[Senate Hearing 119-190]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 119-190
A GRATEFUL NATION:
MAXIMIZING VETERANS' SUCCESS AFTER SERVICE
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINETEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 5, 2025
__________
Printed 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
61-879 PDF WASHINGTON : 2026
SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
Jerry Moran, Kansas, Chairman
John Boozman, Arkansas Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut,
Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Ranking Member
Thom Tillis, North Carolina Patty Murray, Washington
Dan Sullivan, Alaska Bernard Sanders, Vermont
Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii
Kevin Cramer, North Dakota Margaret Wood Hassan, New
Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Hampshire
Jim Banks, Indiana Angus S. King, Jr., Maine
Tim Sheehy, Montana Tammy Duckworth, Illinois
Ruben Gallego, Arizona
Elissa Slotkin, Michigan
David Shearman, Staff Director
Tony McClain, Democratic Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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November 5, 2025
SENATORS
Page
Hon. Jerry Moran, Chairman, U.S. Senator from Kansas............. 1
Hon. Richard Blumenthal, Ranking Member, U.S. Senator from
Connecticut.................................................... 2
Hon. Tim Sheehy, U.S. Senator from Montana....................... 18
Hon. Patty Murray, U.S. Senator from Washington.................. 20
Hon. Margaret Wood Hassan, U.S. Senator from New Hampshire....... 22
Hon. Bill Cassidy, U.S. Senator from Louisiana................... 24
Hon. Angus S. King, Jr., U.S. Senator from Maine................. 26
Hon. Elissa Slotkin, U.S. Senator from Michigan.................. 28
Hon. Jim Banks, U.S. Senator from Indiana........................ 30
WITNESSES
Jason Galui, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.), Director,
Veterans and Military Families, George W. Bush Institute....... 4
Mike Hutchings, Chief Executive Officer, Combined Arms........... 5
Barbara E. Carson, Colonel (Ret.), U.S. Air Force Reserve,
Managing Director of Programs and Services, D'Aniello Institute
for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University...... 7
Jared Lyon, National President and Chief Executive Officer,
Student Veterans of America.................................... 9
Elizabeth O'Brien, Senior Vice President, Hiring Our Heroes, U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Foundation................................. 11
Holly Hermes, Liaison for Veteran and Military Affairs, Yale
University..................................................... 12
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements
Jason Galui, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.), Director,
Veterans and Military Families, George W. Bush Institute....... 45
Mike Hutchings, Chief Executive Officer, Combined Arms........... 52
Barbara E. Carson, Colonel (Ret.), U.S. Air Force Reserve,
Managing Director of Programs and Services, D'Aniello Institute
for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University...... 56
Jared Lyon, National President and Chief Executive Officer,
Student Veterans of America.................................... 64
Elizabeth O'Brien, Senior Vice President, Hiring Our Heroes, U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Foundation................................. 72
Holly Hermes, Liaison for Veteran and Military Affairs, Yale
University..................................................... 84
Questions for the Record
George W. Bush Institute response to questions submitted by:
Hon. Bill Cassidy.............................................. 91
Hon. Mazie K. Hirono........................................... 96
Combined Arms response to questions submitted by:
Hon. Mazie K. Hirono........................................... 102
D'Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families response
to questions submitted by:
Hon. Mazie K. Hirono........................................... 105
Student Veterans of America response to questions submitted by:
Hon. Marsha Blackburn.......................................... 110
Statements for the Record
50strong, Kandi Tillman, Co-Founder.............................. 115
American Corporate Partners (ACP), Sidney E. Goodfriend, Founder
and Chairman................................................... 131
American Veterans (AMVETS), Paul Shipley, National Commander..... 138
Pew Research Center.............................................. 146
RAND, Carrie M. Farmer, Ph.D., Co-Director, RAND Epstein Family
Veterans Policy Research Institute............................. 192
Western Governors' Association, Jack Waldorf, Executive Director. 205
Submissions for the Record
Senator Jerry Moran
``2025 Veterans Civic Health Index''........................... 213
``The Military and Veterans Community Index 2025: Measuring
Giving to Military- and Veteran-Serving Organizations''...... 249
``Thriving Beyond Service
Strategic Philanthropy for the Military-To-Civilian
Transition''................................................. 285
Senator Richard Blumenthal
Stars and Stripes article ``More than 75,000 students affected
by VA payment delays for education benefits''................ 352
Military Times article ``VA tech glitch halts GI Bill payments
to thousands, advocates say''................................ 355
A GRATEFUL NATION:
MAXIMIZING VETERANS' SUCCESS AFTER SERVICE
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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2025
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Veterans' Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 4:03 p.m., in
Room SD-G50, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jerry Moran,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Moran, Boozman, Cassidy, Blackburn,
Banks, Sheehy, Blumenthal, Murray, Hassan, King, and Slotkin.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JERRY MORAN,
CHAIRMAN, U.S. SENATOR FROM KANSAS
Chairman Moran. Good afternoon. The Committee will come to
order. I was looking at my opening statement with the intention
of shortening it, but I was discovering that the length of time
it was taking me to shorten the statement was utilizing up the
time that I would've saved.
But I'm delighted that you're here. This is a bit of a
different hearing than this Committee has conducted in recent
past, and I'm very interested in what each of our witnesses
have to say and what conversations it may generate.
The organizations that support veterans are broad, often
led by other veterans and their families. We often hear from
the Department of Veterans Affairs and the programs and
opportunities they provide to serve our Nation's veterans. And
today the focus is on the non-veteran administration side of
how we care for those that served our Nation.
Each veteran is a significant asset for our country, hugely
important to their families and to their community in which
they live, and ultimately to the Nation. They demonstrated that
in their service. And every veteran is unique and different and
their needs are different, one from another.
