly 3,000 members of the nurses organization of veteran affairs i would like to thank yo

the v.a. are good. we used to say and the army, you spent 90% of your time dealing with 10% of the bad apples. i think this is the situation. host: bill rausch, a former army major who served 17 months in iraq and was assigned to the information operations task force. he is our guest the next 35 minutes or so. we want to get as many of your calls as we can. he is the political director of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. how long have you been there? guest: a year. host: we want to take a calls now. a special line for veterans from the iraq and afghanistan wars. that number is (202) 748-8003. otherwise, lines as usual for democrats, republicans, and independents. val is on the line for independents. good morning. caller: how are you doing. i know you were giving those statistics about homeless veterans, john. you said about 50,000 veterans were homeless. my brother was a homeless veteran. i am glad you guys are talking about these issues today. i do not know if your guest knows this or not, but for th

the v.a. is still -- is finally going out to the facilities with long wait times trying to determine why exactly they are not utilizing -v.a. care options. and i noticed a lot of the testimony today talks about further changes to the geographic criteria. every time there's an additional change of the 40-mile criteria, more of the 10 billion allocated for the choice program will be devoted to paying for access. but this money is due to our veterans because better health care is due to them. i'll close on this note. we still do not have accountability. for the delays. the inspector general still has not completed his work. we still have no reports on action. and i mean effective disciplinary action for the delays that were intolerable and still unacceptable. accountability is absolutely necessary. and i believe that the inspector general needs more resources to effectively implement accountability. i will continue to press for the reports and for action by the inspector general that will send a message to the health care apparatus. and professionals in the v.a. that we really mean what we say when

secretary for acquisition and assistance at the department of veteran affairs, speaking to a house subcommittee on veteran affairs. >> i will no longer be a party to the v.a. gains. >> he was on capitol hill to talk about the scathing 35-page memo written to robert mcdonald in match. reported by "the washington post." fry says da has been illegally spending $6 billion a year buying services and supplies from outside vendors without proper contracts, competition or oversight. violating the agencies own rules and federal laws. in the memo he describes a culture of lawlessness and chaos. cross ms management a mockery that he says could lead to harm or death to veterans. doors are wide open to waste, fraud and abuse at a sprawling health care system ta tends to 9 million veterans much and he places the blame on the top brass, accusing officials of ignoring his concerns: you can't do veterans like this. you can't treat veterans like this. fries member marks the latest scandal for an agency rocked by a series of scandals. revelations of a cover up led to congressional hearings. >> working together and really meaning it. working together for the good of our vete

host: deborah kalb, do you want to talk about how vietnam has influenced the spending decisions when it comes to the v.and sequestration now. guest: i think in this particular time, i do not know that vietnam is the primary concern when it comes to the budget for the v.a. with sequestration. i think those concerns came out of more recent issues that came up, coming out of the past 10 years or so with economic troubles and with different partisan issues going on in congress today. i do not know if vietnam is directly a part of those decisions. i think in terms of how veterans are treated in general, which is something we are all thinking about on memorial day, you can look back and see a shift in terms of the attention paid to them, as my father was talking about earlier. when veterans came back from vietnam, they were not treated very well at all. you do see a shift since september 11 especially. you think of the veterans coming back today. all of the attention paid in various ways, and yet, you still have a lot of issues going on with the v.a. and how they are treated. i do not know that the funding de

the american legion calls on congress to required v.a. to continue reporting these daily metrics throughout the duration of the contract or explain how they will continue to track this information. they should streamline to incorporate all of non-v.a. programs into a single model. congress should look into streamlining the non-v.a. care statutory authorities. once congress gets a better sense of how to choice program will play out over the next couple of years, v.a.'s non-v.a. care should be consolidated and rationalized in learning lessons learned from the v.a. choice program. thank you and again ranking member blumenthal i appreciate the opportunity to represent the american legion views and look forward to answer any questions you have. >> thank you. >> i appreciate the opportunity to testify at today's hearing. thank you for your leerdship in ensuring that veterans get the quality health care they sderve. the rules pertaining to choice do not represent real choice. veterans should not have to ask for permission to select their health c

