[Senate Hearing 116-401]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 116-401
THE LEGISLATIVE PRESENTATION OF VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS (VFW)
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JOINT HEARING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
BEFORE THE
U.S. STATES SENATE
AND THE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MARCH 6, 2019
__________
Formatted for the use of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
42-911 PDF WASHINGTON : 2021
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
Johnny Isakson, Georgia, Chairman
Jerry Moran, Kansas Jon Tester, Montana, Ranking
John Boozman, Arkansas Member
Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Patty Murray, Washington
Mike Rounds, South Dakota Bernard Sanders, (I) Vermont
Thom Tillis, North Carolina Sherrod Brown, Ohio
Dan Sullivan, Alaska Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut
Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii
Kevin Cramer, North Dakota Joe Manchin III, West Virginia
Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona
Adam Reece, Staff Director
Tony McClain, Democratic Staff Director
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
Mark Takano, California, Chairman
Julia Brownley, California Dr. Phil Roe, Tennessee, Ranking
Kathleen Rice, New York Member
Conor Lamb, Pennsylvania Gus M. Bilirakis, Florida
Mike Levin, California Amata C. Radewagen, American Samoa
Anthony Brindisi, New York Mike Bost, Illinois
Max Rose, New York Dr. Neal Dunn, Florida
Chris Pappas, New Hampshire Jack Bergman, Michigan
Elaine Luria, Virginia Jim Banks, Indiana
Susie Lee, Nevada Andy Barr, Kentucky
Joe Cunningham, South Carolina Dan Meuser, Pennsylvania
Gil Cisneros, California Steve Watkins, Kansas
Collin Peterson, Minnesota Chip Roy, Texas
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Greg Steube, Florida
Northern Mariana Islands
Colin Allred, Texas
Lauren Underwood, Illinois
Ray Kelley, Staff Director
Jon Towers, Republican Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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March 6, 2019
SENATORS
Page
Isakson, Hon. Johnny, Chairman, U.S. Senator from Georgia........ 1
Tester, Hon. John, Ranking Member, U.S. Senator from Montana..... 2
Manchin, Hon. Joe, III, U.S. Senator from West Virginia.......... 20
Cassidy, Hon. Bill, U.S. Senator from Louisiana.................. 23
Boozman, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from Arkansas................... 33
Blumenthal, Hon. Richard, U.S. Senator from Connecticut.......... 35
Blackburn, Hon. Marsha, U.S. Senator from Tennessee.............. 37
Sullivan, Hon. Dan, U.S. Senator from Alaska..................... 40
Tillis, Hon. Thom, U.S. Senator from North Carolina.............. 42
REPRESENTATIVES
Roe, Hon. Phil, Ranking Member, U.S. Representative from
Tennessee...................................................... 4
Takano, Hon. Mark, Chairman, U.S. Representative from Montana.... 6
Lamb, Hon. Conor, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania.......... 25
Bergman, Hon. Jack, U.S. Representative from Michigan............ 26
Levin, Hon. Mike, U.S. Representative from California............ 28
Radewagen, Hon. Amata C., U.S. Representive from American Samoa.. 30
Cisneros, Hon. Gil, U.S. Representative from California.......... 31
Banks, Hon. Jim, U.S. Representative from Indiana................ 36
Cunningham, Hon. Joe, U.S. Representative from South Carolina.... 39
WITNESSES
Statement of Udall, Hon. Tom, U.S. Senator from New Mexico....... 9
Lawrence, Vincent B.J., Commander-in-Chief, Veterans of Foreign
Wars of the U.S. Accompanied by: Wallace, Bob, Executve
Director; Gallucci, Ryan, National Veterans Service Director;
Fuentes, Carlos, National Legislative Service Director; and
Bencken, Darrell, National Legislative Committee, Chairman..... 11
APPENDIX
Lawrence, Vincent B.J., Commander-in-Chief, Veterans of Foreign
Wars of the United States, Prepared Statement.................. 48
JOINT HEARING ON THE LEGISLATIVE PRESENTATION OF VETERANS OF FOREIGN
WARS (VFW)
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2019
United States Senate,
and House of Representatives,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Washington, D.C.
The Committees met, pursuant to notice, at 10:00 a.m., in
Room SD-G50, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Johnny
Isakson and Hon. Mark Takano, Chairmen of the Committees,
presiding.
Senators Present: Isakson, Boozman, Cassidy, Rounds,
Tillis, Sullivan, Blackburn, Tester, Brown, Blumenthal, Hirono,
Manchin, and Sinema.
Representatives Present: Takano, Brownley, Lamb, Levin,
Rose, Brindisi, Cisneros, Lee, Underwood, Cunningham, Pappas,
Allred, Peterson, Roe, Radewagen, Bost, Bergman, and Banks.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN ISAKSON
Chairman Isakson. I call this meeting of the Senate and
House Veterans' Affairs Committees together and welcome our
VSOs here today. Veterans of Foreign Wars is a great
organization. They have a beautiful building right down the
street. They do a great job on behalf of veterans from all wars
overseas and do a great job working with us, which we
appreciate a lot.
I know Tester is not here--oh, there he is. You lost some
weight. I did not recognize you. You are looking good, as
always. We are happy to have you--well, you did not come to
listen to us. We came to listen to you.
But as Chairman of the Senate Committee I want to tell you
how proud I am of what we have been able to do on that
Committee in terms of the Mission Act, accountability, and the
many things we have done improving the appeals process and
speeding things up.
We have a VA that can work for you. We are going to ask you
to be our partner this year. If you have a problem with the VA,
call us. Do not just call to complain. Call to tell us what the
problem was and help us solve the problem. If we have got
somebody at the VA that is a problem we will get that
corrected. If you are being a problem, we will get that
corrected.
We need to be a team. And the reason I said that is
important. We need to be a team. We cannot make it everything
you want it to be. We can make it the best we can make it if we
work together. But we spend time flaming folks and talking
about how somebody could have done something better, and then
we do not do anything productive.
So I am asking you to help us with that. I have told all
the chairman of all the committees and all the members of the
Senate I want them to talk to their LA and their staff that do
veterans' appeals and veterans' calls and veterans' cases. Let
me know when they have a good experience. Let me know when they
have a bad experience, and let me know when they have a
suggestion that would make the experience for everybody better.
Our job, the next two years, is to make it work right. It
is not to introduce some other bill that is supposed to fix
something. The veterans have got more money, more authority,
more statutory changes, more of what you wanted them to ever
invest--not because of me, not because of Jon, but because all
of us work together. We are a team. We want you to be on our
team too, because in the end what we all do together is a lot
more than what we ever do separately.
So I just want to thank you for everything that you have
done. I want to take one liberal license. Would all the VFW
members from Georgia please stand? Go Dogs.
[Applause.]
Chairman Isakson. That was a little liberal license.
It is now my pleasure to introduce my Ranking Member and a
great friend of mine from Montana, Jon Tester.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR TESTER
Senator Tester. Well, thank you, Johnny, and we all
appreciate your leadership and what you have done as well as
the House side of things and the whole bipartisan, bicameral
working together. But Mr. Lawrence, thank you for being here. I
appreciate what you do. I appreciate your leadership team and
it is good to see you here today.
Is my crew from Montana here? Stand up. All right. Thanks,
guys.
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. We have got some good folks in Montana, I
will tell you that, Commander Lawrence. As I said before, and
as Johnny just said, we are going to take our cues from you.
You know better than anyone how the VA is performing across the
country, what improvements need to be made on behalf of
veterans and their families, and listening to veterans should
not be a courtesy from the VA. It should be mandatory. That is
why we need to hear your view on whether the VA is doing enough
to accept unacceptable rate of veteran suicides or provide just
to veterans exposed to toxins during their service, whether it
is Agent Orange or burn pits, or to address gender disparities
within the VA to provide more equitable treatment of our women
veterans, or to ensure all veterans have access to timely and
high-quality health care, whether they live in Big Sandy,
Montana, or Atlanta, Georgia.
We need to know whether the VFW believes that
implementation of the Mission Act, the largest overhaul of
veterans' health care in a generation, is being carried out as
Congress intended and as veterans deserve. There is very little
concern. I hear it every day from the veterans' community and
Congress that recently proposed access standards will steer a
disproportionate amount of veterans and taxpayer dollars to the
private sector, and despite language in the Mission Act, the VA
will not hold community providers to the same standards of VA
providers. So we could end up sending more veterans into
communities for lower-quality care and longer wait times.
To top it off, nobody can tell us how many veterans will be
impacted by these standards or how much it is going to cost.
All we know is that community care is more expensive than VA
care and that billions have been paid to third-party
administrators that should have gone directly to improving the
lives of you and your fellow veterans.
The VA refers to concerns about hollowing out the VA health
care system as false and predictable, but everybody in this
room--everybody in this room--knows they are very real.
Veterans deserve a lot more than that. They deserve the truth.
They deserve a system that works, a system that is built and
improved with input from you, the VFW, and others.
Mr. Lawrence, it is great to have you here today to gather
that input. I want to welcome and I want to thank you for all
that you have done and your organization is done on behalf of
veterans and their families. Thank you.
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. It is now my pleasure to introduce the
gentleman from Tennessee, last year's Chairman, this year's
Ranking Member, Mr. Roe.
OPENING STATEMENT OF DR. PHIL ROE
Dr. Roe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and first of all I want
to welcome any Tennesseans who might be here. If you would
stand. Oh yeah, fantastic. Good. Thank you.
[Applause.]
Dr. Roe. I appreciate you being here, and Commander, thank
you for your team. They are great work with and certainly we
would not have gotten done last year what we have gotten done
without the help of your team.
And I also want to thank my colleagues at the dais, because
I can tell you that in my 10 years here I have never worked
closer with--it pains me, from the House, to say anything nice
about the Senate, but anyway, there were great partners last
year and we would not have gotten done what we have gotten done
for our veteran community without their help, so thank you all
on the Senate side. And it is a very bipartisan--we try to
check the Republican and Democrat at the door and do what is
right for our nation's heroes.
I was at an elementary school this week, on Monday, and I
asked the children--it was a fifth-grade class, and there were
probably 40 kids in there, and I asked them to hold up their
hands if they had anyone in their family who was a veteran or
was currently serving. About 80 percent of those kids held
their hand up. That is who we represent, and you all, like I
am, are the past and we are doing what is right for our
veterans, but those kids are the future, and with the example
they have been given by you they will also step up and serve
this great nation.
During the last two years, I do not remember a time in my
time here in Congress we have accomplished as much for our
nation's heroes. We passed an Accountability and Whistleblower
Protection bill. I think one of the major pieces of legislation
is not talked about as much but I think could be transformative
is the Appeals Modernization, which Mike led right here. It has
passed into law and is now live.
The Forever GI Bill, which now allows a veteran--I used the
GI Bill when I got out of the Army.
[Applause.]
Dr. Roe. You know, who knows, with these things, how fast
technology is changing and rapidly, so a veteran at 50 years of
age can go back and get retrained going forward.
The VA Mission Act, which can either be the most
transformative piece of legislation we have passed in decades
for the VA or it can just be another piece of paper that is
written and signed into law, depending on how it is
implemented. So I look to you to help us, and Commander
Lawrence and I have had discussions about that. He will be
coming to my district to look at some things that we have done.
And I want to thank Chairman Takano for his continuing the
technology committee that we stood up, the subcommittee that we
stood up. Look, I told the Secretary that if we do not get this
Cerner, this electronic health record done right, we both need
to go into the Witness Protection Program, and it is one that
we absolutely have got to get right going forward.
And we talked about burn pits. We passed a piece of
legislation yesterday on the House floor. But think about this.