And so, what has arisen over a period of time in our
country is often other veterans, but certainly other citizens
who rise to the occasion to try to make sure that veterans
needs are being met. And I want to thank those who do that
every day. Individuals in Kansas and organizations in Kansas,
but across the country who see the needs of those who served
are cared for.
Today's hearing recognizes that veterans are civic assets
and that their success after service is in our national
interest. Much of the support available to veterans comes from
non-governmental community resources, and today we're
discussing how those resources support veterans' success and
can better integrate with veteran programs such as what the
Department of Veterans Affairs provides.
I'll introduce the witnesses after. I now turn to the
Ranking Member for his opening statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL,
RANKING MEMBER, U.S. SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT
Senator Blumenthal. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
holding this hearing and thank you to all of our witnesses, an
unusually large panel, but we appreciate every one of you.
I want to thank particularly Holly Hermes, who is Yale
University's Liaison for Military Families and Veterans. This
office has enabled two of my sons who have attended Yale Law
School to go there with more aid and service and companionship
than they would've otherwise won. Marine Corps veteran who
served in Afghanistan, the other, a Navy SEAL veteran who
actually is there right now. I hope he's in class.
I am really honored to serve as Ranking Member on this
Committee along with very distinguished colleagues. And let me
come right to the point. We're here because we need to assure
veterans that they have the information and services they need
when they go from military service to civilian life, often
continuing to serve our country.
And I know about this transition because of my two sons,
and countless others whom I have watched and seen and sought to
mentor as they go through this sometimes very, very difficult
transition period when they need help from a VSO in filing a
disability claim or how best to use their earned education
benefits, connect with local employers or access assistance
when they need it most.
And unfortunately, this Administration has increased the
difficulty of our veterans, not only in transitioning, but in
living through civilian life after they leave the military.
All Americans are struggling with the increased costs of
rent, food, electricity, and yes, healthcare, most especially
healthcare insurance, which is why we as Democrats are standing
firm, that there has to be an extension of healthcare insurance
tax credits or subsidies, past the end of the year.
And the Administration, rather than curbing costs for the
average American worker, including veterans, is prioritizing
historic cuts, and I mean unprecedented cuts in SNAP, Medicaid
and healthcare coverage.
Americans often don't appreciate that veterans use these
programs and depend on them. More than 1.2 million veteran
households use SNAP. Yet this Administration refuses to fully
fund the program despite orders from courts that they do so.
There's no equivalent service like SNAP through the VA or any
other federal program to serve as a safety net. Meaning these
cuts have devastating impacts on veterans and their families.
And at the same time, reductions in access to private
health insurance, Medicaid, and funding for community health
services, we all know about the clinics that exist in
communities with federal support, they will result in veterans
relying more on the VA for their healthcare and benefits.
Here's the startling number, up to 1.75 million veterans and
active-duty service member households rely on Medicaid. Let me
just give you that again, 1.75 million veterans and their
households rely on Medicaid, and that's nearly one in 10
veterans under the age of 65.
Forty percent of them rely on Medicaid as their sole
coverage, often due to ineligibility for Medicare or VA
healthcare. Of the 10.3 million individuals who are likely to
lose Medicaid coverage because of the ``Great Big Beautiful
Bill'' which I call the ``Great Big Blatant Betrayal'', 267,000
are veterans. And meanwhile, many veterans who escape the
impacts of Medicaid cuts will instead lose their healthcare
access when ACA premium tax credits expire, making their
healthcare coverage unaffordable.
Our veterans are suffering just as Americans are from
looking at the exchanges and the premium on open enrollment, as
we speak right now, at their kitchen tables, trying to figure
out how they're going to afford health insurance. And they
can't do it because premiums are doubling and tripling.
Where are these veterans going to go? If eligible, they'll
go to the VA and we'll see a dramatically increased reliance on
VA healthcare, stretching the capacities of our docs, our
nurses, our VA facilities generally, which are already
suffering from cuts and furloughs unnecessarily imposed by this
Administration.
Their increased reliance will come on the heels of
catastrophic and unnecessary cuts to VA's workforce and
resources by Secretary Collins. Cuts that have already eroded
the department's ability to support the needs of veterans and
according to the department's actuarial firm, for every 1
percent of increased reliance on VA healthcare, VA can expect
its cost to increase by 2.6 billion, 1 percent, 2.6 billion.
They don't have the money. Those costs have not been accounted
for in the department's funding requests or factored into
Secretary Collins plans for further cuts in VA resources.
If veterans are not eligible for VA care, there's a real
fear that they will simply lose access to healthcare
completely. Our veterans losing access to healthcare seems
unacceptable to me, but it's going to happen. Given the
healthcare and cost of living crises in this country, the
services provided by the groups here today are more critical
than ever before, so I want to just thank you, every one of you
and your organizations for what you do.
I look forward to hearing your insights and recommendations
on how we can make sure that veterans get what they need, what
they deserve, what we have promised them. Thank you.
Chairman Moran. Thank you, Senator Blumenthal. I now want
to introduce to the Committee those who are testifying today,
the first panels--the first witness panel is Colonel Jason
Galui, the Director of Veteran and Military Families of the
George W. Bush Institute; Mr. Mike Hutchings, Chief Executive
Officer, Combined Arms; Colonel Barbara Carson, Managing
Director of Programs and Services at D'Aniello Institute for
Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University; Mr.
Jared Lyon, the National President and Chief Executive Officer
of Student Veterans of America; Ms. Elizabeth O'Brien, Senior
Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundations for
Hiring Our Heroes; and Ms. Holly Hermes, Yale University
Liaison for Veterans and Military Affairs.
