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: can you hear us? caller: yes. host: go ahead, please. caller: what do you need? host: what is your question? caller: i was in iraq from 2004 to 2005 and we were within hundreds of yards of a burn pit that burned around-the-clock. and we was exposed to a lot of that smoke. later that fall we was exposed to oil being burned. they caught a pipeline on fire or something and it burned the whole duration. so, yeah, then burn pits -- them burn pits, they are out there and they used them the whole time we were deployed. guest: i am glad you called and mentioned that. one, you lending credence to the fact these were used so widely. but you're t

we really need if anyone the v.a. houseo 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: can you hear us? caller: yes. host: go ahead, please. caller: what do you need? host: what is your question? caller: i was in iraq from 2004 to 2005 and we were within hundreds of yards of a burn pit that burned around-the-clock. and we was exposed to a lot of that smoke. later that fall we was exposed to oil being burned. they caught a pipeline on fire or something and it burned the whole duration. so, yeah, then burn pits -- them burn pits, they are out there and they used them the whole time we were deployed. guest: i am glad you called and mentioned that. one, you lending credence to the fact these were used so widely. but you're touching on s

we really need if anyone the v.a. houseee 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: can you hear us? caller: yes. host: go ahead, please. caller: what do you need? host: what is your question? caller: i was in iraq from 2004 to 2005 and we were within hundreds of yards of a burn pit that burned around-the-clock. and we was exposed to a lot of that smoke. later that fall we was exposed to oil being burned. they caught a pipeline on fire or something and it burned the whole duration. so, yeah, then burn pits -- them burn pits, they are out there and they used them the whole time we were deployed. guest: i am glad you called and mentioned that. one, you lending credence to the fact these were used so widely. but you're touching

v.a. and on shipping. last night finally the house overwhelmingly approved the senate's ocean shipping reform act, the most significant maritime reform law passed by congress in years. the inflation fighting shipping bill now goes to the president's desk for signature. finally providing relief to american exporters and consumers alike. shipping reform is exactly the kind of bill that can make a difference to the american people. it fights inflation. it relieves our supply chains. it helps small businesses and consumers alike. not too much has been written about this bill because sadly the way our world and media work, if there's not a big conflict, they don't write much about it. but this is very important. if high prices are our number one nemesis, one of the main reasons is the ships piled up at our ports. we've all seen the pictures outside the ports of l.a. and seattle and savannah and norfolk, and new york-new jersey. this is causing people to pay more. it's no one's fault. it was covid related. and now there's a big rush to make up for the delays that covid caused. but we have to do something about i

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. senator moran is exactly correct, we take credit for their good work, and they do good work

i understand the white house is considering appointing a v.a.retary for public and governmental affairs and they are doing this because they cannot get her into a senate confirmed position. for your awareness in the past he has tweeted, let's be real, one of the two national political parties cannot call out racism our system is broken. it is not a political statement to say the gop is racist. it is a moral statement and plan backed up by an increase of the mountain of evidence and also waiting —- quoting the windy city times that the us has a powerful right wing anti- gay antiabortion on —- lobby supporting supposed depression principles and you call them christian sense they have no resemblance to the jesus i know from the bible and then to serve as a member of your staff and into pressuring as the assistant secretary. i yield back that so the army officer that served with him honorably was a west point graduate and a committed public servant that i can commend that now i'm just learning about these things that you mentioned they key for havin

house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today in appreciation that h.r. 4951, the v.a. electronic health record transparency act legislation i introduced and was approved by the house last year has now been approved by the senate and is being sent to the president's desk to be signed into law. throughout my career, i have been privileged to have close working relationships with veterans and veteran service organizations throughout northwest indiana. these established relationships have motivated me to secure a position on the house veterans' affairs committee. mr. mrvan: as chairman of the modernization subcommittee i have seen the great need for congress to conduct oversight and have accurate information to ensure that the electronic health record modernization program is able to meet our needs and our veterans. i thank the leaders of the senate for also seeing the value of this legislation as we move forward. i look forward to obtaining the requested information and continuing our work to ensure all veterans receive the world class health care they deserve. thank you

house. and in the senate. it provides access to v.a. health care to three to five million potentially exposed veterans, that are exposed to burn pits, exposed to bad poisonous water at camp lejeune. it grants presumptions of exposure for veterans with rare cancers and other debilitating diseases and it includes, as i said, camp lejeune. the cancer piece of it is addressed in the advanced research project's agency helicopter act, arpa-h. arpa-h comes out of the energy and commerce committee this particular legislation, congresswoman eshoo, and that it against cancer, supercharges the cancer moonshot. and again, a number of mental health bills this week and more to come that address mental health concerns that we have for our veterans, for our children, for our entire community, and again some of that legislation relates to the opioid challenge that we face. so we pass legislation keeping the president's promise and hopefully we can get some of this through the senate. i am personally overwhelmed by this decision. from time to time, i quo