to do my best that it won't happen again. certainly that's one of the things we're trying to embrace at the v.a. the problems, whether or not we were here when it occurred, and trying to fix it as soon as we can. the second thing in character is this importance of doing the harder right rather than the easier wrong. when we were putting together a program of long-term improvement, i got comments of well you're not going to be here -- you're only going to be there a couple of years. you're not going to be able to get this done. i said, i can't live with myself unless we do the right thing. that's why we put together the my v.a. initiative about improving customer service, being veteran-centric, taking care of employees. if we don't take care of employees, they're not going to take care of veterans. improving internal support services, the scheduling system in phoenix that was a problem dated to 1985. doing strategic partnerships because they're force multipliers for us. and last but not least creating a culture of continuous improvement. we're teaching employees about lean six sigma and having the

thank you for the opportunity to comment on the veterans care in our country. i have been involved with the v.a. for decades. my father was a world war ii veteran. i'm a vietnam veteran. we used to have arguments about who was the better soldier, who had the toughest time. the fact is that all veterans to one degree or another provide a great service to this country. as for the veterans of menstruation there was a qualification that if you had income greater than $18,000 per year, you could not take advantage of the benefits from the veterans of menstruation -- veterans administration. my father qualified, and he got excellent care. what they did in baltimore where he lived, was set up a cooperative between local hospitals and the veterans of menstruation -- veterans administration. he got seamless service between the veterans groups and the local hospitals. he went through heart surgeries and various other procedures. for years, he could not figure out what was wrong with him. they sent him to hospitals in bethesda, and did a wonderful job. the second issue -- my personal experience. i went to

the accountability measures necessary. i want to underscore this -- we have some of the finest health care professionals and technicians in the world. our problem is more the administration and accounting level of the v.a. that is the delivery of health services. that is where the problems come from for phoenix, and that's where the problems need to be created. while they are significant problems, they are correctable. announcer: you can watch newsmakers tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. coming soon, we will have -- we will hear from robert mcdonald who gave the commencement address at the university of utah. before that, republican senator tim scott will speak to the graduates of south carolina state university. later, the commencement address at american university from noaa administrator catherine sullivan. -- kathryn sullivan. tim scott was the commencement speaker at south carolina state university in orangeburg. the senators saying a few lines from the 10, "hold on to your dreams." this is 10 minutes. [applause] tim scott: thank you. good evening to everyone. thank you, president evans, for such a kind introduction. let me say first and foremost that without any questions, m

desal vanished the chemical stays in the water and becomes thousands of times more concentrated than what they were exposed to boots on the ground. >> reporter: the v.a. says those serving on water from not exposed to the ate. what do you say to that? >> we were exposed. we do know it. from 1991 to 2002. the blue water veterans received from the v.a. ben fates for their dibilityies. >> in 2002 the rules were changed excluding blue water veterans claiming for illness from agent oranges. . senator gillibrand is sponsoring the bill again. >> agent orange didn't discriminate between those that stood on boats on rivers or those standing on boats offshore. in a statement, al jazeera was told: . >> my goal is to right the wrong as quickly as possible. >> former u.s. navy vice said these people have been left behind. the head of the v.a. has the ability to act immediately. >> with the stroke of a pen, today he could say those veterans who served on ships are eligible for medical benefits. >> as he heads to work the bumper sticker on his car says all you need to know. he is proud of his service in vietnam. now he wants his government to step up to the plate i