Again, thank you all for being here, and Colonel, I now
recognize you for your testimony.
STATEMENT OF JASON GALUI, LIEUTENANT COLONEL, U.S. ARMY (RET.),
DIRECTOR, VETERANS AND MILITARY FAMILIES, GEORGE W. BUSH
INSTITUTE
Colonel Galui. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Moran,
Ranking Member Blumenthal, and Members of the Committee, thank
you for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of the
George W. Bush Institute. I'm Jason Galui, the Director of the
Bush Institute's Veterans and Military Families team.
At the Bush Institute, we believe that the Nation has a
duty to empower veterans and their families to thrive beyond
the uniform, so that we can, in the words of President George
W. Bush, ``Unleash the potential of a generation of
resourceful, determined, and experienced leaders.''
Veterans can be strong civic assets who inspire others to
achieve common goals for a shared purpose. Veterans tend to
have good character, competence, and commitment, and thus can
earn the trust of--and lead--their fellow Americans. General
Dwight D. Eisenhower, as he approached his own retirement from
the U.S. Army, wrote that he ``faced a monumental career choice
with absolutely no experience in making career choices.''
If soon-to-be President Eisenhower was concerned about his
transition, then we must expect that many transitioning service
members will be anxious about theirs. Veterans and their
families, like everyone else in society, thrive when they are
mentally and physically healthy, are well-informed and prepared
for navigating civilian life, and can make meaningful
contributions to their new communities.
Therefore, at the Bush Institute, we focus on veteran
health and well-being, education, and employment. Thanks to
dedicated public and private efforts, there are tremendous
resources available for veterans and their families. However,
bureaucratic fragmentation and complex navigation can cloud the
learning about and accessing these resources.
Fortunately, the unique entrepreneurial spirit of the
American people complements federal efforts to reintegrate
veterans and their families back into American civilian
society. The Veteran Wellness Alliance (VWA) is one example of
how public and private partners can achieve the best outcomes
for veterans and their families.
Led by the Bush Institute, the VWA is a collaborative
network of mental and brain healthcare clinical providers,
including the VA, and veteran peer networks that together
tackle the effects of the invisible wounds of war.
In 2021, the VWA launched Check-In, an innovative solution
that connects veterans, service members, and their families,
caregivers, and survivors to high quality mental and brain
healthcare regardless of service era and regardless of
characterization of service discharge. Check-In's novelty was
its creation of a trusted online ``easy button'' that peer
networks could provide to their members.
Leveraging the power of innovation and technology, Check-In
solved the navigational and bureaucratic challenges associated
with searching for and connecting with the right type of care.
Given the many resources available, it can be paralyzing to
learn which resource is most appropriate to address the
challenge at hand. Check-In eliminates or at least reduces the
possibility of such paralysis with respect to mental and brain
healthcare.
The VWA is a strong model for how public and private actors
can partner to achieve sustained success after service for
veterans and their families. Serving beyond the uniform,
forming genuine connections, and making meaningful
contributions are necessary components for sustained success.
Discovering such opportunities is less clear in civilian
life than it is while in service, which can make the military-
to-civilian transition challenging. The sooner a veteran can
rediscover their purpose, their connections, and their
contributions, the more likely they and their family will
thrive in civilian life.
It is not unreasonable to ask a transitioning service
member, ``what do you want to do when you get out of the
military? '' But that's an incomplete question. What a veteran
wants to do might not match what the civilian world needs from
that veteran. A more complete question a veteran could ask
themselves is, ``what do I have that the market needs? '' That
is, what does the veteran have in their talent set--their
skills, knowledge, attributes, experiences, and education--that
the labor market wants?
Embedded in that framing is the fundamental labor supply-
labor demand match. The sustained success post-transition of
our veterans and military families directly affects military
readiness. When a service member's final experience in uniform,
their transition from it, is positive and enduring, then a new
veteran and their family will be great ambassadors for military
service and will be more likely to encourage others to serve.
General George Washington was clear when he said, ``The
willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in
any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly
proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars
were treated and appreciated by their nation.''
Maximizing sustained success for veterans and their
families post-military transition is, simply put, an enduring
vital U.S. national interest. Thank you again for this
opportunity to talk with you today about this all-important
national subject.
I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Colonel Galui appears on pages
45-51 of the Appendix.]
Chairman Moran. Thank you very much. Mr. Hutchings.
STATEMENT OF MIKE HUTCHINGS,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, COMBINED ARMS
Mr. Hutchings. Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal,
and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to
speak here today. I'm Mike Hutchings, and I serve as the Chief
Executive Officer of Combined Arms, a veteran-founded and
veteran-led nonprofit, dedicated to transforming how America
supports those who have served.
Each year, about 200,000 service members transition from
military to civilian life. Behind that number are families.
There are parents, spouses, children who often find themselves
navigating a maze of agencies and organizations that were never
efficiently designed to work together.
Veterans may face longer wait times, repetitive paperwork,
and a lack of coordination that too often may leave them
vulnerable. Ten years ago, almost to this day, Combined Arms
was created to change that. We have built a technology platform
that acts as a GPS for Veteran Services, connecting veterans,
service members and their families to the right local resources
in hours instead of months.
We do not replace government systems. We complement them by
integrating federal, state, and community partners to close
what we call the delivery divide. Today, our network includes
more than 300 vetted partner organizations operating in all 50
states. Together we have connected over a 100,000 veterans and
families to critical support, and coordinated more than 175,000
referrals for things such as housing, employment, mental
healthcare, and financial assistance.
These connections have generated over an estimated $603
million in taxpayer savings and economic impact, while reducing
the average wait time for help to just 26 hours across the
Nation. Our work has been recognized by the Milken Institute
and the American Enterprise Institute, as a national program of
record for veteran transition and reintegration. A bipartisan
acknowledgement that coordinated data-driven solutions can and
should be scaled nationwide.