v.a. health care and disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances. c-span3 live at 10:00 a.m. eastern, a house hearing reviewing the 2023 budget request for fema. at 3:00 p.m. eastern, a budget hearing for the veterans affairs department. you can watch with our free video app c-span now or online at c-span.org. >> listen to c-span radio. get complete access to what's happening in washington wherever you are with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from u.s. congress. white house events, the courts, campaigns and more. plus, analysis and the world of politics with our informative podcasts. c-span now is a viewable at the apple store -- is available at the apple store and google play. c-span now, your front row seat to washington, anytime, anywhere. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, we are funded by these television companies and more, including charter communications. >> broadband is a force for empowerment, that's why charter has invested billions building infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering opportunity in communities big and small. charter is connecting

v.a. and on shipping. last night finally the house overwhelmingly approved the senate's ocean shipping reform act, the most significant maritime reform law passed by congress in years. the inflation fighting shipping bill now goes to the president's desk for signature. finally providing relief to american exporters and consumers alike. shipping reform is exactly the kind of bill that can make a difference to the american people. it fights inflation. it relieves our supply chains. it helps small businesses and consumers alike. not too much has been written about this bill because sadly the way our world and media work, if there's not a big conflict, they don't write much about it. but this is very important. if high prices are our number one nemesis, one of the main reasons is the ships piled up at our ports. we've all seen the pictures outside the ports of l.a. and seattle and savannah and norfolk, and new york-new jersey. this is causing people to pay more. it's no one's fault. it was covid related. and now there's a big rush to make up for the delays that covid caused. but we have to do something about i

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

house veterans affairs 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

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 biden's strategy to address veteran suicide. it addresses gaps along the spectrum of prevention and care by expanding mental health out outreach to traditionally underserved veterans, delivering treatments, provide care and further strengthen veteran's crisis response system. with this legislation, we will help v.a. better meet veterans where they are, literally. str

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 bipartisan burn pits accountability act, with senator klobuchar, which directs the pentagon to include periodic health assessments and valleys of -- evaluation of whether servicemember has been exposed to open burn pits or toxic airborne chemicals in their deployments. this bill was included in the f.y. 2020 national defense authorization act. and i sponsored the pandemic care for burn pits exposure act of 2020, to ensure that servicemembers and veterans with previous exposure to burn pits received the care they needed during the covid-19 pandemic. mr. president, i'm listing these bills and the work and time and the bipartisan nature of them because on the veterans' affairs committee there has been no issue i've been more focused on. we're going to take the lessons from vietnam, agent orange, and not say you're going to wait three, four, five decades while you die of cancer. and i am committed to this is

committee questions key witnesses -- house six committee -- january 6 committee questions key witnesses. the senate expected to work on legislation to expand access to v.ahealth 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 conv

v.a. health care and disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances. on c-span3 live at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the house revealing the 2020 three budget request for fema. at 3:00 p.m. eastern, a budget hearing for the veterans affairs department. go watch with our free video app, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your

v.a. supported? going through presumptive's in the bill? >> refresh my memory. since i got in this job i have been moving a lot. we have done 12 but some of those are included seven housein the senate. >> maybe you can get back to me. can you assure this committee to make sure what doesn't happen will happen? two.5million people being eligible and what can we do to prepare for that quick. >> yes. you have my commitment on that. i've been thinking a lot about this and i'm asking myself the question, if the veterans are suffering from conditions incurred because o their servic—, because it happened at a different time of another veteran and it's hard on the v.a. and snr people that's not a good enough reason to wait to get the person taken care of. i'm not saying that is what you are arguing that my point is ifsu we're in a position now to get millions more claims 2 million veterans three? 4million? we will get detail generally we see one veteran makes a new claim every three years so the numbers matter the sequencing matters we are digging into all of that. >> looking at the do diligence on —- the due diligence i have seen the v.a. to make decisions to collapse in my st

because of the improvements we have made in the house bill, the v.a. secretary yesterday told our committee that he can now, quote, certify this legislation will be implemented without negative operational impacts on existing disability claims for health care and for veterans. all along i've had concern about the consequences of this legislation and the volume of cases that will now, the v.a. will now encounter, what it may mean for those veterans as well as veterans who need v.a. care and benefits who are not toxic exposed. secretary macdonough yesterday went on to say, quote, we're ready for it. we've been preparing for this, and i think we can do this and do it well, and in all cases do it transparently. 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 prom

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. senator moran is exactly correct, we take credit for their good work, and they do good work