for legislation that would require minimum nurse to patient ratios in hospitals and are also calling for the secretary of veterans affairs to support the v.a. employee fairness act. a fight is brewing this noon in the district over the controversial energy company merger of pepco and exelon. d.c. councilmembers are speaking out against it. they are asking mayor muriel bowser to join them. >> you can see a handful of elected officials speaking out together for the worst time against this $6.4 billion merger , a big proposal that has been controversial since day one. councilmembers believe a merger would not be in the public's interest. she worries d.c.'s campaign to use more reasonable energy would be threatened if exelon takes over pepco. she said shareholders would be the real winners here and ultimately customers would see significantly higher rates. none of the neighborhood divisions have endorsed the deal either and pepco and exelon argue it would be more reliable service and customers would end up benefiting. in addition, they say customers would get millions in bill credits. >> we will be subject to control by a distant corporation w

a lot of vietnam veterans are just now coming to the v.a. because they realize their cancer or other problems are a result of the agent orange they were exposed to years ago. i think the new secretary is doing a good job and moving in the right direction but we need radical change and it remains to be seen how effective his work will be. mr. swalwell: thank you, mr. moulton. i'm hearing now from duncan he, said #millenials vets stood up when the kun country needed them. we need these people po up -- to run for office and stop the cynical attitude about politics. i think he's right. we have some other post september 11 veterans congresswoman tulsi fwabard of haye, representative gallego of arizona and also yourself. thank you for participating this evening. mr. moulton: i love that question. we have never had fewer veterans in congress in our nation's history than we do today. i don't think it should be a litmus test that you have to be a veteran to run for congress, not at all. but at a time when we face unprecedented challenges across the gl

the v.a. as we work to ensure effective oversight of v.a.'a record of v.a. employee's past misconduct. at the same time we're working toward greater accountability, we must also ensure that increased transparency does not come at the expense of fairness and the equitable treatment of v.a. employees. i look forward to working with my colleagues and all interested parties to clarify the intent of this legislation, to ensure that we are not inadvertently affecting settlement agreements when appropriate and that admonishments and reprimands are not wrongly used to silence whistleblowers. mr. speaker i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from ohio is recognized. mr. wenstrup: mr. speaker i now recognize the author of this bill, mr. costello from pennsylvania, two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for two minutes. mr. costello: thank you, mr. speaker. it's my pleasure to come before you today to speak on behalf of this commonsense effort to ens

do is spend some time in the v.a.s to understand the unique nature of what the v.a. has to offer. there's no other more welcoming place for a veteran than the v.a. not that there aren't opportunities for private care. there clearly are already. the nonv.a. care is a very significant part of what you all do every day before choice was ever implemented. choice is just another safety. so i realize in the committee meetings, sometimes the words carry more weight than perhaps they should. i don't think anybody should leave the committee meeting thinking smib has a serious goal or or objective to privatize the entire v.a. i want to go back to a point that smart blumenthal mentioned. you have to figure out a way to get it billed out. can you give me an idea of the thought process. if you were going to shift that over to the buildout of the aurora facility. what would that cause in terms of delay or ramping down of what we would be doing with choice over the period of time that that money would not be available? >> what we basically did is pulled in -- we have a capital pla

go to the philadelphia v.a. al instead. >>> you may know what to do if somebody near you is choking or suffering a heart attack. now the city of philadelphia is offering training for a different kind of emergency. it's considered mental health training. it's to provide people with skill to help somebody dealing with issues like suicidal thoughts or suffering from panic attacks. >> this is our way of dealing with -- lessening the stigma around mental health. >> philadelphia and washington, d.c., by the way, are the first major metropolitan areas in the u.s. to implement the program on a large scale. >>> some local attractions are saying thank you to our military members and veterans this holiday weekend. camel beach mountain park is offering service members and their families free admission today and tomorrow. service members just have to show their valid military i.d. to get in. >>> active members can also get in for free at the park and wildwood kingdom. the same offer applies this weekend and the 4th of july we

that disability ratings from the v.a. toes very high on the priority list as far as that staffer and that can do to it. some of the more national issues that are important to the district, i would say certainly fighting for veterans, trying to create more good-paying private-sector jobs, making our policy more can did, improving our health care. we will see how the supreme court and congress reacts with changes as 2015 moves along. those are some of the national issues that are of importance to our district, and there are many others, as well. host: you are a fairly young member of congress. what is the average age for people in the first district? zrep. lee zeldin: i am 35 years old. in congress, there are 31 members under the age of there are 20 in the house republican conference. 11 in the democratic house conference. i am in favor of term limits, personally. there has been such a huge changeover. two thirds of the republican conference was not even here five years ago. the average age of the house republican conference i