But we also recognize the challenge and oversaturated and
hyper fragmented landscape with nearly 45,000 nonprofits in the
veteran services space. Thousands of organizations want to help
but duplication slows progress. Combined Arms cuts through the
noise, veterans complete one intake. They tell their story once
and they receive access to multiple services quickly. Our
partners are held accountable for timely responses and outcome
reporting, ensuring closed loop results instead of open-ended
referrals.
Across Texas and beyond, Combined Arms has become a vital
conduit connecting veterans and their families to life-changing
regional, state and federal resources, a proven model with more
than a hundred thousand success stories. So let me share a few.
A U.S. Army Sergeant who was referred to NextOp and found
civilian employment in just 15 days. A mother of three, new to
Houston, found stability through our network, receiving housing
support, food and financial education through Family Houston
and other partners. And a Vietnam War veteran, once homeless,
found dignity and belonging after being placed in a Texas State
Veteran's Home through coordinated action with our state
partners.
Even small moments show the power of collaboration. Like
the day a VA psychologist reached out to us for help, and a
veteran in crisis was connected to the Baker Ripley for housing
within hours, while that federal provider discovered new local
resources to help others.
These stories aren't exceptions. They represent a
nationally replicable model of coordinated care when local,
state, and federal partners share information and act together,
veterans are met with dignity, stability, and hope, not
barriers and delay.
Our veterans are not liabilities. They're leaders and
they're civic assets who vote, volunteer and build communities
at higher rates than the general public. When we invest in
their successful transition, we strengthen our workforce, we
strengthen our neighborhoods, and we strengthen our Nation.
The covenant between our government and veterans is sacred,
but it cannot stand alone. Federal systems are vital, but they
cannot meet every need. Civil society must play a role. Take
for example the Bush Institute, our partners at this table who
alongside IVMF, Combined Arms, Wounded Warrior Project and a
mixture of best-in-class nonprofits healthcare institutions and
federal agencies, have built a connective tissue network for
veterans and their families to seek care. No one organization
can do this alone.
Combined Arms shows that when innovation, data and
compassion come together, we can deliver real results faster,
smarter, and more human. Our organization stands ready to work
with this Committee, the VA and partners at every level of
government on bipartisan data-driven solutions that strengthen
the continuum of care for all those who have served.
Thank you for the privilege to speak here today. It has
been an absolute honor and privilege. I look forward to your
questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hutchings appears on pages
52-55 of the Appendix.]
Chairman Moran. Thank you very much. Colonel Carson.
STATEMENT OF BARBARA E. CARSON, COLONEL (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE
RESERVE, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS AND SERVICES, D'ANIELLO
INSTITUTE FOR VETERANS AND MILITARY FAMILIES AT SYRACUSE
UNIVERSITY
Colonel Carson. Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal
and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to
appear before you today. I'm Barbara Carson, the daughter,
sister, mother of veterans, and a 30-year veteran myself.
On behalf of the D'Aniello Institute for Veterans and
Military Families at Syracuse University, I'm honored to
discuss how we can ensure that every veteran, and family member
can thrive after service. The IVMF was founded in 2011 and has
served more than 230,000 people through programs in career
preparation, entrepreneurship, and community connection. Our
core belief is simple: When we get transition right, our
country is stronger.
Each year, about 200,000 people leave active duty and data
from our collective and collaborative research with Blue Star
Families consistently shows that roughly half of veteran
respondents described their overall transition as difficult or
very difficult. Broader evidence repeatedly finds that
navigating the maze of programs and benefits can be
overwhelming.
And while transitioning to civilian employment, veterans
and their families often must start over instead of building on
the skills and leadership experience that they gained during
service. That is why IVMF worked alongside communities to
launch the AmericaServes network back in 2015.
AmericaServes is a coordinated referral network that helps
veterans and families connect to the right resources at the
right time. We grew this model across the country and today
many of those original AmericaServes communities are operating
independently while continuing to collaborate through IVMF's
community of practice.
Through the community of practice, we regularly bring
together these local networks as well as nonprofit and state
leaders, many of whom are VA grantees of critical efforts like
the Staff Sergeant Fox Suicide Prevention Program. Together,
they share insights, exchange best practices, and strengthen
the depth and breadth of the resource networks that serve
veterans nationwide.
In short, along with many others on this panel, we are
cultivating what RAND and others have called for; coordinated,
transparent and an accountable system. We can all commit to
doing the same for transition. How we design and manage these
systems matters. Evidence shows that success rates are far
higher when a veteran is guided by a trained navigator rather
than given simply a curated list of phone numbers.
Looking at just the federal transition landscape, it's easy
to understand why the support of a trusted navigator is so
instrumental and why the need to monitor the process and
results is crucial. RAND and GAO identified 46 programs spread
across 12 agencies with the most funding concentrated in
education, beyond the GI Bill, and very little coordination or
oversight.
The Veteran Metrics Initiative or TVMI, a comprehensive
longitudinal study led by Penn State University, found that two
thirds of post-9/11 veterans used at least one program after
leaving service, and those who used multiple programs had
better outcomes. Our research with VA has shown similar
outcomes for patients who seek non-VA services through formal
collaboration. In other words, connection and coordination
drive success. At IVMF, we've taken those lessons to heart.
Earlier today, IVMF and Hiring Our Heroes, along with five
proven VSOs in the employment opportunity ecosystem, formally
committed to improving our collaboration. Together we'll
strengthen referrals and data sharing to better serve a
military-connected population and measure our collective
impact.