If you are allowed--if you go into DoD as an 18-year old and 50
years later something may have happened to you, who knows what,
if you have got that virtual lifetime electronic health record
we can go back and mine that data and find out did it actually
affect you--positively, negatively, whatever? So that is hugely
important.
Three other things very briefly I want to talk about, one
very near and dear to my heart. I am a Vietnam-era veteran. I
served in Korea, Camp Casey and other places in Korea.
[Applause.]
Dr. Roe. But one of the things that is very near and dear
to my heart are the Blue Water Navy vets. Look, we left a war,
in 1975, that did not go well for this country and it took us a
couple of decades to finally get our swagger back in this
country. It is time that we treated those Blue Water Navy, that
were off the coast of Vietnam, exactly the same as we treated
every other veteran that put their feet on the ground there. So
I need your help.
[Applause.]
Dr. Roe. To finish up, and I know the Chairman will have
comments about this, but another thing that troubles me greatly
as a physician is suicide. I just saw, the AMA published a
piece of information yesterday that said that with alcohol and
drugs and suicide, those three things, almost 47 Americans per
100,000 die each year. That is not only a veteran tragedy, that
is an American tragedy, and we have to change that.
We are having a roundtable this afternoon, the Chairman has
called, on veteran suicide. The President, as you know, had a
declaration yesterday, an Executive order. It is going to take
more than Executive orders and declarations, folks. This is
very troubling to me that 20, or whatever the number is, commit
suicide each day.
And lastly, our homeless veterans. Ten percent are in Los
Angeles County, of all the homeless veterans in America. This
is a scourge on our country, as wealthy as we are, to have one
veteran living homeless anywhere.
So I want to finish by thanking you for the privilege to
serve on this Committee. It has been. I look forward to working
with you all and I look forward to this Congress, and I yield
back.
Chairman Isakson. You know, we all make mistakes and I made
a big one early on. I got the introductions out of order and I
promoted the Chairman of the House Committee and demoted Mr.--
--
Dr. Roe. It works for me. It is okay.
Chairman Isakson. ----I promoted Tester, the Senator, and
demoted the House member, and that is a big mistake. I am sure
I am going to get 40 lashes later on.
There was probably an appropriate reason for me to do that
because I want to lavish some praise on him. Mr. Takano has
come a long way in two months, and as a Chairman in the House
he is doing a great job, and we are working just as well
together as we did with the Chairman from Tennessee. So I want
to take pride in introducing the Chairman of the House
Veterans' Affairs Committee, whom I am introducing last instead
of first, Mr. Takano.
[Applause.]
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN TAKANO
Chairman Takano. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
Chairman Isakson, and no forgiveness--I mean, let me just say
that I made a mistake in saying that Ms. Radewagen was from
Guam instead of American Samoa, and so I am prone to these
mistakes myself.
Good morning, Commander, Commander Lawrence. I appreciate
you being here. And I do cherish the relationship I have with
Senator Isakson and Ranking Member Roe and Senator Tester in
the bipartisan way that we come together to help our nation's
veterans. And I want to welcome every VFW member here today who
has traveled the distance to be here in this hearing room.
Commander, I want to begin by recognizing the tireless
advocates who work every day on behalf of the VFW, and we rely
on your VFW chapters in our districts and states back home and
here in Washington, D.C., to be the voice for the millions of
veterans you represent throughout the country.
I do want to take special--a moment to recognize my
California veterans. If you are in the room please stand. Go
California.
[Applause.]
Chairman Takano. Welcome. I would also like to thank the
VFW for your work on the independent budget with the DAV and
PVA. It is clear from your latest version that while the VA is
receiving robust funding there are certainly gaps to close and
much work left to be done before we achieve our shared goals. I
ask that the VFW continue to hold the administration and
Congress accountable and ensure both fulfill our nation's
promise to veterans, and we look to you to guide our work.
With your help we have seen a lot of successes over the
years and we will continue to need your input as we move
through this Congress. In reading through your testimony, your
concerns are my concerns and the concerns of this Committee.
I appreciate that your first priority is my first priority,
providing health care and disability benefits to the Blue Water
Navy, as my Ranking Member mentioned, these veterans who were
exposed to Agent Orange. It is long past time for Congress to
pass H.R. 299, and I agree, Congress cannot fail these veterans
again.
Last week, during a hearing in which Secretary Wilkie
testified before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee on the
state of the VA, I asked the Secretary to update me on whether
the administration will appeal the Court of Appeals for the
Federal Circuit's decision to extend these benefits to Blue
Water Navy veterans. I also asked him if Blue Water Navy
veterans eligible for disability benefits after the court's
decision will be able to receive health care at the VA medical
facilities. And although we are awaiting a response from the
Secretary, veterans should not be made to wait. Congress must
act.
[Applause.]
Chairman Takano. During that hearing I also asked Secretary
Wilkie to discuss what needs to be done to achieve the
Committee's vision for VA 2030. The Committee's VA 2030 plan is
simple. It is a future look at what the Committee envisions to
be the ideal VA, a VA ready to provide services and benefits to
veterans, no matter the generation or conflict in which they
served. That starts with getting implementation of the Mission
Act right so veterans can access care at VA hospitals and
clinics and with community providers.
We share your similar concerns regarding access standards,
a focus on health outcomes, and hiring and retaining providers
and employees to fill the 48,985 vacancies at VA. These
positions need to be filled.
The VFW's voice must be heard during the Mission Act
implementation and there must be an open and collaborative
process. Commander, I ask today that you provide us your candid
views on implementation thus far.
I also ask you to continue to highlight and advocate for
policies to address disparities in health outcomes for
minorities and LGBT veterans for Congress and the
administration and the nation. Please continue your passionate
advocacy for utilization of benefits by veterans suffering from
traumatic brain injury and military sexual trauma, VA's
progress on medical cannabis research and health care services
for former servicemembers with other than honorable discharges.
I also share your disappointment that, in your own words,
quote, ``Not a single piece of legislation became law in the
115th Congress to address the needs of women veterans,'' end
quote. This must change in the 116th Congress.
[Applause.]
Chairman Takano. The first veterans' bill to pass the House
of Representatives in this Congress was the Veterans Access to
Child Care Act. It enables veterans with young children to see
their VA provider without having to choose between making their
appointments and finding and affording child care.
I want to thank Congresswoman Brownley for her tireless
work on that bill and I am excited to have her chair the Health
Subcommittee and also lead our Task Force on Women Veterans.
And that is the reason why this is going to change in this
Congress.
With the help of our colleagues in the Senate I expect the
116th Congress will far exceed the 115th Congress in addressing
the needs of women and servicemembers and veterans. Women
veterans need to know that today's VA is here to serve them,
and I urge my Senate colleagues to pass the Veterans Access to
Child Care Act without delay.
VA must also take immediate action to address veteran
suicide and the alarming trend of veterans committing suicide
in VA medical facility parking lots. As the number one clinical
priority of the VA I am concerned that resources are not being
spent to tell veterans and their families about the services VA
provides.
I am also not sure if last year's presidential Executive
order had the impact we were all hoping for. I remain concerned
that we, as a nation, are not addressing veterans in crisis who
served in Vietnam, those not utilizing VA health care, and
those who served in the National Guard and Reserve components
who never mobilized for deployment.
As I close I would ask you to continue to work with and
advise all of us here on the need for a fourth administration
at VA. I hear your concerns about vocational rehabilitation,
education services, and the transition assistance program not
getting the attention and advocacy they deserve under the
Veterans Benefits Administration. I support the efforts to
provide a seat at the table within VA for these programs. They
are vital to the success of our veterans once they leave the
service. However, having watched VA's implementation of the
Forever GI Bill, the Mission Act, and the electronic health
records, I have concerns about VA's ability to implement a new
administration without a detailed and well-developed plan.
I would like to work with you to further develop
legislation to have VA create this plan and inform Congress of
the budgetary and personnel requirements necessary to execute
the plan successfully before the new administration is
authorized.
Everyone in here agrees one homeless veteran, one
unemployed veteran or underemployed veteran, one financially
unstable veteran is one veteran too many. Let us figure out how
to structure VA to empower employees to make the system work
for these veterans and structure VA to hold leadership
accountable for improving veteran outcomes.
While I touched on a few of the issue areas important to
you and your membership, know that I am committed to helping
advance your priorities in the coming year. I began by saying
your priorities are this Committee's priorities and I meant
that.
I look forward to hearing your testimony today and thank
you again for your tireless advocacy on behalf of the veteran
community. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back the
balance of my time.
Chairman Isakson. Well, thank you, sir, and it is now my
pleasure to introduce Senator Tom Udall to introduce the
Commander-in-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
SENATOR TOM UDALL
Senator Udall. Thank you, Chairman Isakson, Vice Chairman
Tester, Chairman Takano, and Ranking Member Roe. It is my
pleasure to appear before you today to introduce the Commander-
in-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vincent Lawrence,
otherwise known as B.J. Commander-in-Chief Lawrence hails from
Alamagordo, New Mexico, located close to Holloman Air Force
Base and White Sands Missile Range.
Mr. Vincent served in the Army from 1983 to 1986, and was
stationed in South Korea where he earned the Korean Defense
Service Medal. He served in his community as a police officer,
including as an undercover agent, and was in the private sector
as the owner of Lawrence Investigations. He joined the VFW in
2000 and has been a successful and dynamic leader in that
organization ever since. Last July, he was elected Commander-
in-Chief.
The VFW is the nation's largest veterans organization. It
is an effective advocate here in Washington and provides needed
services to veterans around the country. Commander- in-Chief
Vincent wants to move the organization forward into the new
millennium, bring in the younger generation veterans, and
reinvigorate older members.
His theme for his tenure is ``Make It Happen.'' He is here
today to advise us on how we can make it happen for our
nation's veterans. And I would say to you, B.J., these two
committees, that could be their slogan too. They are great and
they are bipartisan and they make it happen for veterans.
The VFW's legislative priorities include passing the Blue
Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act to make sure that veterans who
served in offshore waters of Vietnam and were exposed to Agent
Orange received disability benefits, improving veterans' health
care, improving transition services for servicemembers,
returning home, and improving the airborne hazards and open
burn pit registry.
While I am here I would just like to say a few words in
particular about the last item. Along with Senator Corker I
sponsored the original Burn Pits Registry Act, signed into law
in 2013. The national registry helps veterans, doctors, and the
VA determine the extent that air pollution caused by open-air
burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq has led to medical diseases
among servicemembers. But we need to improve the information
gathered so that veterans receive the medical treatment they
have earned.
Senator Sullivan, here in the Senate, and I are co-
sponsoring a new Burn Pits Registry Enhancement Act to do just
that. This bill has also been introduced in the House on a
bipartisan basis by Representatives Wenstrup and Ruiz. I hope
this Committee will consider this bill soon and I thank you, to
all the members here, for your work on behalf of the nation's
veterans. They served our nation, risking everything, and we
must make sure that they receive all the benefits that they
have earned.
And now it is my honor to give you the Commander-in- Chief,
Chief Lawrence. Lawrence, I am going to say I am sorry to slip
away on you. I have two other committees meeting, but I know
from your reputation that you are going to knock it out of the
park. Thank you very much and thank you once again.
[Applause.]
Chairman Isakson. Thank you, Senator.
It is now my pleasure to introduce the Commander-in- Chief
of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Mr. Lawrence. And Mr.
Lawrence, let me tell you this. When your green light goes to
red I am supposed to raise hell and get you to stop. I am not
going to do that. I would not do that to a commander anyway,
but try and watch the button as much as you can when it turns
red so we can get everybody included before the hearing is over
today.
Thank you so much, Commander, for all you have done for
your country, for being here today, and for the Veterans of
Foreign Wars. The mic is yours.