be able to shorten the wait time it takes to fill the vacancies at the v.a.? >> i am confident they are. i think mr. hernandez implied earlier that human resources had begun looking at their process. it has in the past within a serial process. it needs to be parallel. it can be complex but it need to be simplified. it requires proactively assessing our needs. in certain cases it requires staffing to organizational charts. we know somebody is going to leave, we know that position is approved. it involves communication. it involves preparation. this is where the clinical staff does need to get involved to with the leadership and human resources to further the efficiency of the process that we currently have. it's not efficient. it takes too long. i think we know how to change it. i think we've gun to implement changes. we need to go further. >> another provision was the increase of 1500 gme slots. i understand that the first round of residency have already been awarded. >> yes, sir. >> the v.a. is moving forward with the second round. >> yes, sir. >> will expandi

to support veterans. we have a lot of challenges at the v.a. we have committed ourselves to see to it we are not just caretakers of the status quo but that we are instigators of improvement in the v.a. we think v.a. health care is important. we want veterans health care to work. we want the veterans to have the best health care they can get. we want to see the expenditure of the taxpayers money is more sound. what happened in denver should never happen again. every time you overstep on one hospital, you understand in another. we want to make sure the v.a. is investing in the men and women who risk their lives. we appreciate your representation of veterans today and look forward to hearing your testimony. chairman miller: i yield to the ranking member on the house side. senator rice: i want to thank all the witnesses. i would like to echo everything they said. in the interest of time, i will hold my remarks and reserve the balance of my time. thank you, mr. chairman. chairman miller: mr. blumenthal for five minutes. senator blumenthal: thank you

have access to the world-class care in close proximity to where they live whether it is from the private sector or the government. if anything, this will sound harsh, but it should, the v.a. has demonstrated the cannot build a hospital without running over. a 10 we can have private sector help without giving to veterans, saving the v.a. money united states money, is giving far better veterans services. what we need is a

the v.a. in the last year or two? guest: i have seen some improvements. there is more to do. the v.a. got the message. ad we had to confront these issues by learning about this terrible scandal that occurred. idc changes in massachusetts -- i do see changes in massachusetts. host: joe. caller: good morning, peter. i'm 63. i wholeheartedly agree with both of these gentlemen, republican and democrat. if you look back at what congress did when george bush was negotiating with saddam hussein to go and inspect him he told congress he needed the war power so that saddam knew he meant business. this congress did the most cowardly thing in its history and gave the power to declare war to the president, which is the most of noxious -- obnoxious thing i can imagine. no, they did not hold any hearings on that back then. i don't know why these gentlemen expect them to hold hearings on anything of substance after that. guest: we appreciate your comment and we certainly feel your frustration. that's why we are putting together this group. that's why we're also putting our fellow members of congress on notice that we

studies to show that when it is decalvin niced the chemical still obviously stays in the water and it becomes thousands of times more concentrated than what they were exposed to on the ground. >> the v.aes also say those who served on water were not expose today the agent. what do you say to that? >> we were. they do know it because from 1991 until 2002, the blue water navy veterans did receive from the v. a. benefits for disability and their illnesses from agent owner. >> but in the 2002, the v.a. changed it's rules and excluded blue water veterans from claiming for illnesses that may have been directly links to agent orange. who serves up to 12 miles offer shore of vietnam. agent orange did not discriminate between those who stood on boats on rivers and those offshores. >> that the v. a. will continue to accept and review on a case by case bases all blue water vietnam veteran claims. and the work to ensure that veterans serving on blue water ships that operated on vietnam's inland waterways or september crew members ashore are identified. my goal is to simply right this wrong as quickly as possible. >> former u.s. nave i have says these have been left behind, but the head has the po