We believe it is time to align our Nation's effort through
a national veteran strategy, a whole of nation framework that
includes federal, local, and state government, nonprofits,
philanthropy, and the private sector. Such a strategy would
establish shared outcome measures, better fund the evaluation
efforts, and support cross sector initiatives that improve
navigation and coordination.
As part of this strategy, we reinforce RAND's
recommendation for more oversight and evaluation of transition
programs and encourage data transparency across agencies and
sectors. Oversight is not criticism, it is critical
stewardship.
Veterans are assets to our economy, who bring talent,
discipline, and leadership to every industry. They're civic
leaders who strengthen the communities where they live. When we
measure results, share data, and work together, these assets
grow.
We thank the Committee for your leadership, for your
continued commitment to those who serve. The D'Aniello IVMF
stands ready to partner with you, with federal agencies, and
with our colleagues across civil society to turn these
recommendations into meaningful outcomes. Together, we can
assure that every veteran and every family who served receives
the support that they earned and that a grateful nation truly
does maximize their success after service. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Colonel Carson appears on pages
56-63 of the Appendix.]
Chairman Moran. Thank you. Mr. Lyon.
STATEMENT OF JARED LYON, NATIONAL PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, STUDENT VETERANS OF AMERICA
Mr. Lyon. Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal,
Members of the Committee, thank you so much for this
opportunity to testify. As a Navy veteran and a student veteran
who has used earned benefits for an associate's, a bachelor's
and a master's degree, while also now in pursuit of a Ph.D.,
after my benefits have expired, I'm getting----
Chairman Moran. Next time you testify Dr. Lyon, we will
look forward to that.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Lyon. As is everyone at Syracuse where I'm pursuing my
Ph.D. So, I now have the pleasure to lead Student Veterans of
America and we represent over 1600 campus chapters serving over
600,000 student veterans and military-connected students.
SVA is where federal policy meets lived experience. VA and
DoD set the standard and we and our partners make it stick on
campuses, in classrooms and at the hiring threshold. We don't
replace the VA, we extend it through public-private
partnerships and philanthropy. We bring additional capacity at
no cost to taxpayers, to convert benefits into degrees,
careers, and community leadership.
We see what aligned systems can deliver. At SVAs National
Conference this past January, alongside the Department of
Veterans Affairs and partners, including the Veterans of
Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, and
the Vietnam Veterans of America, we offered a full-service
claims clinic that assisted over 400 veterans and family
members, and conducted nearly 200 onsite exams in a single
weekend. That's the public and private flywheel working.
Federal authority plus nonprofit and employer capacity
producing fast verifiable results.
Today's hearing asks how a grateful nation maximizes
success after service. Give us the right tools and the public-
private flywheel will spin faster. We offer three low-cost
steps that this Committee can advance now.
First, forecast the transition. Each year roughly 150,000
Americans leave active-duty military service. Most of them are
under the age of 35, many with or starting families. Yet,
campuses, employers, and veteran serving organizations plan
against imprecise estimates.
You could direct DoD with the VA to publish annual
transition forecasts each summer by component, geography and
broad demographics. The data exists, organize and share them.
With a reliable forecast, the VA, nonprofits and employers can
pre-position advising, childcare, internships, and hiring
pipelines where they'll be needed most, turning taxpayers'
education investment into timely local action.
Better forecasting data could also shorten the time for
filing critical shortage in the fields like nursing with
veteran talent. Through research funded by Google.org, we're
working with state and university leaders to reduce barriers to
education and enhance economic opportunity for veterans. Work
that better data coordination would strengthen even further.
Second, connect that data. The DoD tracks separations and
training. VA tracks education benefits. The Department of
Education tracks enrollment. The Department of Labor tracks
earnings. These systems don't talk in real time. That leaves
Congress and VA flying partially blind on the outcomes.
We recommend that VA lead an interagency transition data
taskforce with DoD, Ed, and Labor, to deliver within 12 months
a pilot that links one cohort separation data, GI Bill
enrollment, and early employment outcomes with a report back to
this Committee. Build it privacy first, consent-driven, so that
data follow the veteran. Connected dataset Congress oversee
impact. It lets VA tune programs and it lets nonprofits and
employers, like ours, target resources precisely so that every
public dollar works even harder.
Third is to modernize the VA work study program. About
three quarters of student veterans work while they're enrolled
in college. Too often in jobs that are unrelated to their field
of study, slowing career momentum and weakening return on the
GI Bill.
Update VA work study to, number one, align placements to a
veteran's degree field; two, allow at least halftime students
to participate and supporting veterans who are parents and
caregivers; three, digitized timekeeping; and four, pilot
targeted placements in shortage fields like healthcare,
education, cybersecurity and STEM, and related data skills.
Veterans already bring advanced technical and analytical
training from their military service. With the right academic
pathways and paid work experiences, they can meet the national
demand for AI-literate talent and at every major industry as
well as the VA actually needs now.
SVA is already working to meet these workforce shortages
with partners like the Independence Blue Cross Foundation,
expanding pipelines into nursing and Allied Health through
their service scholar's model. With better transition
forecasting, we can shorten the time to hire in critical fields
like nursing by advising critical placements and employer
demand ahead of military separation.
And when VA enables career relevant paid work, SVAs career
center, made possible by the generous support by the Walt
Disney Company, and our employer partners can plug in
immediately, opening thousands of aligned roles so that
education translates into earnings faster, no nude entitlement,
just modernizing what taxpayers already fund for.
Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to
your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lyon appears on pages 64-71
of the Appendix.]
Chairman Moran. Thank you. Ms. O'Brien.