STATEMENT OF VINCENT ``B.J.'' LAWRENCE, ACCOMPANIED BY BOB
WALLACE, RYAN GALLUCCI, CARLOS FUENTES, AND DARRELL BENCKEN
Mr. Lawrence. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I begin I
would like to acknowledge and turn over to our Executive
Director, Mr. Bob Wallace, for some introductions of our
special guests that are here with us today.
Mr. Wallace. Members of the Senate and House Veterans'
Affairs Committees, I am honored to have the privilege of
introducing the national officers of the VFW and our Auxiliary.
Mr. Chairman, please allow me to ask those to be introduced to
please remain standing, and I wish to request the audience to
holds its applause until all have been introduced.
The National President of our Auxiliary, Sandy Kriebel,
from Maryland; Senior Vice President of the Auxiliary, Peggy
Haake, from Hawaii; Junior Vice President, Sandy Onstwedder,
from Michigan; National Secretary-Treasurer, Jan Owens, from
South Carolina; Legislative Ambassador, Kathy Voss, from North
Carolina; Commander-in-Chief's wife, Mary Lawrence, from New
Mexico; Adjutant General's wife, Kelly Jones, from Missouri;
Senior Vice Commander-in-Chief, William ``Doc'' Schmitz, from
New York; Junior Vice Commander-in-Chief, Hal Roesch, from
Virginia; Adjutant General, Kevin Jones, from Missouri;
Quartermaster General, Debra Anderson, from Missouri; Judge
Advocate General, Dan Nail, from Louisiana; Surgeon General,
Ruth Fairchild, from Pennsylvania; National Chaplain, Charlene
Cobb, from Wisconsin; National Chief of Staff, Jerry Herker,
from Washington; Inspector General, Charley Shoemaker, from
Kansas; Chairman of the VFW National Legislative Committee,
Darrell Bencken, from Kansas; Director of VFW National
Legislative Service, Carlos Fuentes, from Maryland; Director of
VFW National Veterans Service, Ryan Gallucci, from Maryland.
I would also like to recognize the VFW SVA fellows. These
student veterans exemplify the future leaders of our great
nation, and we also have with us many of our past commanders-
in-chief.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[Applause.]
Chairman Isakson. You being here today, Ms. Lawrence, we
especially welcome you. The first lady has a big job to do and
we know you are doing a great job supporting your husband in
the VFW.
Mr. Lawrence. Thank you, Mr. Wallace.
Chairmen Isakson and Takano, Ranking Members Tester and
Roe, it is my honor to represent the more than 1.76 million
strong, and growing, membership of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
of the United States and its Auxiliary. I have had the
privilege of visiting veteran servicemembers and their families
around the world to hear how the decisions you make here in
Washington impact their daily lives. They sincerely appreciate
your tireless work to improve educational benefits with the
Forever GI Bill, to enhance access to high-quality health care
and expand the caregiver program to veterans of all eras with
the VA Mission Act, and to streamline decisions on their claims
with Appeals Modernization Act.
And we thank you for joining us in opposition to
privatization. I want to make it clear, up front today, that
the VFW will fight any attempt to privatize the VA health care
system.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. And as Dr. Roe mentioned earlier in his
opening comments, the issue I continue to hear about the most
is Blue Water Navy. The 115th Congress failed to restore care
and benefits for Blue Water Navy veterans because our Senator
did not believe Agent Orange made Blue Water Navy veterans sick
and another veteran Senator was concerned with the cost. We
hope VA does the right thing by accepting the VFW-supported
Procopio court decision which overwhelmingly confirmed veterans
who served off the coast of Vietnam must receive benefits.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. VA cannot continue to deny assistance for
veterans who are sick and dying from Agent Orange-related
diseases. To ensure Blue Water Navy veterans never have their
earned benefits arbitrarily stripped away again, this
Congress--this Congress must pass the Blue Water Navy Vietnam
Veterans Act and make it happen.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. The VFW was founded in 1899 by Spanish-
American war veterans. A century ago this year, the VFW became
the first veterans' organization to establish a permanent
presence in our nation's capital. That mission continues now
and that is to help veterans cut the red tape and advocate for
better care and benefits.
The VFW has spearheaded or contributed to every reform and
expansion of federal benefits for veterans, and this include
the collaborative effort between Congress, VA, the VFW, and
others to modernize the VA's appeals process so veterans are no
longer required to wait five years, on average, for decisions.
The process to overhaul appeals was lengthy and involved
differing ideas and opinions. Negotiations were difficult at
times but resulted in everyone involved having ownership of the
end product. VA has continued this collaborative effort through
full implementation of a new appeals process this past month.
As a result, the new process has the best interest of veterans
at its core and has the potential to improve appeals for
benefits by the brave men and women who have worn our nation's
uniform.
With more than 2,100 accredited service officers who last
year assisted 526,000 veterans obtain benefits, we will keep a
close eye on how regional offices and the Board of Appeals
perform under the new framework and help VA address any
unintended consequences.
Specifically, VA must properly address the legacy appeals
backlog and improve quality so veterans get quick and accurate
decisions on their claims instead of poorly developed decisions
that are immediately appealed.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. Timely access to high-quality health care
remains a major concern for VFW members across the country. The
VFW continues to assist thousands of veterans who require care
to cope with their service-related illnesses and injuries. This
includes more than 10 million volunteer hours every year at VA
medical facilities and to help support our fellow veterans. We
do so because more than 80 percent of VFW members rely on the
VA health care system.
The VFW thanks you for including the views and interests of
our members when drafting the VA Mission Act of 2018, but now
it is time to focus on the implementation of this important and
multifaceted law. Unlike appeals modernization, VA has elected
to largely ignore the views of the nation's largest war
veterans organization when drafting rules to implement the VA
Mission Act.
VA executive leadership should be embarrassed that they
have discontinued VA's strong collaborative relationship with
the VFW and instead chose to make arbitrary decisions without
consulting those who most intimately understand VA's mission
and the needs of the veterans community. VA must discontinue
the practice of ignoring the veteran service community when
making such important decisions.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. As a result of that, the VA has betrayed its
sacred vow to care for all who have borne the battle by
proposing to charge veterans for service-connected urgent care
and ignored lessons learned from the Veterans Choice Program by
continuing to use arbitrary access standards that are not
tailored to the VA health care system or, most importantly, not
tailored to the veterans it serves.
Charging veterans for non-service-connected urgent care to
deter overreliance is not as acceptable, but VA cannot charge
for service-connected care regardless of where such care is
provided.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. The VFW calls on Congress to conduct
aggressive oversight of VA Mission Act implementation to ensure
VA expands access to care for veterans by hiring more doctors,
improving VA's aging infrastructure, and properly implementing
the new Veteran's Community Care Program.
The VFW was pleased the VA elected to adopt the same
electronic health care record as DoD, which puts an end to the
saga of VA not integrating military treatment records into
veterans' treatment plans. With an estimated $16 billion price
tag, Congress must continue extensive oversight to ensure the
new EHR improves the delivery of care to all ill and injured
veterans.
The success of electronic health care record modernization,
appeals modernization, the VA Mission Act, the Forever GI Bill,
and other improvements created by VA or established by Congress
will be significantly impacted by the resources VA is given.
The VFW has joined our independent budget partners in
recommending more than $103 billion for VA's budget. This can
only--this can only be accomplished if Congress ends
sequestration.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. Over the past four years, VFW members around
the world have taken an active role in addressing a serious
issue, suicide. VFW posts which continue to serves as pillars
of their communities have hosted community service projects as
part of our mental wellness campaign to destigmatize mental
health, by teaching veterans and their loved ones how to
identify mental distress and what local resources are available
for those struggling to cope.
Congress must play a role in reducing the rate of suicide
among veterans by conducting aggressive oversight of VA's
mental health programs and hiring efforts to ensure veterans
have access to care when they do turn to the VA for help.
Congress must also expand peer-to-peer support programs and
pass legislation to study medical cannabis. Veterans tell us
medical cannabis works and is a more suitable option than the
drug cocktails VA prescribes. VA must consider how
complementary and alternate therapies can help veterans cope
with PTSD and other conditions such as chronic pain.
Suicide is a serious issue. We must do what is needed to
save 20 veterans who take their own lives every day.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. The number of women veterans who have turned
to VA for their health has tripled since 2001. VA has worked to
improve gender-specific care for this population of veterans
but more work needs to be done. Congress must pass legislation
to improve the gender- specific competency of VA health care
providers. They must give women veterans the ability to choose
the gender of their health care provider. They must extend the
number of days newborn care is covered by VA, and expand the
successful VA Child Care Pilot Program and require the VA to
continue to improve privacy at women clinics.
Finally, Congress must ensure VA conducts targeted outreach
to women so no veteran is left to wonder what benefits she is
eligible to receive.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. VFW members have been exposed to toxins
during every war. These toxins have long-lasting impacts on
their health and well-being of their descendants. Burn pits and
other environmental hazards in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused
irreversible harm to our servicemembers, past and present.
Servicemembers in peak physical shape when they deployed have
come back with pulmonary issues and rare cancers that prevent
them from performing at high levels and eventually become so
severe that they can no longer keep a job and need 24/7
caregiver support from their loved ones.
VA has failed to properly take care of these veterans. So
we call on Congress to pass legislation requiring VA to improve
the burn pit registry, to pass the Burn Pit Accountability Act
which would improve how DoD tracks, treats, and prevents the
harmful impact of burn pits, and to establish and properly fund
independent research on the impact of burn pits to include
gender-specific effects, and finally, to provide veterans
exposed to burn pits, like those who served in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the care and benefits they deserve and they need.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. I recently spent a week in Eastern Europe
with soldiers of the First Armored Brigade Combat Team from
Fort Riley, Kansas, who are deployed in support of Operation
Atlantic Resolve. They are able to focus on their mission to
protect America's interest abroad because they know people like
the VFW and you are working hard to take care of them while in
uniform and when they transition in veteran status. Together we
cannot let them down.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. Congress must reopen transition assistance in
the community programs for veterans, so recently discharged
veterans can revisit TAP classes. Congress must provide grants
for organizations that connect recently transitioned veterans
with meaningful jobs and conduct oversight to ensure that DoD
is doing its job to help servicemembers prepare for life after
military service.
The VFW has long argued that military retirement pay and VA
service-connected disability compensation are fundamentally
different benefits, and granted, for different reasons. We also
oppose the senseless dollar-for-dollar SBP/DIC offset that
financially penalizes the surviving spouses of military
retirees. We again call on Congress to enact full concurrent
receipt.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. Since 1929, the VFW has been intimately
involved in fulfilling America's sacred promise to recover
fallen Americans from long-ago battlefields. This is why the
VFW works so hard alongside the Defense POW/MIA Accounting
Agency to reunite our fallen heroes with their loved ones.
As a Korean defense veteran, I am proud to have worked with
the administration to secure the recovery of 55 boxes of
American remains from North Korea and open the door for joint
field activities to resume hopefully in the near future.
The fullest possible accounting mission is a top priority
of the VFW. With more than 82,000 American servicemembers still
unaccounted for globally, Congress must provide DPAA the
resources it needs to reunite our heroes with their loved ones.
In conclusion, the VFW stands ready to help you and your
staff improve care and benefit for America's veterans,
servicemembers, their families, and survivors, just as we will
hold you accountable if you do not.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. I believe your willingness to be on this
Committee means you will not fail, and neither will we, because
no one does more for veterans than the VFW, and when we work
together we can make it happen.
[Applause.]
Chairman Isakson. Thank you, Commander. Senator Tester and
I are going to waive our time at this time because we have got
a lot of members who are here that we want to make sure they
get time to ask their questions, so Senator Tester and I will
go at the end. I do want to make, if it is all right with Jon,
four points real quickly.
