v.a. committee it had unanimous support. unfortunately, some members of the senate v.a. committee voted against it, senator sullivan, senator tillis, and senator cassidy. they voted against it in the closure vote and hopefully next week, if it comes to a floor vote, they will realize the error of their ways and vote yes to get passed. but it will have to go back to the house and we did not get that unanimous support from the house veterans affairs committees. incredibly shocking because myself and others from iava an military service border organization, we have testified before both committees countless times over the years about how important this issue is and how important this legislation is. we really need if anyone the v.a. house committee to drive us forward and making sure every member of their party votes yes. host: let's talk to jim calling from ashton, west virginia and served in iraq. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: good morning. guest: good morning, jim. caller: morning. host: do you have a question? caller: good morning. can you h

v.a. committee it had unanimous support. unfortunately, some members of the senate v.a. ted against it, senator sullivan, senator tillis, and senator cassidy. they voted against it in the closure vote and hopefully next week, if it comes to a floor vote, they will realize the error of their ways and vote yes to get passed. but it will have to go back to the house and we did not get that unanimous support from the house veterans affairs committees. incredibly shocking because myself and others from iava an military service border organization, we have testified before both committees countless times over the years about how important this issue is and how important this legislation is. we really need if anyone the v.a. house committee to drive us forward and making sure every member of their party votes yes. host: let's talk to jim calling from ashton, west virginia and served in iraq. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: good morning. guest: good morning, jim. caller: morning. host: do you have a question? caller: good morning. can you hear me? host

v.a. committee it had unanimous support. unfortunately, some members of the senate v.a. e voted against it, senator sullivan, senator tillis, and senator cassidy. they voted against it in the closure vote and hopefully next week, if it comes to a floor vote, they will realize the error of their ways and vote yes to get passed. but it will have to go back to the house and we did not get that unanimous support from the house veterans affairs committees. incredibly shocking because myself and others from iava an military service border organization, we have testified before both committees countless times over the years about how important this issue is and how important this legislation is. we really need if anyone the v.a. house committee to drive us forward and making sure every member of their party votes yes. host: let's talk to jim calling from ashton, west virginia and served in iraq. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: good morning. guest: good morning, jim. caller: morning. host: do you have a question? caller: good morning. can you hear me?

for my senators on the committee, particularly friends like john boozman and sherrod brown, thank you. i'm thankful for the leadership of president biden and v.a. secretary dennis mcdonough, along with house veterans' affairs committee chairman takana. and so many, many others that are here today. this bill is the legislation we envisioned when we set out to right the wrongs of our toxic supposed vets. this bill recognizes the cost of war. it's the bill our veterans and their families deserve and are counting on and cannot wait any longer for. veterans and veteran service organizations and advocates have understood this for a long time. and they have been incredible partners since the beginnings. and i look forward to thanking reached and every one of them in the did a -- thanking each and every one of them in the days and weeks to come. i want to speak directly to them now. i am grateful for your efforts. i am grateful for your voices, for never taking your foot off the gas and continuing to push members of congress to simply do the right thing. i also want to acknowledge the countless hours put in by the staffs from both sides of the aisle.

v.a. committee earlier, that relationship is going to continue regardless. and the reason is is because in this place there's something missing. it's called trust. and i trust senator moran. we've been through this for the last year and a half. and even longer. when you were chairman of the committee, many of the bills that are in this package you oversaw their passage out of committee. but because of negotiations continue and because i still believe even though this process is very broken -- we both know that -- i still believe that we're going to be able to come up with something that both of us can agree on for amendments through our leadership, we would agree on something anyway, but through our leadership. that's why i'm objecting to your motion. i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. moran: mr. president, i would conclude by encouraging the chairman of the senate committee on veterans' affairs to use his substantial level of influence with the leaders that he described as necessary to approve the consideration of these amendments

v.a. and that bureaucracy when crafting this bill with senator manchin, our offices worked extensively with the senate veterans' affairs committee and many of the veteran service organizations, particularly the disabled american veterans organization, and we worked with the v.a. on the language to make sure we were not getting ahead of the science. making sure that what was exposed and what were the diseases connect with science. not always easy, but the v.a. does have expertise in that area. i then cosponsored with senator blumenthal the k-2 veterans advocacy act. this bill moved the needle on three things that are known systemically now -- the toxic substances at the base that we called k-2 in uzbekistan, the medical conditions that k-2 veterans have, and they're serious, something really bad was going on at the k-2 base in uzbekistan, and the links between the two. now, we worked with the trump white house, before president trump left office in 2020, before our bill passed here on the senate floor, to get them to issue an executive order for the v.a. to essentially do those things for k-2 veterans. i introduced and had passed