STATEMENT OF ELIZABETH O'BRIEN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, HIRING
OUR HEROES, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOUNDATION
Ms. O'Brien. Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal, and
Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to
testify. My name is Elizabeth O'Brien, I am Senior Vice
President of Hiring Our Heroes, an initiative of the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Foundation. I am also an active-duty spouse
for more than 20 years, during our Nation's longest conflict,
and the proud mom of a midshipman at the United States Naval
Academy.
I have seen firsthand how critical it is that our Nation's
gratitude for service is translated into action. For more than
a decade, Hiring Our Heroes has helped transform how the
military community connects to meaningful careers. Working
directly on installations and through a national employer
network, we now serve more than 80,000 veterans, service
members and spouses each year, and over 1 million to date.
A grateful nation maximizing veteran success after service
embodies the purpose behind our work, standing shoulder to
shoulder with the VA, to build innovative pathways that empower
veterans to thrive long after they hang up the uniform.
That is why today we are sharing, we're so proud to be a
part of the newly formed Veteran Employment Collective, a bold
national coalition designed to transform how veterans and
military spouses navigate their career journey. The Collective
brings together the Nation's leading veteran and spouse serving
nonprofits, employers, and government partners around one
mission: ensuring every member of the military community has
access to meaningful career opportunities.
It tackles a longstanding challenge, too many programs, too
little coordination, through a seamless referral and data
sharing system, a coordinated approach that removes duplication
and shared outcome-based metrics that demonstrate real impact.
Last year alone, Hiring Our Heroes made over 44,000 referrals
to partner organizations. The volume proves that structured
collaboration is not just beneficial, it's essential.
The Collective founding partners are creating a ``no wrong
door'' network where veterans and spouses can access trusted,
high-quality support when they enter the system.
For more than a decade, Hiring Our Heroes has operated one
of the Nation's largest and longest running SkillBridge
programs, the HOH Fellows Program. The 12-week internship
places transitioning service members directly into civilian
companies. Over the past five years, we have connected over
10,000 service members with 2,500 employers nationwide. Eighty-
eight percent of them receive job offers within three months of
completion.
While we strengthen the ecosystem, we're also innovating at
the program level. This summer, in partnership with the Lowes
Foundation, we launched the HOH Skilled Trades Academy in
Jacksonville, North Carolina, at no cost to participants.
The pilot is a six-week, hands-on training program for
transitioning service members, veterans and spouses. The first
class, eight veterans graduate next week. The pilot is the
foundation of a national model, and in 2026, we will add three
more Skilled Trades Academy, including one in the National
capital region, one near Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington
State, one in Phoenix, Arizona.
These efforts align with federal policy under Public Law
119-21, and with more than 400,000 open manufacturing jobs as
well nationwide. Each program's desire to improve veterans'
financial wellness, while easing pressure on the VA to address
underemployment and homelessness.
Finally, we must recognize a veteran's success is often
tied to the military spouse's opportunity. The Military Spouse
Career Accelerator Pilot (MSCAP), which Hiring Our Heroes
facilitated in partnership with the Department of War in
Deloitte, has become one of the most effective tools to closing
that gap.
Since 2022 in December, more than 1,200 military spouses
have completed 12-week fellowships through MSCAP with an 86
percent job offer rate and more than half of the positions
remote or hybrid. This summer, the department announced a
strategic pause in placements as it transitions from pilot to
permanent program in 2026. We respect the process, but the
timing is difficult. In an environment of furloughs and
economic uncertainty, spouses who already faced unemployment at
six times higher than their civilian peers, need access today
to those opportunities, now more than ever.
Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal, Members of the
Committee, the Veteran Employment Collective, the HOH Skilled
Trades Academy and the MSCAP represent a whole of nation
approach to veteran and family success and lead to American
prosperity. We remain committed to leading this work with our
partners across every sector and building systems worthy of
those who serve.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify and I look forward
to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. O'Brien appears on pages 72-
83 of the Appendix.]
Chairman Moran. Thank you for your testimony. Ms. Hermes.
STATEMENT OF HOLLY HERMES, LIAISON FOR VETERAN AND MILITARY
AFFAIRS, YALE UNIVERSITY
Ms. Hermes. Thank you to Chairman Moran and Ranking Member
Blumenthal, and Members of the Committee for having me here
today. As an Air Force veteran and actively serving Reservist,
I'm deeply appreciative of the opportunities provided to me by
the Air Force Reserve, but I'm here today testifying solely in
my civilian capacity, as Yale University's Liaison for Veteran
and Military Affairs.
I'm here to discuss veterans transitioning out of the
military and into higher education and to share Yale's
commitment to veterans and their families as well as our
partnerships with veterans service organizations. This overview
is not exhaustive, but it highlights common services that our
veterans frequently use.
Student veterans at Yale College come from the enlisted
ranks. They may enroll as first year students, transfer
students, or in our Eli Whitney Students Program for non-
traditional students. Eli Whitney students take the same in-
person classes as other undergraduates and have access to the
same majors, faculty, instructors and advisors, extracurricular
activities, research opportunities, and international
experiences.
The program's flexibility allows students to enroll in
courses full- or part-time, and its advisors have experienced
guiding adult students. In 2017, Yale College had 17 veterans.
Today we have 58 student veterans from every branch of service,
including our first Space Force veteran. This almost fourfold
increase in eight years is due to Yale's partnership with
organizations that support veterans preparing for and applying
to college, and Yale's deep commitment for making education
accessible and affordable for all veterans.
Yale College continues to meet 100 percent of financial
need for all students. As a result, 100 percent of our
undergraduate student veterans attend Yale at little or no
cost. Veterans are not required to use VA benefits before
accessing Yale's financial aid, and many students choose to
utilize Yale's financial aid, so they may preserve their VA
benefits for future studies or transfer them to eligible
dependents.