Number one, I am not going to embarrass the table up here
by asking them to raise their hands because it is never good
for a Chairman to ask them to show how they are going to vote
on something before you have told them they are going to have
to show their hands to vote. But my suspicion is there are no
no votes up here in terms of keeping the VA like it is, and
nobody wants to privatize it. So I want you to understand, when
you made that point, privatization is not an issue as far as I
am concerned, and I do not think it is an issue as far as the
Senate is concerned. I will let the House speak for itself, but
do not worry about that.
Second, you made a great statement about ownership. I want
you to take some ownership too, and all the members of the VFW.
We are going to have problems as we get the implementation of
the health care and Choice and all those things, and the
Mission bill. It is going to be easy for you to find a place
where you can really raise hell and get us focused on one
terrible, awful circumstance, at the risk of not taking all the
good things that happen and building them up. So please join us
and take ownership with us of the Mission Act and what it is
doing so we can get over this first hump, which always take
place.
You know, every time you do something new everybody would
have done it different. And I appreciate what you said about
the VA reaching out. I am reaching out to tell you that I want
you to join our team and take ownership in it as well, so we
make that act work as well as we can for everybody. If you do
that, that would be tremendous.
We need your input and we need it badly. The last thing I
would say is this. I have never worked harder in five days in
my life, in the last five days of the last session. The Senate
did everything it could do to get the Blue Water Navy bill
through. But I want to tell you, Mike Enzi is a great United
States Senator. He did his job. He is not someone that needs to
be criticized for what he was doing because he is the Budget
Chairman. A lot of things that were handed to him were things
he had to do. And I talked to him the other day and was at a
prayer breakfast with him this morning. He is helping us 110
percent, talking to the VA about letting us go ahead and get
this thing done.
And I met yesterday with the Secretary of the VA, Mr.
Wilkie, crutches and all, his and mine both, and told him I saw
no reason to appeal and test a course. A 9-to-2 decision in
that court is an overwhelming decision. I hope that will be the
decision they take and we appreciate all your advocacy and your
help, that Bob Wallace gave me last year. I am going to close
with that. He is one good dude.
[Applause.]
Chairman Isakson. You need to keep him on the payroll
because he did a great job and helped us do a lot of good
things, and I appreciate it very much.
Now we will go to Chairman Takano.
Chairman Takano. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Isakson. I
just want to--I will be very brief with my questions. I
appreciate the work that the VA has done to include LGBT
veterans' issues in your written testimony. You explained that
VA's Central Office currently does not have any representation
for LGBT veterans and that this lack of representation hinders
VA's ability to address the LGBT veterans' population's health
and benefit disparities.
Commander, I hope you can speak a little bit about why it
is important for minority populations to have a voice and
representation at VA's Central Office.
Mr. Lawrence. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. By having equal
representation among minorities we satisfy exactly what we
should receive through VA health care system. That is high-
quality care in a timely manner across all boards. No one
should have a label on them. Veterans are veterans and all
veterans demand, all veterans should have equal care across the
board.
[Applause.]
Chairman Takano. Thank you for that. My second question is
why do LGBT veterans need representation at the VA Central
Office?
Mr. Lawrence. Mr. Chairman, we have several different
minority groups that current receive care. They have specific
needs. They have specific health care questions and desires. We
need to be able to address all veterans on an equal platform to
be able to have VA in a position to answer and to provide the
veterans with the care they deserve and need.
Chairman Takano. Well, Commander, I really appreciate that
sentiment from the VFW. I know that your members fought on
behalf of our country because they believed in equality before
the law and equality of opportunity for all Americans, so I
appreciate that. And with that I am going to yield back the
balance of my time. We have a lot of people here who want to
ask questions.
Chairman Isakson. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Ranking Member Roe.
Dr. Roe. Thank you, and I thank the Chairman. He and I are
both on the Education Labor Committee and we have got votes
going on now so we are going to have to step out and go vote,
Commander.
I did fail to thank, in my opening remarks, the Auxiliary
who are here. Our families who are home when we are deployed,
keep the home fires burning, take cure of all the issues that
are going on, paying the bills, everything we do when we are
out having fun, driving around, rolling around in the mud and
all that stuff we did.
But I want to thank you all for the support that the
Auxiliary gives that and I want to give them a round of
applause.
[Applause.]
Commander Lawrence, what do you think are the major
strengths of the VA?
Mr. Lawrence. Sorry. I have to remember this button so I do
not get yelled at by the Chairman.
I think the VA, honestly, has the best interest of veterans
at heart. As you spoke in your opening comments, we made a lot
of progress last year for veterans. What is important now is to
ensure proper implementation of all those efforts and that hard
work. I think we are on the right track. As Chairman Takano
mentioned, we just need to keep a close eye on some areas and
make sure, and be patient. But at the same time we should be in
a position, as veteran service organizations, to have a hand in
that, because it is going to take a collaborative effort. We
should never be shut down and not asked for our guidance or our
opinions, based on veterans. We, as a veteran service
organization, know what is best for our veterans.
Dr. Roe. I agree with that and I do want to give a shout-
out to your team. Bob, you look great. It looks like you are
doing well, and he has done a lot of great work. And Carlos, I
am not so sure about, but anyway--
[Laughter.]
Dr. Roe. No. Carlos has been great to work with.
One of the issues that had, and that the Chairman brought
up, is the empty slots at the VA. I think that is a challenge
for American health care across the country. By 2030, we are
going to have 100,000 too few doctors in this country. And so
we have taken a real interest in the education part that the VA
carries, many of us. I was trained partly at a VA hospital, and
I think it really behooves us to try to encourage that, because
the VA is going to be short of physicians, as you pointed out.
That is one of the reasons we passed the VA Mission Act,
was to use not a privatization but a symbiotic relationship. If
I cannot see a urologist--I will give you a perfect example. I
have a got a text right here I got last night. A veteran home
with a kidney stone. They hurt. And the lithotripter is not
available because it is mobile, so he has to wait, unless he
can go out to the private sector and get that done. Those are
the kind of things where I think we share expertise and get the
best care for veterans. I think that is how I view the VA
mission.
And we tried to put a bill together, Commander, that was
good for urban America, which is much different than rural
America. I have been in congressional districts. Greg Walden is
in Oregon. The square miles are bigger than the square miles of
Tennessee, that he has got to cover. I mean, he told me that. I
did not believe it but he was right.
So designing a system is difficult, and you guys sat around
a table in my office and helped work that out. And Commander, I
could not be more supportive of you, when the VA leadership
needs to sit down at that same table and hammer these things
out. That is how the Mission Act occurred. It did not occur
because of what Senator Isakson or Tester or I did. It occurred
because of what everybody did together. And when we do that we
will have a bill that will work much better.
I have--on medical cannabis, you mentioned, I have a bill
out there that requires the VA to study this. That is where it
should be studied. Let us find out the risks, the benefits of
black box warnings and so on. I could not agree more with you
there.
Thank you all very much for being here and I appreciate
what you do every single day for our nation's heroes. And I
yield back.
[Applause.]
Chairman Isakson. Senator Manchin.
SENATOR JOE MANCHIN
Senator Manchin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank all of
you for being here, as you all do every year. And I would like
to see if my West Virginia Mountaineers would stand to be
recognized. There we go.
[Applause.]
Senator Manchin. As usual, they are the most loyal,
hardest-fighting people I know and work every day to make West
Virginia better.
My question would be, as part of the VA Mission Act
requirements the VA recently released their access standards
determining when veterans can see private doctors. Under the
proposed rules, any veteran who must drive more than 30 minutes
away longer than 20 days for a mental health care or primary
appointment would be allowed to use a private doctor. While
more access to care is a good thing for veterans I have many
questions about the impact of these rules on the VA's quality
of care and overall budget.
I have been asking and the Chairman has been very
accommodating, but I am asking again that we commit ourselves
to having this Committee hold a hearing on these access
standards before the VA's public comment period is over, March
25th.
Chairman Isakson. Which will be granted.
Senator Manchin. Which will be granted. That is very good.
We are going to have that done. So all of your support is
great.
[Applause.]
Senator Manchin. So my question is how is your membership--
Commander, how is your membership reacting to the newly
proposed access standards and what is your biggest concerns?
Mr. Lawrence. Thank you. First and foremost, that access
standards were written by bureaucrats who do not understand the
preference of our veterans who actually rely on the VA health
care system. That has been our biggest complaint.
Senator Manchin. Right.
Mr. Lawrence. But in regards to that, we feel that the 20-
day period is just as arbitrary as 30, and as you mentioned, a
very good point, and I agree with you wholeheartedly, it is not
one size that fits all. We have different area--rural, metro
areas. It does not address or take all of those different
factors into consideration. So that would be our biggest
concern right now.
Senator Manchin. Okay. Anybody can answer this question. It
is, basically, we all know how important family members are in
caring for severely injured veterans of all eras. It is a full-
time job, physically and emotionally, demanding, and that is
why I supported the caregiver support program in the Mission
Act.
As the VA prepares to expand the program we have received
reports of challenges with wait times, applications, and
inappropriate terminations. So anybody who would want to speak
to this, has a personal experience and want to share it with
us, on the recommendations for how the VA can make the program
more effective and accountable. Our intentions are good but,
you know, sometimes when the rubber hits the ground it does not
work the way we want it to work. So if you can give us any
direction on that we would be appreciative.
Mr. Lawrence. Thank you, and as a matter of fact Mr.
Fuentes, who is here with me today, he has spoken to some
family members and had some concerns on the Caregiver Act.
Senator Manchin. Sure.
Mr. Lawrence. If you will, Mr. Fuentes.
Senator Manchin. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Fuentes. Thank you, Chief. We are tracking that issue
and it is something that is very important to our membership.
Seriously, we do not--we cannot afford for caregivers, or
veterans who transfer from one facility to another to be kicked
out of the caregiver program. It is great that VA has issued a
moratorium on revocations. We want to make sure that they get
the IT system right and want to make sure that the folks can go
throughout the country and continue to receive caregiver
program support that they need. But most importantly, we cannot
allow the VA to use that as an excuse to delay expansion to
veterans of all eras.
Senator Manchin. Let me follow up. One final question is
going to be, since I have been in the Senate--I came in in late
2010--and from West Virginia, being the governor of West
Virginia, I was acutely aware of the unemployment, the high
unemployment of veterans, and I could not believe it. We
started a campaign called I Hire a Vet. Transitioning a vet
back into an active, productive life has always been a
challenge.
Are we succeeding? Is there something else that we can do?
Do you see anything that could improve acclimating a vet back
into the workplace and into a civilian role? Have you had some
of your vets come into you having a hard time finding training
or a job?
I will give you one example. CDLs. A lot of people in the
military basically are driving heavy equipment. We need
commercial truck drivers. Paid good money. But we want that to
transition into CDL. They should be able to get an accelerated
permit on that using the CDL experience they had in the
military to come right into the workforce. Those types of
changes we are trying to make, and any type of skill set that
you might have gotten while you were in the military, to use
that rather than going through the rigmarole and all the
different channels you have to in order to get accredited in
civilian life.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. We agree 100 percent. I think a lot of that
also begins that first step is that veteran transition, whether
that be through the Benefits Delivery at Discharge Program. As
a matter of fact, Mr. Gallucci, could you explain?
Mr. Gallucci. Absolutely, Commander-in-Chief, and thank
you. One of our programs that we run on 23 military
installations is the Benefits Delivery at Discharge Program,
inextricably intertwined with the Transition Assistance Program
that the military operates, helping veterans access their
benefits as they are transitioning off of active duty.
One thing that we do to hold our representatives
accountable is we ask our clients what they thought of our
services but also what they thought of the Transition
Assistance Program, and a lot of that information informs some
of the changes that Commander-in-Chief Lawrence speaks to in
his written remarks, some of the changes that we are asking
Congress to make.