the past four to six months. senator blumenthal: it should have been heightened years ago. anthem's data was not encrypted. is yours? ms. orlov: i do not have any data. the v.a., maybe. senator blumenthal: should it be encrypt to through this kind of program? >> we recommend protection and privacy. our journey started around the early 2000 decade. the technology available to ensure answer your he has changed. some of the rules and requirement reflect what was required then. there are newer means to conduct those kinds of visits and we are migrating our technology that way. senator blumenthal: as you know, we have an ongoing controversy about the 40 mile rule, whether it should apply to clinics, to the clinics that can provide the care that the veteran may need. they are able to go to a private health provider. what i am wondering is, whether the telehealth program from hospitals, the 100 plus hospitals that there are would fill a gap that would enable more vets to go to clinics to get the care they need. how much of that have we explored and fulfilled? miss mccarthy: thank you. you are talking about clinical video health in particular in which a provider see

a bill was passed that allowed the v.a. toire the top four hundred senior executives, not that that is not a bad a bad idea, but why not do that everywhere command it has not gotten much better. i can deliver alone to a poor woman in new delhi, india over cell phone, and yet if you are a veteran you have to spend months filling out paperwork, many more months while some bureaucrat checks your paperwork, many more whether some bureaucrat tells you whether you get an appointment or not. this is not just inefficient but a failure to serve. we have to serve our veterans well. before we take money away from the american people let's spend it wisely and well and reduce the size of government to get deficit under control. >> thank you. next from the audience. take it away. >> how are you. my question is, what do you propose to do to unite the conservative women of the republican party? >> you know, i ran in california for the senate in 2010 as a proud pro-life a proud pro-life conservative. you do not do that in california unless you

the service or transfer into a civilian job that allows thehem to use those skills. go: you are talking aut other agencies. how do you guys coordinate not only with the e v.a. but with private charities and other grgroups trying to help tho woundedd whoho are still in uniform as well as those who transitioion out? jim: we collaborate very well with the v.a.. weave a joint executive committee. enhances our relationshihip and enhances the suppoport between the dod and the v.a. we are working on c case nagement tt will allow us to seamlelesslyransfer an individual's portfolio into the v.v.a. stem. that allows the benefits pross to be speded up. go: so it is a more streamlined thing. jim: exactly. vago: we have about 30 seconds left. talk to usbout how you're trying to coordinate with some of the private charities andll of these other groups. you are looking at this from a very strategic perspective whereas some of thes organizations may be have shorter life spans. jim: we have the natural resources directory. we have about 1800 resoues we can use to support men and wen as they transisition out. the process of worng wh these organizations, we make sure we ve a v

when i had issues with ptsd, i was really messed up on the first combat but it was no such thing to the v.a. -- they kicked it to the curb. i also had issues with brushes skin rashes. they did not do anything. now, they do give you a little benefit. my issue is that back then, when we first came back from be a non-, after being shot at and watching all this murder and stuff in vietnam, there was no treatment for us. i think they think that us vietnam veterans are old now and they want us to go off somewhere and die. host: do you want to jump in? guest: the caller raises an excellent point. i think that ptsd is something that has become more widely understood in recent years unfortunately, during the time that the caller and others were coming back from vietnam, it was not understood and treated. today, i think there's a lot more understanding of it and what it can do to people, and the treatment that people need. people who serve in the military, and deal with other conditions ray survivors, and others, also suffer from ptsd. today, there are a lot more services for people. at that point, 4

the hospital stopped doing the procedures last year after a down grade of surgical capability. in their forced many patients to go to the philadelphia v.aal instead. >>> you may know what to do if somebody near you is choking or having a heart attack. now the city is making sure folks have a different kind of training for a special emergency. it's considered mental health first aid training. the goal is to provide people the skills to help somebody dealing with issues like suicide or somebody who suffers from panic attacks. >> our way of lessening!"z the stigma around message health and encouraging -- mental health and encouraging people to approach someone if they have a concern. >> philadelphia and washington, d.c., are the first major metropolitan areas in the u.s. to implement the program on a large scale. >>> several local attractions are saying thank you to military members and veterans this holiday weekend. camel beach mountain waterpark in the poconos is offering service personnel and their families free admission today and monday. all you need is to bring your valid military i.d. to get in. >>> should be a little warmer today.