All 14 of Yale schools participate in the Yellow Ribbon
Program. The following services support veterans to and through
Yale. The Warrior-Scholar Project was started by a Yale Eli
Whitney student 15 years ago, and in partnerships with colleges
nationwide, provides intensive one-week academic bootcamps for
enlisted transitioning service members.
Having taught at this program at Yale, I can tell you from
personal experience, that this program gives enlisted veterans
the confidence to know they have the skills to succeed at a
school like Yale. Once students have the desire to attend a
highly competitive institution, they turn to Service to School,
a nonprofit organization that provides free college application
counseling to military veterans and service members.
Students also come to Yale through the research experience
for veteran undergraduates, a nine-week summer program where
enlisted veterans conduct STEM research and build skills to
become research scientists. Yale Veteran and Military Affairs,
serves as an umbrella program to support students, faculty,
staff, and alumni, and to assist veterans in accessing services
and resources both internal and external to Yale.
We have permanent space, co-located with our Office of
Student Accessibility Services, to offer events, programs and
disability accommodations that support our students. Our
student veterans have access to VA medical facility in
neighboring West Haven, as well as the Yale Health Plan. Yale
Mental Health and Counseling is an additional benefit that
offers students a wide range of urgent and long-term services.
One of the toughest parts of leaving the service is leaving
a closed team of colleagues who are intent on working toward a
collective mission. We are committed to bringing together the
broader Yale veteran and military community, to support each
other and build camaraderie. Yale has an active veteran alumni
group, an employee group, and offers multiple options to earn a
commission.
Currently, we have over a hundred students working toward
the commission into five branches of the U.S. military. Yale
has been teaching and preparing leaders for service in the
military and civilian sectors for over 300 years and fully
recognizes the important role that veterans play in our
society.
Personally, I'm thankful for Yale's support of my own
continuing military service, and I'm proud to support my
brothers and sisters and ours, as they work toward their future
education and career goals. Thank you for the opportunity to
testify and I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hermes appears on pages 84-
88 of the Appendix.]
Chairman Moran. Thank you very much, all of you. Let me
begin with a couple of questions. There's a significant number
of veterans who don't access either healthcare benefits or
disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. I
think those numbers are about 51 percent do access healthcare,
and 42 percent do access disability.
And it may be, you can tell me this is not true, there may
be veterans who don't need those services or services from the
department and there may be those who don't know about the
services that are available. In fact, I know that is true. And
there may be some veterans who know but don't want those
services.
What role does any of your organizations or all of your
organizations play in meeting the needs of someone who is not
enrolled in the VA? And is there a special opportunity or
responsibility to meet the needs of those not accessing care in
the formal governmental services kind of way? How do you see
your role in that and why is that necessary for meeting the
needs of those who serve?
Mr. Lyon. Mr. Chairman, I'll start. I really appreciate the
question because when we look at these benefits that are
available to veterans, there's often the--do I need it? Does
someone else need it? But they're earned, right? And so, if you
earn them, they're available to you.
When you look at those accessing care or the benefits that
they've earned, be it disability and compensation, education
and training benefits, the VA home loan, all of these things,
we see utilization and the VA's own data supports it.
The VA struggles to reach out to one age demographic above
all others, veterans under the age of 45. And veterans under
the age of 45 that have made a transition most recently are
more likely than not to be what we call non-retirees. So those
individuals that served eight years or less of active duty,
guard, or reserve. And that population tends to be like myself,
former enlisted, making their way through education and
training as they move forward.
So, what Student Veterans of America works with is one, to
try to educate the population on what they've earned so that if
they should decide they need it, it's available to them.
Chairman Moran. Mr. Lyon, let me ask you, do most of the
veterans who you provide assistance to, are they enrolled in
the VA or they come to you without that experience?
Mr. Lyon. They come to us without it, overwhelmingly, sir.
Over 80 percent don't access the benefits that they've earned
beyond that of the GI Bill. That's why we're working with the
Department of Veterans Affairs to try to provide better
awareness for veterans under the age of 45, who were prior
enlisted and non-retirees. When you look at the data, it's
retirees, most likely that access disability and compensation
at far higher rates than non-retirees.
Chairman Moran. Others want to comment on that topic? Yes.
Mr. Hutchings.
Mr. Hutchings. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The veterans that
we see coming into Combined Arms' front door, on average, 41
percent are actually already using VA healthcare benefits, 39
percent are not enrolled, and around 18 to 20 percent are in
the current application or planning to apply. So, one of the
first things that the Combined Arms technology does is, it
says, are you interested in being connected to VA healthcare
and VA benefits? If so, that's one of the first referrals that
gets automated in the system.
So, one of the beginning steps is inform and educate. You
know, it's a broad assumption, but what I've heard anecdotally
is either unaware of the support services that were out there,
or as even some of the Combined Arms employees that are
veterans have a great career, great benefits, not interested in
it.
My personal vignette is, you know, I had a great transition
story on paper and where I was hired and offered full-time
employment with General Electric a year before I transitioned
out of the military. I didn't do anything with the VA
originally. Right. I'm fine, I'm all set. Great healthcare,
great benefits with the company. And it actually took my dad,
who was a career Army officer, served 23 years Army, kind of
bumped me on the head and said, ``What are you doing? You
should be connecting with the VA.'' And it's one of the best
decisions I've ever made. Thank you.
Chairman Moran. Let me follow up and there may be others
who wanted to comment, but let me follow up. So, how are those
who serve these veterans who have not accessed care at the VA,
any kind of assistance, why are they able to find you but not
the VA? Or why do they want to find you and not the VA?