There is one anecdote that sticks out to me. A Marine from
Camp Pendleton had commented to us about the voluntary tracks
for the Transition Assistance Program, and when he-- an open-
ended comment, ``Why did you or did you not participate in a
track?'' he said, ``My leadership team told me I was not a good
candidate for college.'' That was unacceptable and that is why
we are pushing for changes to the way that we transition
servicemembers out of the military, and one of the reasons we
are asking to once again offer off-base transition training
like we had had with the pilot program in years past.
Senator Manchin. Well, I encourage each and every one of
you to contact your local Congressperson or your U.S. Senator
at any time with changes you might have, suggestions you might
have that makes it better for you to transition back into a
private civilian life, and we thank you all for your service.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Isakson. Senator Cassidy.
[Applause.]
SENATOR BILL CASSIDY
Senator Cassidy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First a shout-out
to my Louisiana VFW folks.
[Chorus of cheers.]
Senator Cassidy. They said Who Dat? That's the Saints
cheer. We are still a little bitter about that, being robbed of
our Super Bowl victory.
Thank you for the work you do, and I will echo what Roe
said. Thank you to the Auxiliary as well. And, Mr. Gallucci, I
just want to kind of pick up where you are. One thing I think
we can celebrate right now, under this economy there is record
low unemployment for veterans. Is not that fantastic?
[Applause.]
Senator Cassidy. And when we speak of suicide and we
understand that having meaning in one's life is one of the
things that helps prevent suicide, having a job, a well- paying
job that gives one self-respect is obviously in that mix. But I
have learned that transition is when many suicides take place,
with most suicides occurring, statistically, within a short
period after someone's separation from the service.
And it is interesting. I was speaking to an employer back
home, Performance Contracting, and I gather they are one of the
leading employers of veterans and they love veterans because
they have a sense of how to work within a team, how to get a
job done. They know deadlines. They know consequences if
deadlines are not achieved, on and on. But they had to hire
someone in particular to make sure they could navigate these
programs to get these highly qualified people through the
process to where they could achieve their potential working for
Performance. So I applaud you for working on that transition.
Again, I am a physician. I have just learned that
transition planning is most important. But it occurs to me they
had to hire somebody to do it. It does not just happen
seamlessly. What can we do, on our side, to make this work
better? I know one of the things is that the office that does
this might a Department of Labor office, not technically under
our jurisdiction. But do you have suggestions as to what we can
do to make it--you do not have to hire an extra person to make
it happen?
Mr. Gallucci. Well, a few items, actually, so thanks for
asking that. I think, actually, a couple of our VFW SVA
legislative fellows have talked about what happens after you
transition off of active duty and is there a way to have
caseworkers that you can connect back to, or at least for an
interim period have access to the resources that the military
made available to you while you were on active duty.
There is precedent for this. There was a health care-
centric program known as TAMP that allowed those who were
separated for medical reasons to get access to base resources.
I was talking with one of our members during this conference he
was basically telling me that, you know, what happens when a
servicemember separates in California? They are used to all the
resources that they have at Camp Pendleton or wherever, and
they move back to Delaware and they do not know really where to
turn. The first place they are going to go to is probably going
to be the military, but they are going to be locked out. So is
there any flexibility that we can have there?
The next, we talk about the Off-Base Transition Training
program in Commander-in-Chief's written testimony, and this
pilot was well-intentioned but not very well executed with the
Department of Labor, and it was to do TAP- like training around
the country. There is one place it was very successful, Senator
Manchin's home state, in West Virginia. They worked very
closely with the National Guard to make sure that deployed
members of the Guard and Reserve had access to this when they
returned home.
So we want to see a program similar to that, and the VFW
has a tremendous infrastructure around the country that may be
able to help leverage that. There was not much outreach when
the OBTT pilot program was underway and so we could not flex
our muscle to assist wherever we could. But we are eager to do
that optimistic that there are some targets of opportunity to
reach that very at-risk population.
Senator Cassidy. Well, I will just say that many of the
things discussed, whether it is suicide or whether it is the
ability to afford child care for dependent, or many other
things on your list are addressed when somebody has better jobs
and better wages and better benefits.
So thank you all for what you all are doing on that. It is
my commitment to work with you all as we help folks transition
out of serving our country to being able to serve our country
by other means. Thank you all very much.
[Applause.]
Chairman Isakson. Thank you, Senator. Congressman Lamb.
REPRESENTATIVE CONOR LAMB
Mr. Lamb. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I have learned over
time that in many crowds as large as this there will be a
certain number of Western Pennsylvanians and Pennsylvanians,
but due to our good fortune over the years there will be an
even larger number of Pittsburgh Steelers fans. So I would like
any Pittsburgh Steelers fan among the VFW faithful to stand up
and be recognized real quick so I can give you a wave. Thank
you, and that includes your Surgeon General and your past
Commander-in-Chief, Big John, so happy to have you with us here
today. Thank you all for everything that you do for our
community out in Western Pennsylvania. The VFW plays a huge
role in helping so many people.
Commander Lawrence, I wanted to ask you, but you can feel
free to direct it as necessary. You have also served our
country for a long time as a member of law enforcement, and we
have a lot of veterans that come back and continue to serve in
that capacity, as did I. And one of the things that we are all
facing, which is really a threat to a huge number of young
people, in particular, is the opioid epidemic. I know it has
affected people out in New Mexico quite a lot, and Western
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Eastern Ohio have been very
heavily hit by this.
And so one of the things that we have tried to do to stem
the tide is to change some of our prescription practices for
people who are receiving pain treatment and try to get
alternative, non-opioid measures to prevent people from
becoming addicted in the first place. And there have been
various levels of success around the country on that.
I think it is a place that the Veterans Administration can
really lead the way, because one of the reasons we want to
preserve an integrated health system in the VA, and not just
slice-and-dice the entire thing and give it out to the private
sector, is because when you have something like substance abuse
and pain treatment and a co-occurring psychological condition
all affecting the same patient, it really helps to have
specialists in all three of those areas under the same roof.
And inside of VA hospital they are usually under the same roof,
they usually know each other, and they usually share the same
mission, which is to really take care of the veteran.
So I think we have a chance to do this really well and
teach the rest of the country how to do it, but I would love to
hear from you about the way the opioid epidemic is affecting
your members, but in particular, how it might be affecting
those who are getting pain treatment and have gotten
alternatives to opioid medications, and how it is going. Thank
you.
Mr. Lawrence. Thank you. Well, first off, as you know, the
opioid epidemic is not specific. It is affecting everyone in
society as a whole. But as it pertains to our veterans, I think
one of the key issues is going to be to continue to advocate
that the VA aggressively pursues research in the area of
cannabis. In fact, with us today we have a fellow from
Louisiana who is aggressively pursuing legislation that would
demand VA to do research in the area of cannabis.
But as you said, we agree with that statement. Alternate
forms of pain management are going to be the key. But certainly
do not want to put ourselves in a position where we have
veterans utilizing cannabis or other means that have not had an
opportunity to go through the study and research process. At
the end of the day, we need to know, is this going to work? Is
it not going to work? How is it going to affect veterans and
their health, or how is it not going to affect them? So I think
that is the avenue we need to pursue aggressively.
Mr. Lamb. Thank you very much, Commander, and Mr. Chairman,
I yield back my time.
Chairman Isakson. Mr. Bergman.
REPRESENTATIVE JACK BERGMAN
Mr. Bergman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is good to see so
many familiar faces sitting at the head table here. You know,
as a proud life member of the VFW--
[Applause.]
Mr. Bergman. --by the way, any Michiganders here? All
right. There is one. Good. There you go--three, four. Look at
that. You guys pop up like Whack-a-Mole in Chuck E. Cheeses.
Glad you are here.
You know, like so many folks at the end of World War II, my
dad being one, when they came back to all over America but
especially Small Town America, they did what they believed the
right thing to do was, which was, number one, go back into
civil society and build our nation after the war.
But what they also did was created so many local VFW posts
so they could sit down, have a cup of coffee, have a beer, have
a time together where not only the servicemembers spent their
time together and, in some ways, self-treated themselves when
it came to the rigors that they had seen in Europe or in the
South Pacific. And I remember as a kid growing up, I was that
little, you know, 6-, 7-year-old kid that was walking around
sweeping up at the VFW but listening to the conversations. They
were emotional, they were strong, but they were therapeutic.
And as we move forward today, as you, as the VFW, or any of
the other veteran service organizations, we are better because
we help each other, and that eyeball-to- eyeball interaction
that we have is going to go a long way towards the mental
health of our young veterans.
Now I would like to talk a little bit about transition
training, because I was listening to the testimony here. And
just one quick question. Are you focused on the transition for
a 20-plus-year individual or are you focused on the transition
for a 4-year, you know, young man or woman who served honorably
for 4 years, they all signed an 8-year commitment so now they
have got 4 years in the IRR before they are released. Where is
the focus on the transition training?
Mr. Lawrence. The focus actually has to be on both.
Mr. Bergman. Where do you put the emphasis, though? I mean,
do you see--because you can say ``both'' but unless you tailor
it. Because at one point you are talking to a 22- year-old and
at another point you are talking to a 40-year- old. And, oh, by
the way, when you walk out the door in 20 years, what are you
walking out with? You are walking out with a little bit of a
pension so you have got kind of a little, you know, financial
nest egg coming in where maybe your needs are not quite as
immediate.
And now these are Marine Corps stats, but if 100 young men
and women enlisted in the Marine Corps today, at the end of
their first enlistment roughly 70 to 75 of them would say, ``It
has been great fun. It has been an honor. But I have got some
things I want to do in the civilian world.'' So we build our
career force on about 25 percent of those who originally walk
in the door.
So I look at the majority. So I am looking at that 22- to
26-year-old transition, which is a whole lot different. So any
thoughts on that and how we are doing that specifically?
Mr. Lawrence. I think they both--let me clarify my
statement of ``both.'' It was kind of open-ended. I do think
they both offer unique challenges, individual challenges,
because of the different demographics. Ryan, if you would?
Mr. Gallucci. Sure. Thank you, Chief. General Bergman, good
to see you again.
Mr. Bergman. Always good to see you, Ryan.
Mr. Gallucci. And so when we say we focus on both, for
retirees there are obviously different benefit packages that
they can take advantage of and different advantages, and even,
in some ways, disadvantages they may have when they transition.
But a lot of our focus for the work that we do on military
installations right now, we try to focus it toward the junior
enlisted separating servicemember, the one-termer. And the
reason is because there is usually a larger deficit in what
they are entitled to.
There is something tragic happening here, though. We took a
look at our clients that serve on military installations, and
except for one exception most of them we predominantly serve
are retirees. And we believe the reason is because it is harder
to reach that younger audience. They are not thinking about
their future in the same way.
I like to say there is no reasonable way for a
servicemember to anticipate the challenges they are going to
face in civilian life until the uniform comes off. And so what
we try to do when we interact with a transition servicemember
is tell them where they can go for assistance in their
community when they go home. But I have had the opportunity to
sit in on some TAP briefings and even talk to some young
servicemembers, and it is harder to get that message to
resonate. A retiree has been preparing for the end of their
career for a very long time, in many instances, and we even had
one retiree who had a misconception about the services we
provide on benefits and thought it was for retirees.
Mr. Bergman. I hate that my time is--and you and I-- Ryan
and I know each other very well because we have had many
discussions over a long period of time, and the challenge--and
I see my time has passed--but I believe there is an opportunity
for all, especially the VFW, to work with those different
services who have responsibility for the individual Ready
Reserve. They are obligors to reach out, because that is
exactly that population that you are talking about. It is a
challenge. And I think there is opportunity for collaboration
between the services and the VSOs in that IRR population.
I yield back, sir.