the house veterans affair committee hold some meetings in 2020 to probe the v.a. two witnesses, carolyn edwards and nick quested. more than 840 people have been charged in connection with the riot. martha? >> chad, thanks very much. jim banks joins me now. as we mentioned, speaker pelosi vetoed his nomination to the january situation committee last year. congressman banks, good to have you with us. >> thanks for having me. >> martha: think back to the watergate hearings. it's the most similar example. it was on all day long and reprogrammed some at night to make sure everybody could see it. you had both sides choose the members that sat on that committee. there were three republicans and four democrats on that committee. why were you vetoed and how do they get away with doing something where they chose all the people up there? >> it's never happened before. 232 years of congressional history, we've never had a committee that is entirely and completely partisan. that's why the american people have dismissed it. they're tuning out. they're going to flip the channel

v.a. and senate colleagues on and off the committee to craft a comprehensive bill to deliver all generations of toxic exposed veterans' long overdue health care and benefits. three weeks ago senator tester and i announced the sergeant first class keith robinson honoring our promise to address comprehensive toxic act of 2022. it has many priorities, but among those, this historic legislation will, one, expand v.a. health care eligibility; two, improve the v.a.'s presumption process; three, bolster the v.a.'s toxic exposure training and resources; four, strengthen toxic exposure research; and five, set up v.a. and veterans for success. last week over memorial day, our country paused to remember and honor those who served our nation. my expectation, my guess is that almost every member of the united states senate in some fashion over the weekend spent time with veterans, paying respect, giving them honor. one kansas veteran, when i was in wichita, told me that he and his dad both served in the united states navy and both had an experience with exposure to hazardous and toxic materials. he said

committee questions key witnesses. the senate expected to work on legislation to expand access to v.a. alth care and disability benefits for toxic exposed veterans. on c-span3, 10:00 a.m., the senate committee examines the residence 2023 budget request for the u.s. forest service and gets an update on wildfires. everything is streaming on c-span.org or our video app. c-span now. >> your unfiltered view on what is happening in washington. the court, campaigns and more from the world politics all at your fingertips. you can also state current on the latest episodes of "washington journal". c-span now is available on the apple store and google play, downloaded for free today. your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere. >> here many of the conversations on c-span's new podcasts. >> susan one focuses on the presidency of lyndon johnson -- season one focuses on residency of lyndon b. johnson. not everyone knew they were being recorded. >> certainly johnson secretary new because they were taxed with transcribing many of the conversations. they were the one to make sure that the conver

committee in 2015. they were trying to cast a spotlight on problems at the v.a., usually when you have a confirmation hearingme court justice, those hearings bleed into the evening but very rare to have a prime time hearing, something that is schedule in the evening. >> bret: all right. chad, thank you. >> officials tell fox news there are no u.s. injuries after an apparent drone strike near the u.s. consulate in erbil, iraq. there have been a number of small drone attacks against targets in erbil close to where american forces are working. they have been attributed to iranian backed groups. staying overseas, ukrainian forces are battling russian troops in a key eastern city tonight. the regional governor of luhansk insist the ukrainian military are still fighting, quote, for every serenity meter of the city admitted troops may have to retreat. the battle for donetsk is happening as russian forces appear to close in on the control of the luhansk region. it's one of two that make up the industrial heartland known as donbas. up next, back larch against soft on crime mollies, and it's impact on the midterms com

v.a. supported? >> . >> refresh my memory on the moving as quick as i can some of the house and some of the senate. >> it back to me on that. can you assure this committeeg to make sure it doesn't happen will happen. two.5million what do we do to prepare quick. >> yes you have my commitment. but i guess i'm also sitting here asking the question, veterans are suffering on —- suffering due to their service and happened at a different time than another veteran it can be hard on the v.a. is not a good enough reason in my view to wait to get this person taken care of. subpoena position now to get millions more claims is it 2 million veterans or 3 million or 4 million? >> i'm worried about the due diligence i've seen the v.a. make decisions to collapse a system and that hurts everybody. i worry about that. let me turn to my state we still have to get you up to alaska. we have an expansion across the communities i was actually visiting one on the peninsula recently. there's an issue of the budget not having a full service than the smallest in the regional network of the v.a. healthcare system. errors away to hire more people than the v.a. facility we are now b