the general's office and now alan is banned from all marine functions and facilities. no marine recruit is allowed to work out at the house of steel. alan allowed me to snap his v.a. health care card with the marine insignia. they are investigating if he fraudulently obtained benefits and then there is alan standing with his phony medals in front of the casket of a young marine from marin county who died if service. >> we find it extraordinarily offensive. >> colonel bill pea -- peacock set the wheels this motion. the fbi has launched a criminal investigation into whether alan raised money based on his phony persona. one man tells me he gave alan $5,000 at a house of steel fundraiser because he thought alan really was a marine lieutenant. >> if he's not guilty, that's great. if he is let's make sure he pays the price. that marine in in the casket really paid the price. >> and then there is his felony record. he received three years in state prison after violating a restraining order climbing into his wife's window threatening to kill her. they can't believe this is the man they trusted with their sons and daughters and their money in some cases. >> dan, thank you.

doors are wide open to waste, fraud and abuse, apt the sprawling health care system that tends to 9 million veterans. he faces the blame for the problems on the top brass, accusing senior v.a. officials of ignoring his concerns and deceiving congress. no persons were held accountable for the violations of law. the matters were swept under the rug, and senior v.a. leadership directed my office to approve on institutional ratification for thousands of unauthorised commitments worth hundreds of millions of dollars. >> you can't do veterans like that, you can't treat veterans like this. >> reporter: the memo is the latest scandal for an agency rocked by a series of scandals. revelations of cover up of long wait times for veterans seeking care led to congressional hearings. >> working together and really meaning it. working together for the good of our veterans. that is what the public expects and that is what i'm committed to. >> look what the public got. the public got - 40 veterans died. >> reporter: and the resignation of eric shinseki, when mcdonald took over he vowed to change course. >> right now the department of veteran affairs has before it the greatest opportunity to

for a service member, and then they leave the military and go to dva and the v8 may not have the formulary, the list of drugs -- they go to the va and the v.a may not have the formulary, the list of drugs. my bill is to say that you are going to carry these things. there was a famous case -- the clay hunt suicide bill, where his mother testified in front of the veterans affairs committee a year or so ago and disrupt the medication he was on, and when they went over -- described the medication he was on, and went they went over to the v.a., they didn't carry it. when you are on a psychotropic medication, the time to be careful is when it is tapering off. going cold turkey becomes a concerning time. as the mother testified, he struggled with that and killed himself. there is no reason we ever want a veteran to get in line for a psychiatric medication. my bill says that we have got to carry those things. don't say "let's order it in the mail and see what happens when it gets here in a couple of weeks." no, it needs to be there. my gosh, if someone is doing well on medication, keep it, and the reason for this, greta, is there is a number of ant

to me of incompetence is how we serve our veterans. the veterans administration has been an embarrassment for a long time. when scandal hit, a bill was passed within three weeks that allowed the v.a. to fire the top 3, 400 executives, not that it's a bad idea but why don't we do that everywhere? it hasn't gotten much better. i can deliver a loan to a poor woman in new delhi over a cell phone, yet if you're a veteran you have to spend months filling out paperwork, many more months while some bureaucrat checks your paperwork, many more months to find if you get an point. it isn't just inefficient. it's failing to serve. we have to have the strongest military on the face of the planet. but we have to serve our veterans well. let's spend the american money wisely and well and use the money to get our deficits under control. >> next question from marie. >> hi, marie. >> how are you? nice meeting you. should you run for government, what do you propose to do to unite the conservative wing of the republican party with its more conservative base? >> you know, i ran in california for the senate in 2010 as a proud, pro-life conservative, you don't do that in california unless you mean it. d