Chairman Isakson. You know, I was an NCO. I know better
than to criticize a general.
[Laughter.]
Chairman Isakson. Mr. Levin, Congressman Levin, can I ask
you a question? Which one are--are you the famous Michigan
Levin?
Mr. Levin. No. I am the less-famous Levins of California.
Chairman Isakson. Well, they are a good family.
Mr. Levin. The more-famous Levins are in Michigan.
Chairman Isakson. Tell them I said hey.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE LEVIN
Mr. Levin. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am so grateful
for the opportunity to join you here today. Thank you,
Commander. I also have a great responsibility. I am the new
Chair of the House Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, and I am
really grateful for your testimony on a lot of the issues that
our subcommittee is going to be covering, and I am just really
excited to be working with you, because you are going to be a
critical partner.
Veterans' issues are so critically important to my
district. Camp Pendleton is right in the middle, right at the
heart of our district, with I MEF, and then we have got Orange
County and San Diego County. So our district, I think, is an
example of just so many great VSOs doing amazing work all
around our community, and I look forward to having best
practices from there hopefully spread across the country and in
those areas where we still are having issues, like homelessness
being one of them, where we can learn best practices across the
country.
I do have a couple of questions and I wanted to address
homelessness again. Deeply familiar to us in Southern
California, in general. We had a gentleman who does a lot of
work with local VSOs in our office yesterday morning. He
estimates we have around 1,300 homeless veterans in our greater
area, which is, you know, 1,300 too many. And I am curious what
you think we can do to strengthen and improve the HUD-VASH
program and some of the related programs that are available.
Mr. Lawrence. Well, one of the areas that we see that could
definitely be addressed and corrected is as it pertains to what
we call couchsurfing. So currently, VA waits until a veteran is
``under a bridge'' before they are offered the services, as you
know, and able to take part in those homeless veterans'
programs.
When we have a homeless who may have this family member
allow them to stay with them for a week, and a buddy or a
friend they met stay them this week, as you know, that denies
that veteran an opportunity to participate in a homeless
veteran program. I think we need to pursue that in itself. I
think we need to make some changes with the VA. A homeless
veteran is a homeless veteran, and as I say all the time, and I
said it today in my testimony, no veteran should ever not have
a roof over their head or worry about where their next meal is
going to come from.
[Applause.]
Mr. Lawrence. It is staggering, but, of course, it has got
to take a collaborative effort on everyone's part. We have good
folks out there doing good things. We have a large VFW
community in Florida that provides thousands of meals to
homeless veterans, on a daily basis. But it going to take all
of us to solve the homeless veterans' issues, and I think this
would be a great first step in identifying, or if we have to
redefine, whatever we need to do to say they are homeless
veterans and not merely a couchsurfer, if you will.
Mr. Levin. Thank you, Commander. I also appreciated reading
about your effort to crate a fourth administration to oversee
VA economic opportunity programs, and I share your dedication
to making sure these programs receive resources and attention
that they need. I know that Chairman Takano has brought a bit
about this issue to light as well, and I am very pleased that
the Chairman is interested to making sure the VA structure
improves veterans' outcomes in this regard.
So beyond generating increased attention for economic
opportunity at VA, what do you think the other benefits might
be of the proposal to create a fourth administration?
Mr. Lawrence. The big one, I think, is going to be as it
relates to the voc rehab piece, of course. It puts veterans
back to work and keeps them off the unemployment line. First
and foremost, that is going to be our first line of defense.
The funding has been flatlined for years and not enough
attention has been paid, as you know, to this critical program.
The way we answer that is VA must continue to hire counselors.
Mr. Levin. Very good. I want to thank you again so much for
all you do. I learned much about patriotism and service from
grandfather on my dad's side who was a World War II veteran and
I am just so grateful to have the opportunity. He is not with
us but I know he would be grateful that his youngest grandson
has the chance to work with you all. You are my heroes. Thank
you all so much.
Mr. Lawrence. Thank you so much.
[Applause.]
Chairman Isakson. Let me apologize. I am going to have to
slip out. Ranking Member Tester is going to finish the hearing
for me, in a bipartisan effort, if that is okay. To show you
how bipartisan we are, we just handed off to one another,
Democrat and Republican alike.
I want to thank all of you for the great testimony, thank
all the members for being here, and it is my pleasure to
recognize Congresswoman Radewagen.
REPRESENTATIVE AMATA C. RADEWAGEN
Ms. Radewagen. Thank you, Chairmen Isakson and Takano, and
Ranking Members. I want to thank you all for your service to
our great nation. It is that sacrifice that allows us to be
here today, and we are all most grateful.
I also want to thank you all for being here today to inform
Congress of the VFW's legislative priorities for the 116th
Congress. Your advocacy on behalf of our nation's veterans is
legendary, and I know that I can speak for everyone here this
morning when I say that this entire Committee, on both sides of
the aisle, are fully dedicated to ensuring that the Federal
Government lives up to our end of the bargain when it comes to
providing the best resources and services to our veterans.
I want to extend a special thank you to the VFW Hawaiian-
Pacific delegation for meeting with me in person yesterday, and
thank you to High Chief Igafo Maria Va'a, Hawaii VFW State
Commander, who hails from American Samoa.
[Applause.]
Ms. Radewagen. Thank you for all the hard work you and the
rest of VFW Hawaii do on behalf of our Pacific veterans. As a
member who represents a U.S. territory I am particularly
interested to hear about your priorities for those veterans who
live in either rural or remote locations, such as my home
district of American Samoa, where our people enlist into the
U.S. Armed Services at a rate higher than that of any other
state or territory in the nation. This is a fact that we are
all very proud of.
In the past, our veterans in these rural and remote
locations have often been denied the services they have
earned--not purposefully--but often they do not know the
resources available to them or must travel long distances to
receive services.
So I look forward to working with the VFW and other VSOs to
improve the outreach to these areas in partnership with the VA
and welcome your input in this mission.
Thank you again for being here today. Your work is so
important in ensuring that Congress is fully informed on those
issues that are most important to our veterans, and thank you
again for your service to our grateful nation.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my
time. Soifua.
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. [Presiding.] Congressman Cisneros.
REPRESENTATIVE GIL CISNEROS
Mr. Cisneros. Thank you very much. I would like to thank
all of you for coming out today, the VFW showing up in force. I
would especially like to recognize those from California,
especially Art Napiwocki, Deb Johnson, Tommy Dorsey, Tim
Bryant, Mike Seward, and Nick Guest. So thank you all for
coming out here and supporting our veterans.
[Applause.]
Mr. Cisneros. I always like to say that I am the grandson
of veterans, the father--I mean the son of a Vietnam veteran,
and I am also a veteran myself. My father is a lifetime member
of the VFW. He got that membership that was bought to him by
his uncle, who was also a lifetime member. And so, again, I
just want to thank you all for your service.
[Applause.]
You know, one issue that has always been important to me is
education, and, of course, we know how transformative the GI
Bill can be. In fact, I used the GI Bill myself in order to
help me continue my education. And right now Congress passed
the Forever GI Bill, which is one of the biggest changes to it
since the post-9/11 GI Bill, but the VA had some problems with
the implementation with that.
So going forward, as we get to that point to where we are
going to impellent this come this December, the end of the
year, how can Congress, working with the VFW, ensure that the
rollout is smooth and that we take care of these issues and we
do not have a problem, you know, with that young Marine that
you met with, that said, you know, people denying him access to
his benefits, which, to me, is 100 percent uncalled for and we
cannot allow that to happen. So how can Congress, working with
the VFW, make sure that we get a smooth transition of the
Forever GI Bill?
Mr. Lawrence. One of the key ways is to bring in veteran
group schools to make sure that it is implemented properly.
That way VA does not develop their changes in a vacuum. That
was a lot of the problem.
But also with any type of electronic transition, one, the
personnel utilizing those systems has to be trained properly
and the system is only as good as the people inputting the
information. I think that is the first step.
Mr. Cisneros. You know, like many of my colleagues here had
said today, transition assistance or the TAP program is
something that is very important to me, and I also serve on the
House Armed Services Committee. And I just want to let you know
that this a key issue that I am going to continue to work on,
on both committees that I serve on, to make sure that our
veterans get that smooth transition from active duty service
into veteran status. I think the problem too often is that the
emphasis is put on the individual to go out and seek the
benefits from the. We have got to finish that and make sure
that the benefits are given to the individual when they get out
of service.
So I just want to make this commitment to you, that I am
going to continue to work on that, as I serve on both of these
committees, because we need to take care of our veterans and
make sure that they are getting the health care that they need,
making sure that they are getting the education benefits that
they need, and all the benefits that they deserve and that they
committed part of life of service to that they earned.
So I just want to thank you all again for being here, thank
you for your service to our country, and God bless all of you.
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. Thank you, Congressman. Next we have the
co-sponsor of the Deborah Sampson Act that will allow our women
veterans to get the promises that we have made to them, my good
friend from Arkansas, Senator Boozman.
SENATOR JOHN BOOZMAN
Senator Boozman. Thank you, Senator Tester, very much, and
thank you, Commander, for being here and sharing your thoughts
as to what we need to be doing, the priorities, and then also
your great team. They do a tremendous job. I am afraid of my
boss. He is a big guy. I am afraid he will whip me.
But the other thing I would like to say is how much
appreciate the Auxiliary. We know who is the backbone of the
group and does a tremendous job, so thank you all for your
service.
And as I have said before to the groups, you know, we are
up here, and this is a very bipartisan group, as you can see,
trying to get the job done. We are kind of the tip of the spear
but we cannot do it without your help. And the fact that you
look out and you see standing room only, that is the most
important think. And so thank you, all of you, for making the
trip and being part of this, talking to your Senators or
Congressmen, telling them how important these things are, and
reminding them that these are not give-mes. These are earned
benefits.
I want to give a special shout-out to our folks from
Arkansas. Can you wave your hand? Very good. We appreciate you
guys.
[Applause.]
Senator Boozman. Nobody does a better job than they. And
like the rest of you do a great job of communicating to myself
and my staff how the policies that we are talking about impact
the veterans of Arkansas.
I want to really concentrate on two things today. I would
like to talk a little bit about the implementation of the
Mission Act, which is such a big thing, and then also, as was
pointed out by Senator Tester, the efforts in trying to make it
such that we can better accommodate our women veterans in the
force.
Commander, in your testimony you said the VA, Congress,
veterans' organizations must work collaboratively to ensure
that the Mission Act is implemented in the way that it needs to
be done. You also noted that you were disappointed in the VA
not using the voices of your 1.6 million members out there in
the decision-making process of access standards, the
development of that.
What do you believe the VA should do to better ensure,
going forward, that they are bringing veterans and VSOs into
the process?
Mr. Lawrence. First and foremost, let me be clear. In past
years we have not had or seen obstacles with the VA that we are
seeing today as it pertains to what I spoke about. For some
reason when it came to access standards it was a big secret. It
was like we were working on a special project and nobody could
get a hold of the information, and quite frankly, we did not
know about it until it was released.
If VA would have taken the time to, one, recognize the
valuable input that the veteran service organizations could
lend to developing those access standards, they set theirselves
up in a better arena not to fail. We know what our veterans
want and need as it comes to health care. We asked repeated. As
a matter of fact, as an example, we kept being told, ``We will
let you know next week. We will let you know next week.'' Next
week never came. Finally, the final rollout came and then we--
that is where we discovered that there were some issues with
the access standards.
Just gathering that valuable information ahead of time, it
could have saved VA from having some issues with the access
standards.
Senator Boozman. Very good, and I agree totally as does, I
think, the Committee.
In regard to the Deborah Sampson Act we appreciate Senator
Tester's leadership in that area. We came forward, reintroduced
that this year, and we appreciate your support of the bill, and
we are going to work really hard to make sure that we get it
done.