committee. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> good to see you guys. call this are into order. it's great to have the secretary of the v.a. in front of us again today, considering what we are dealing with so i'm sure there's going to be a lot of good questions. but the reason for the setting is to take a look at the budget for fy 2023. that you put forth. it is as a said earlier we are very, very close as you all know to having this hack back become a reality. it's a big deal because r we are taking care of all areas of toxic exposed veterans after decades of an action byof our government. this bill has a broad bipartisan support with the vast majority of senators willing to move it forward, editing everybody on this committee t would agree we don't need to waste a lot more time, get the benefits they are due. there is a negotiation on amendments going as we speak. and the ranking member kaine i couldn't do this but we did agree on a couple of amendments when this bill without, both republican amendments. unfortunately, we are not the ones doing the negotiation. leadership is. so they areun continuing to hopefully move f

v.a. health care benefits bill. a vote to limit debate expected in the afternoon, that requires the support of 60 senators to move forward. at 10:00 a.m. on c-span3, the senate judiciary committeexamines how children are being affected by gun violence. at 2:00 p.m., a look at u.s. drug control strategy. everything streams live at c-span.org, or on the free c-span now video app. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington, live and on-demand. keep up with the days biggest events with livestreams of floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns and more from the world of politics, all at your fingers. stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal, and find scheduling information for c-span's networks and radial, plus a variety of compelling podcasts. it is available at the apple store or google play. download it for free today. c-span now, you're front-row seat washington, anytime, anywhere. 'oversight officials from the justice department, the secret service, and the testified about fraud detection for covid-19 relief programs. they also talked about identi

yesterday at veterans' affairs committee, we had a hearing with our v.a. secretary. we've had a p terrible problem with case backloads on benefits and health services. currently the case backload is about 188,000. that's the backlog. that's what needs to be worked through. and in passing this bill that is before us today, the estimate is that we're going to add about a million cases to that. now i want you to put yourself in the shoes of a veteran who has suffered and is suffering with toxic exposure and has a rare cancer, has a respiratory disease, a cardiovascular disease, and is needing access to care. what you want is to be able to get that care. what you don't want to do is have to wait for that care. and that is why we needed to go through this amendment process to address this issue of how a veteran is going to be able to access that care in a timely manner when they need the care. because with some of these rare diseases, days and weeks and months become a life-or-death issue. so the access is important. the amendments that we proposed were as noncontroversia

the committee was also pleased to include the veteran peer specialist act from congressman scott peters. this is an important provision directing v.a. to expand its peer specialist program which is extremely popular with veterans. although our colleague, former congressman delgado, recently left the house to become lieutenant governor of new york, i want to thank him for introducing the reach for veterans act in the house. it's a critical component of strong and will strengthen v.a. veterans crisis line. the v.a. governors challenge expansion act. mandates for the first time v.a. include tribes in addition to states in the successful governors challenge program to prevent veteran suicide. no sovereign nation should have to wait to wait to be invited to a team. it will work directly with v.a. to tailor innovative suicide prevention ideas to the needs of their own native veterans. overall, strong will give v.a. important now authorities and resources to support mental health and well-being through increased training, outreach, mental health care delivery, and research in line with the committee's public health approach and president

v.a. indicated to us you are reviewing that we expected to report june 6 and a few days before that we were noticed it is not available on time. can you explain to the committee result come at this point in time, you should tell us, what is the content even though the report has not yet been delivered to congress. you don't plan to change the way wait times are calculated for eligibility? >> i have tried to say into the record and in discussions with individual senators privately and publicly, and house members, i consider the june report and on —- report very important actually asked for another month to work on. we have to see much of the work on it. demand for healthcare over the course over these last three years have increased and more intensively for care in the community. such that right now i could tell you roughly measured by relative value by how much care we give to veterans about one third of the care we give right now is care in the community. that is a high number. the highest number yet of the three years of the act. that gives you a rough order of magnitude what you're seeing in the budget is growth. care in the community as a portion is growi