In this year's bill we have increased reporting
requirements for women's health care providers and for
infrastructure needs unique to women's health care delivery so
that we can make the best resource decisions to improve care
for our women veterans.
And we very much, in the spirit of what you just talked
about, you do have a tremendous group out there, many of them
women, and so we will be looking to you all for leadership.
Very quickly, in just a minute, do you have any suggestions
in that regard now as to what we need to focus on? It is kind
of an open-ended question.
Mr. Lawrence. I know where you are going. Thank you.
Yes, we definitely need to continue our focus on expanding
mental health expertise for postpartum disorders. We need to
definitely improve gender-specific competencies and, as you
know, expand newborn care in the child care pilot. And we
continue seeing concerns among our women veterans--we hear it
repeatedly, as it pertains to privacy. We have a large women
veterans voice. In fact, with me today I have seven women
veteran commanders of their prospective states that are in
leadership roles in the VFW.
[Applause.]
Senator Boozman. Thank you. Senator Tester.
Senator Tester. Senator Blumenthal.
SENATOR RICHARD BLUMENTHAL
Senator Blumenthal. Thanks, Senator. Thank you all for
being here. Thank you to you, Commander Lawrence, for your
service and your leadership, and to all of the VFW members from
Connecticut. If there are any here, please stand so I can thank
you personally.
[Applause.]
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. Thank you for being here.
Thank you for your leadership.
I cannot tell you how important you are as a presence and
as a face and voice, the veteran service organizations, and
most particularly this one has played such a vital role in
expanding health care, as well as job opportunities and skill
training, really across the board, and still we have a lot more
to do. And so I really want to commit to you that we will be
listening--we will be listening to the VFW going forward.
I hope that the VA will be listening to you as well. I hope
the VA will heed and hear views of your members as I have done
in my state of Connecticut, because you are the source of
insight and wisdom for them as well, and most especially on the
Blue Water Navy Veterans Act. I came within a hair of gaining
unanimous consent in the Senate for this measure. I will not
use my time to go through the labyrinth of delay and obstacles
that we almost overcame.
But now we have the opportunity, not just through
legislation but through the VA declining to take an appeal. All
the VA has to do to provide this vital assistance to the Blue
Water Navy veteran is to decline to take an appeal from the
recent court decision. I hope they will hear from you, to tell
them the court has decided there is no reason for any more
delay in treating the Blue Water Navy veterans fairly and
effectively.
[Applause.]
Senator Blumenthal. Likewise, on other kinds of legislation
where there were toxic substances on the battlefield, whether
it is the Fairness for Korean DMZ Veterans Act, the Agent
Orange Exposure Fairness Act, which I did as a result of one of
my constituents, Jerry Wright, championing this measure, ride
across the country with ``Sprayed and Betrayed'' on the back of
his motorcycle. And, in fact, some of you probably know Jerry.
Jerry is a tireless advocate for our veterans.
And I want to say, as well, Commander, that these issues of
exposure to toxic substances, I know the VFW has done some
great work on it, do you plan to continue that work?
Mr. Lawrence. Most definitely. We are going to continue
that work until all of our veterans receive the care they
deserve.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you.
[Applause.]
Senator Blumenthal. On the VA access standards for private
health care, I am really delighted and grateful that Chairman
Isakson has said to us today that there will be a hearing on
the VA's implementation of the Mission Act. I hope you agree
that congressional oversight is necessary before the final
publications of regulations for the Mission Act. I hope we have
your agreement on that.
Mr. Lawrence. You do.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, sir.
Let me say, finally, the President, yesterday--I am sure it
has been observed before--has established a task force on
veteran suicide. I welcome that action, but I hope also that
the VA will commit to using the funds that have been
appropriated for veteran suicide and outreach to veterans who
may be at risk of suicide, so they can be brought into the
system and that they can provided with the excellent care that
is available for them.
So I hope that the VFW will support our efforts to require
the VA to use the existing money for greater outreach.
Mr. Lawrence. Yes, sir. I also agree. The Executive order
is going in the direction we are looking for. I believe it is
going to take a collaborative effort on all of our parts, if we
have any hope of putting an end to veteran suicide, and
definitely we need to ensure the funding is available for those
programs and the outreach and counseling that the veterans need
for that.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you very much. Thank you,
Commander. Thank you to your excellent team, and thank you for
being here today.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Tester. Yeah. Thank you, Senator Blumenthal.
[Applause.]
Congressman Banks.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM BANKS
Mr. Banks. Thank you to the Ranking Member and Chairman
Takano. It is great to be with you, Commander, to the VFW team.
As a proud member of the VFW myself I am reminded how important
of an investment that I make--
[Applause.]
Mr. Banks-- every year when I pay my dues, when I see you.
This has been a good week for veterans, right, from the
President's Executive order that the Senator just talked about
to what happened in the House yesterday, passing the Burn Pit
Registry Enhancement Act, that will impact veterans from the
war in Afghanistan, like myself, and other veterans who are
here in the room today. That is piece of legislation that
passed with broad bipartisan support in the House that we need
to see passed through the Senate as well.
None of that is possible without your work and your
activism on Capitol Hill, so that is why I am proud to welcome
all of you here today.
I understand we have a number of Hoosier veterans in the
room. If you would stand it would be great to see your faces.
[Applause.]
I appreciate your leadership at the state level and every
time you come and visit me. Rich Mrozinski, Eric Bellman,
Michael Sims, Greg Baker, Troy King, Corey Mahan, thank you
very much. God bless you for the work that you do for our
Hoosier veterans and our veterans nationwide.
I will be brief and end with that, but again, we cannot do
our job in advocate as effectively as possible for veterans
without your support, and the VFW is second to none in your
activism and we appreciate all that you do.
Thank you, and have a great day. I yield back.
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. Thank you, Congressman. Senator Blackburn.
SENATOR MARSHA BLACKBURN
Senator Blackburn. Thank you to the Ranking Member and the
Chairman, and especially thank you to each of you for taking
the time to be here and to advocate for your issues. I have had
the opportunity to visit a couple of times this week with our
Tennessee delegation and I bet they are in this room somewhere,
wearing their orange ties. Raise your hands.
There you go. I told you.
[Applause.]
Senator Blackburn. You know, we are ready for some UT
basketball, are we not? We are going to win.
But I do want to say thank you for your service and I know
that I do not stand alone in saying our hope is that the
service we give the country honors the service that you have
given, and we appreciate, more than you know, what you have
done.
We are focused on your issues and know them well. The burn
pit registry, we have discussed this with some of our
Tennesseans, making certain that we deal with the Blue Water
Navy issues, the concerns that are there, the women's health
issues for women veterans, looking at the contribution of our
spouses, making certain that we deal with the issues that
affect our spouses and widows of our veterans, and, of course,
as we have mentioned already, the mental health issues.
I want you to know, too, that we are going to continue to
work on access to health and health care. This past Friday, I
had the opportunity to go to the Gallatin, Tennessee, Veterans
Clinic that was opening. And I have four veterans that are
members of our team. Three of them were with me for that
clinic. And I appreciated so much that this is a whole-of-life
clinic, one of the new models of clinics that are opening that
deal with every specter of health care that you all need, and
it is all right there in one place.
And, Commander, during that visit, as we opened that
clinic, there was a lot of talk about expanding the Mission Act
and allowing a veteran to take their card and go to a clinic in
their home community for primary care and be able to get that
and then come to a specialized clinic for specialized care, but
utilizing telemedicine and digital imaging and some of these
health care technology advancements that we have had.
And I would love to hear from you, just a second, your
thought very quickly on what you would like to see us do to
expand the Mission Act and to expand those choices and options
for our veterans.
Mr. Lawrence. The veteran must always have the choice when
it comes to health care. The veteran should always receive
high-quality health care in a timely manner. I think there is
not one easy answer, because as we know, the private sector,
studies show the private sector cannot always provide that care
faster than the VA. We still see issues where a veteran goes
out into the private sector only to find out, oh, now my
appointment time is going to be three months in the private
sector, so then they come back to the VA and they are put back
in the back of the queue again.
That is what we are trying to avoid. We are trying to avoid
those long wait times and that delayed care.
Senator Blackburn. I appreciate that, and that is one of
the reasons I think the new style clinic is so vitally
important, because you can get mental health, you can get
women's health, you can get primary care, you can have
telemedicine available for behavioral health, and then you can
receive those referrals right there in that clinic. And my hope
is the VA will pick up the pace and get more of these clinics
deployed in communities across the country.
We are so grateful that you all are here. Thank you so very
much, and I yield back my time.
Senator Tester. Thank you, Senator.
[Applause.]
Congressman Cunningham.
REPRESENTATIVE JOE CUNNINGHAM
Mr. Cunningham. Well, it is almost afternoon so I will say
good afternoon and thank you all for coming. I represent the
First Congressional District of South Carolina. It stretches
from Charleston all the way down to Hilton Head, and is
objectively the best district in the entire country. I can say
that. And I can say also that the veterans have realized that
as well, as our district has the highest percentage of
population of veterans in the entire state of South Carolina.
And, you know, I was honored to have a female veteran come
into our office just yesterday and bring to our attention that
in the entire state of South Carolina there are only two OB-
GYNs employed by the VA in the entire state. And so I guess my
question to you, Commander, is do you think that is anywhere
near enough, and what can we be doing to take care of the
women's health care as the number of women veterans are
expected to rise and rise, and what can we be doing in South
Carolina and within the VA itself?
Mr. Lawrence. I do not think it is South Carolina-
specific. I can tell you right now, two OB-GYN positions is not
enough.
But on a serious front, that is actually what we have been
advocating for. As we know, the VA has over 40,000 openings of
staff, openings that need to be filled. With that we would
advocate that they need to seek out aggressively and get
practitioners in to answer the needs of our women veterans.
Women veterans still have--they still want to choose the gender
of their medical practitioner and they can only do that, one,
if the VA is staffed appropriately and if the VA takes the time
to take into consideration the specific needs of our women
veterans.
[Applause.]
Mr. Cunningham. I appreciate that. Can you give any other
advice or guidance as to what VA can be doing to do a better
job of recruiting, retaining, and expanding that practice for
future?
Mr. Lawrence. Well, they have to have the flexibility and
support to attract those medical physicians and specialists to
want to come to the VA to work, but the VA cannot do that if
their hands are tied. They need to be able to offer incentives
or whatever they need to do to get folks to come work for them.
Mr. Cunningham. I appreciate that, Commander. Thank you for
time. Thank you, each and every one of you, for your service as
well.
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. Thank you, Congressman.
Well, we have come to the most entertaining part of this
hearing, because since Johnny gave me the gavel I am going to
call on Senator Sullivan first, followed immediately by Senator
Tennis, regardless if a Democrat comes in or not, simply
because we can talk about the metrics of how many veterans are
in each one of these guys' states.
So, Senator Sullivan, you have the floor.
SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN
Senator Sullivan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate
that, and I am glad you previewed a little bit of my comments.
I do want to just do a quick shout-out and ask for my fellow
veterans from Alaska. If you are here can you please stand? How
about a round of applause for them? All right. There we go.
[Applause.]
Senator Sullivan. David and Bill, Walter, Todd, Charlotte,
Liz, thank you for being here. You know, you are right. We all
brag about our states, but we are all doing it for the right
reasons because we are so proud of all of you. I mean, you
know, there is a lot of talk about the 1 percent in America. I
like to say this is the actual less than 1 percent of America,
the less than 1 percent who have the courage to raise their
right hand to support and defend the Constitution and possibly
die for their country. So how about a round of applause for the
real 1 percent.
[Applause.]
Senator Sullivan. And we also, you know, like to brag a
little bit about our states as it relates to veterans. My
state, the great state of Alaska, has more vets per capita than
any state in the country. Now Senator Tillis and I, he is from
North Carolina, we joke about some metrics and I am sure he
will have some counterpunches. So I just will not raise the
fact that Alaska is 14 times the size of North Carolina, I am
not going to raise that. It is a little embarrassing so I will
not raise it here in this Committee.
I also want to just mention, you know, I have been a member
of this Committee my whole time in the Senate, but I had always
thought that the rules did not allow you to join the VFW if you
were still serving in the military, in the Reserves. I am still
in the Reserves. I am a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves.
[Applause.]
Senator Sullivan. That is right, for the Marines here.
Oorah. But, Bill Yudiskas, one of the great former commanders
in Alaska has been a good advocate and has convinced me that
the rules do not say that, that if you qualify to be a VFW
member you can join, even if you are still serving in the
Reserves. So I want to say proudly to Bill and others from
Alaska, this is my first hearing as a full-fledged member of
the VFW.
[Applause.]
Senator Sullivan. There is my card. Post 9785 in Eagle
River, Alaska. So I am proud to join this great organization,
finally. So thank you, Bill, for your strong advocacy--I would
say your incredibly relentless advocacy.
So, Commander, I actually wanted to ask a serious question.
In your testimony you mentioned some of the reforms in the 2019
NDAA. I also serve with Senator Tillis on the Armed Services
Committee that drafts that bill, that talks about some of the
Transition Assistance Programs. And I always think is an area
where we can do better.
You may have seen--I am sure you all did--I just came from
a hearing on the Commerce Committee that talked about the
maritime industry. You may have seen yesterday the President
issued an Executive order to make it easier to get our veterans
into the maritime industry, because our veterans have so many
skills that they learn in the military and they can take to
private industry. And now with this very low unemployment rate
in the country our companies need the great opportunities that
they have to hire veterans more efficiently, more quickly.
What are some of the things that you can recommend, to
either this Committee or the Armed Services Committee, that we
can make improvements on that? I am assuming you all support
what the President did with his Executive order in the last
couple of days with regard to the maritime industry, but what
more can we do, because I think we can be doing a lot better in
this area, and your organization is the perfect one to provide
us recommendations for that.
Mr. Lawrence. Three of the key points that we look at in
that area, one is reopen transition assistance in the community
program for veterans, so recently discharged veterans can
revisit those TAP classes.
Senator Sullivan. Right now they do not have the
opportunity to go back on base and do that?
Mr. Lawrence. Correct.
Senator Sullivan. Okay.
Mr. Lawrence. Provide grants. We can provide grants for
organizations that connect recently transitioned veterans with
meaningful jobs, and conduct oversight to ensure that DoD is
doing its job to help these servicemembers prepare for life
after they get out of the military.
Senator Sullivan. And you think the TAP program at most
bases is efficient or it is just kind of a check-the- box thing
that members want to get through and then move on?
Mr. Lawrence. Well, I think that in a lot of cases we- -I
just recently returned from Europe, visiting some of our troops
there, and I think awareness of what those classes actually
have to offer. And I do not know if the answer is to provide
more outreach to them, to let them know, you know, this is
important and this is what you have available to you to make
that transition.
Senator Sullivan. Well, we want to work with you on that. I
will tell you one other area that I think is exciting. A lot of
the unions, like in Alaska, a lot of the building trades, you
know, the operators, the laborers, steelworkers, these are all
organizations that have a lot of vets. They want to bring our
vets in quickly, because they are such good workers. So we look
forward to working with you on that issue. It is an important
issue. We are making some progress but I think we can do
better.
So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Tester. Thank you, Senator. Senator Tillis.
[Applause.]
SENATOR THOM TILLIS
Senator Tillis. Well, as a Senator from one of the states
that was a part of the original colonies I am glad that we did
the hard work to lay the groundwork for Alaska to become a
state. This whole banter back and forth between my buddy,
Senator Sullivan, and I came from a discussion where--Senator
Sullivan is a fierce advocate for Alaska. That is why I like
him so much. But he made a comment that he has a higher
population per capita of veterans than any other state in the
nation.
Senator Sullivan. That is true.
Senator Tillis. And I told Dan, I have got more veterans
than you have got people----
[Laughter.]
Senator Tillis. ----which is also true.
Senator Sullivan. That is true too.
Senator Tillis. But the reason I say that, on the one hand
it is just fun to banter between two buddies, but on the other
hand it also demonstrates the diverse nature of the challenge
that we have. You know, a state like North Carolina, that you
rightfully tell me is several times smaller than Alaska, with
these number of veterans in urban centers, different provider
networks, have very different approaches to providing quality
care and access than Alaska.
And so we have to, as we implement the Mission Act and as
we implement tweaks to it, we need to make sure that we do not
come across with this concept that it is a one-size- fits-all
approach.
We also need to make sure that we are doing a better job of
working with the states to overcome some of the hurdles that
are, in part, limits of state policy on health care--
telemedicine across state lines, those sorts of things, where
we have got to provide an incentive for the states to get
engaged to provide a better standard of care. There is no
reason, if someone in Alaska needs help and it is a service
that can be provided through telemedicine, let us just find a
professional somewhere in this great country that can provide
on that telemedicine.
So we need to just continue to hone and provide, I think,
some reasonable solutions to some kinks that we are going to
have in the Mission Act.
One other thing I will tell you, in terms of attracting
talent to the VA, is we need to make sure we send a very clear
message that we have got some kinks to work out but it is a
good system. The brick-and-mortar presence is critically
important. I do not believe there is anybody in Congress who
seriously thinks that we should just completely privatize and
leave for the private sector to serve our veterans. It would be
wrong because you would be walking away from an extraordinary
health care and an institution that is dedicated to veterans.
So what we need to do is make sure that while we rightfully
point to think that need to get better we also point out there
is a lot of hard-working people in these VA health care
facilities. About half of them are veterans themselves. They
care about the care that they are giving to people, and it is
an honorable profession, that we just need more people. We need
more doctors, more nurses, more therapists, more people coming
into these facilities so that we can eliminate the wait times
and all the other challenges.
In my remaining time, Commander, I happen to have the
privilege of being on the Veterans' Committee but I am also the
Chair of the Personnel Subcommittee in Senate Armed Services,
so TAP is right in my lane. And I think the one thing that we
are going to do--I have spoken with the Committee staff--is
that we really do need the veterans' perspective on how better
to prepare someone to transition to veteran status.
And I do believe that in some cases it is a check-the- box,
and in some cases it is a one-size-fits-all. You know, somebody
as old as him going through TAP is going to have a different
set of needs than some 20-year old. So we have got to figure
out how to tailor and identify ways that we are really
beginning to focus on the likely challenges and opportunities
someone is going to have, based on the skills that they have
gained while they served and the challenges that they are going
to have when they ultimately transition into veteran status.
So we need a lot of feedback on how to do that better,
particularly going into the NDAA and going into this Congress,
suggestions that you all could provide us would be very
helpful, suggestions that you can provide us for employment,
which again, in many instances, is going to be taking some of
the skills that someone has gained, either in active duty,
Reserves, National Guard--and I guess in the case of Reserves
and National Guard they have occupations-- but others may be
able to take skills that they have learned while they are
serving that should translate into certifications and jobs that
right now are a little bit difficult.
Again, most of those are the purview of the state. We can
provide some incentive for states to enter compacts so that it
is easier for someone with medical experience to move into a
nursing field or CDL driver's license or any number of skill
sets that they are prepared for in their service and that we
should find a way to get them employed and make them productive
in their post-service life.
So I am here to thank you all and I am also here, Ranking
Member and Chairman, I would like to make one suggestion. I do
not know if they are here, but this morning when I was walking
in it was cold, and I happened to see two gentlemen waiting in
line. I went up and said, ``You here for the hearing?''
``Yes.'' ``You a veteran?'' ``Yeah.'' ``You cold?'' ``Yeah.''
``Do you want to skip line?'' ``Yeah.'' So I brought them in.
[Laughter.]
Senator Tillis. If we are going to continue--and there they
are. So, you know, I think a week ago I probably had about 40
come through because they happened to be all in line at the
same time. I would urge, if we are going to continue to have
these hearings during cold weather months or inclement weather,
that we try to figure out a rally point with your home states
or with other members so that we can figure out how to get
these people through, because I do not think these folks should
have to wait in line. Thank you.
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. Thank you, Senator Tillis, and I agree,
although when I came walking up this morning all the folks from
Montana had their coats off because it is so damn warm here.
[Laughter.]
Senator Tillis. Tell me about it.
Senator Tester. Look, being the last one and everything has
been said but not everybody said it, so it is my turn. I just
want to thank you for being here, Commander Lawrence. I also
want to echo what was said earlier about Bob and Carlos. They
are top-flight guys. They do a great job for the VFW here in
Washington, D.C., making sure that you guys' voices are being
heard.
I also want to thank you, Commander, for what you are doing
to destigmatize mental health. This is a huge issue in this
country. It has already been pointed out, it is both in the
civilian sector and with our veterans. The key is that the VA
is going to be the one that figures out the solution. And with
your help and with our help and everybody else, I think it
requires a team of folks to get their arms around this.
But I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue.
It is an important one. It is one we have got to get our arms
around, because it ain't getting any better.
And then I just want to--and there are some folks from
Montana here and I want to describe a situation because they
will back me up on this, where you go to the VA and you go get
an appointment, and say you have got a shoulder problem and
they do not have the kind of person they need. They ship you
into the private sector. That is what the Mission Act is for.
What is happening in Montana right now, because we do not
have our physicians filled, is a veteran will call in and
before they even schedule them for the VA they pump them into
the private sector. Nobody up here wants privatization but that
is de facto privatization. We cannot allow that to happen. The
VA is the largest health care system in this country. The folks
I talk to that are veterans want that VA there. It is there.
I have said this before. We can outsource the service but
cannot outsource the responsibility. So I appreciate, in your
testimony, talking about exactly that, Commander.
I have a couple of questions here, and that is, do you
believe that your members prefer health care from the VA?
Mr. Lawrence. Yes, sir, I do.
Senator Tester. Okay. Do you believe that community
providers should be held to the same standard as the VA
providers?
Mr. Lawrence. Yes, sir, I do.
Senator Tester. So would the VA support an expansion of
care into the community or more convenient access if it meant
reduction in quality or timeliness?
Mr. Lawrence. There should never be a reduction in quality
or timeliness when it comes to serving our nation's veterans.
Senator Tester. Amen, brother.
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. And does the VA actively engage the VFW in
its process for developing market area assessments and
strategic plans?
Mr. Lawrence. No, they do not, and that is where they are
missing the boat.
Senator Tester. Okay. And so--
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. Right on. And so I think you have already
said this but I want to repeat it. The organization--was your
organization consulted on the VA's development of proposed wait
time and drive time standards?
Mr. Lawrence. No, sir, they were not.
Senator Tester. Okay. And if you would have been consulted,
would you have had input?
Mr. Lawrence. We would have a whole lot of input.
[Laughter.]
[Applause.]
Senator Tester. Well, look, they are probably not here
although there might be some from the VA here, but I guarantee
you they are watching it on TV. And I will tell you that I have
a tremendous amount of respect for Secretary Wilkie and I do,
and I do not know why, but we have had the conversation before,
that if he wants to be successful--and I want him to be
successful--we need good leadership at the VA. If we are going
to have good leadership at our VISNs and different VAs around
this country he has got to take input from the VSOs. You guys
are on the ground. We have to take input from the VSOs as we
are making policy that affects you.
God bless every one of you and thank you for being here.
[Applause.]
Chairman Takano. The proceedings are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:11 p.m., the Committees were adjourned.]
APPENDIX
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