v.a. researchers are veterans themselves, determined to find innovative treatments and cures. i commend senator john tester of montana and senator jerry moran, they are chairman and ranking member of the veterans' affairs committee for this historic bill. i support the v.f.w., and so many others that helped produce this bill and the veterans who fought to reach this point. fought sometimes literally with their last breath. i'll vote proudly for the pact act and urge my colleagues to do the same. madam president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: invited biden to speak where he's pro tem president. is that an invitation the president is considering? >> we will have anything to review or announce at this time. >> i have a question about china and tariffs with inflation still an issue, there's pressure on president biden and tariffs on china but it's meeting resistance from union members as he has to the afl cio, what does he want to see done? >> as you know, the president has asked his team to look at that particular issue, he will make a decision on that, i want to get ahead of it. that will be for the president to speak to whe

committee questions key witnesses about what transpired during the assault on the u.s. capitol. on c-span2 at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the senate is expected to work on legislation to expand access to v.a. health care and disability benefits for toxic exposed veterans. live on c-span3 at 10:00 a.m., senate committee examines the president's 2023 budget request for the u.s. forest service and gives an update on wildfires. everything is also streaming on c-span.org or on our free video app, c-span now. >> c-span brings you an unfiltered view of government. our newsletter word forward recaps the day for you from the halls of congress to daily press briefings to remarks from the president. scan the qr code on the bottom to stay up-to-date on everything happening in washington each day. subscribe today using the qr code or visit c-span.org/connect to subscribe anytime. c-span's the weekly podcast brings you 30 years of audio recordings from our audio library, comparing the events of the past two today. on this episode -- >> why are we here if not to make sure that fewer schools and communities go through what sandy hook has gone our heart is breaking for these families, every ounce of love

while i appreciate the secretary's assurance, our committee must continue its oversight of the v.a. and make certain this bill is implemented correctly and that all those with toxic exposure and all veterans can rely upon the system for benefits and for health care. we still have our work cut out as a congress, as a senate to make sure that the promises that are made in this bill are promises that are kept, and the promises that are made to other veterans are kept. this bill was designed to fix a broken system that has been cobbled together over decades of patchwork fixes. congress has been trying to solve these problems, the department of veteran affairs has been trying to solve these problems and finally we bring together a solution that should make things better for many. while i continue to insist my g.o.p. colleagues should be allowed to offer and debate and vote on amendments adds, it is time to advance the tester-moran substitute and bring us closer to providing all toxic exposed veterans with the care they need and deserve and provide veterans with certainty and support. mr.

v.a. facilities. every generation of americans has had men and women that were willing to serve our country in uniform. as chairman of the armed services committee, i've had the honor of traveling across the globe to meet with our deployed servicemembers, including numerous trips to afghanistan and iraq. our servicemembers and our veterans truly represent what is best in our country. we honor and venerate their heroism in combat, but too often in the past we have overlooked and dismissed the long-term health effects of their service. this is changing. with this bill, we will do the right thing for our toxic-exposed and combat veterans and their families. we can ensure that they have access to the care and services that they deserve and have earned. i hope all of my colleagues will join me in supporting this important piece of legislation. and before i yield the floor, i must recognize the extraordinary work of senator jon tester and senator jerry moran, the chair and ranking member of the veterans' affairs committee. this was an extraordinary effort. it was bipartisan. it was motivated by the recognition on both sides of the aisle of the service

for my senators on the committee, particularly friends like john boozman and sherrod brown, thank you. i'm thankful for the leadership of president biden and v.a. secretary dennis mcdonough, along with house veterans' affairs committee chairman takana. and so many, many others that are here today. this bill is the legislation we envisioned when we set out to right the wrongs of our toxic supposed vets. this bill recognizes the cost of war. it's the bill our veterans and their families deserve and are counting on and cannot wait any longer for. veterans and veteran service organizations and advocates have understood this for a long time. and they have been incredible partners since the beginnings. and i look forward to thanking reached and every one of them in the did a -- thanking each and every one of them in the days and weeks to come. i want to speak directly to them now. i am grateful for your efforts. i am grateful for your voices, for never taking your foot off the gas and continuing to push members of congress to simply do the right thing. i also want to acknowledge the countless hours put in by the staffs from both sides of the aisle.