Mr. Hutchings. I can say how they find us, which is funny
and also frustrating Mr. Chairman. You know, we spend a
considerable amount of money in marketing dollars to try and
reach veterans as far upstream as possible. Get the word out
about Combined Arms and our partner network. And it always
comes back to us. How did you hear about Combined Arms? We joke
in the military, the E-4 Mafia, the Lance Corporal Underground,
it is word of mouth and is how our community thrives.
It's trust, delivery of services, and people recommending
what's worked for them. After the hundreds of thousands,
millions over the years and 10 years that we spent on
marketing, it always comes back to, how did you hear about
this? ``Oh, a buddy I served with, someone I started with told
me about this.''
Chairman Moran. Mr. Galui, you seem to want to answer that
question.
Colonel Galui. Yes, Mr. Chairman. This was one of the
reasons why Check-In was created. President Bush inspired this
in 2016, and he wanted those who served to get the necessary
help, whether it was through VA or not. And Mr. Hutchings
mentioned a keyword, that word being trust. And so, at the Bush
Institute, we don't necessarily work directly with veterans and
their families. We work with the institutions and
organizations, the leading ones that do.
So, the way folks find their way to Check-In is through the
Veteran Wellness Alliance that I mentioned during my testimony.
Organizations like Student Veterans of America are part of the
VWA, as is Combined Arms. And so, when veterans decide whenever
in their transition timeline, whenever that might be, to join a
veteran peer network, it is through that network where someone
who they trust on their side will suggest to them that they
should check out, Check-In. And that's how they find their way
to our program called Check-In.
Chairman Moran. Trust matters. Senator Blumenthal.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. Ms. Hermes, I remember well,
my own transition, such as it was when I was in the Marine
Corps Reserves. I finished the full-time part of my obligation
five weeks into the Yale semester. Other law schools that I've
been admitted to said, there's no way you can start law school
five weeks late. But I showed up at Yale and frankly it all
sounded like Greek to me.
In fact, it was Latin stare decisis, collateral estoppel,
but Yale, even before its present program, embraced veterans
and provided the help that was needed for that transition. And
since then, universities and colleges and schools have followed
the model of really welcoming veterans as Yale does. So, I want
to commend all the schools that have the kinds of programs that
you've described that Yale has pioneered.
But I'm frustrated that the VA has failed to do its part.
There have been widespread and egregious delays in the GI Bill
payments that are causing real harm to our veterans and
survivors and their families. They're still left to cover rent
and tuition, and schools may be flexible about tuition, but
landlords may not get it, because they've got bills to pay too.
And the VA's failure to pay these veterans, the Article 35
benefits on time, has real life consequences.
I'd like to enter an article from Stars and Stripes into
the record, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Moran. Without objection.
[The article referred to appears on pages 352-354 of the
Appendix.]
Senator Blumenthal. And it says, ``More than 75,000
students affected by VA payment delays for education
benefits.'' I also have an article from Military Times, if
there's no objection, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Moran. No objection.
[The article referred to appears on pages 355-360 of the
Appendix.]
Senator Blumenthal. ``VA tech glitch halts GI Bill payments
to thousands, advocates say.'' And just so there's no doubt,
this article quotes one of the veterans' advocates, Ashlynne
Haycock-Lohmann, Director of Government and Legislative Affairs
for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors as saying,
``The shutdown is not the cause of this, and it needs to be
very clear that the reason that this happened is because VA's
infrastructure failed, and they chose not to tell us until
after the shutdown started.'' ``VA could have told us in
August.''
These delays began in August well before the shutdown. They
are not due to the shutdown, but they've been aggravated by the
furloughs and firings and cuts that the Secretary has
unnecessarily imposed before and after the shutdown. For
example, Secretary Collins' choice to furlough IT technicians
and shut down the GI Bill hotline.
I wrote a letter to the VA, October 9th, demanding answers.
And so far, VA has provided none. It has not even responded to
my letter. Answers about what can be done as well as what the
causes are. Perhaps you can speak to how student veterans are
affected when VA fails to deliver GI Bill payments promptly.
Ms. Hermes. Thank you, Senator. We are facing the same
challenges described in the media for student veterans across
the country. We are able to provide some safety net type
funding depending on the situation. But many of these benefits,
particularly the Chapter 35 that you mentioned, are paid
directly to families, where we have less flexibility.
Though we acknowledge that the delay happened before the
government shutdown, we have been facing significant customer
service delays and interruptions due to the layoffs that also
have occurred during the past year. That administrative piece
has definitely been felt by our students when they're looking
to solve a problem or correct a situation.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. Mr. Hutchings, Combined Arms
connects hundreds of thousands of veterans to high quality
resources including food banks, housing, and emergency
financial assistance. Your organization has reported, I
believe, an increased reliance by veterans' families on food
banks and financial and housing assistance.
The Trump administration, as you well know, has refused to
distribute SNAP benefits. It's a disaster for many of those
recipients, if not all of them, but particularly for 1.2
million veterans who rely on SNAP.
Are there certain populations of veterans who are most at
risk for homelessness and hunger? And how do you target them
for services?
Mr. Hutchings. Thank you for your question, Senator. It is
a very serious concern, and thank you for bringing attention to
it. What we have seen, data drives everything that we do at
Combined Arms. And so, we look at the data on a daily basis.
And we have right now over 70 different data visualization
dashboards on the pulse, the health, the demand of veterans and
military families across the Nation, based on real-time
transactions that occur in the system.
And so here recently, we have seen a surge in food
insecurity and housing assistance requests. For food
insecurity, within the past 30 days, about a 46 percent month
over month increase in food security assistance. And then
around 35-36 percent in housing support, financial assistance,
rent, mortgage, utility payments.
And I think that's the beauty of this collective network
and organizations like Combined Arms, that if there are gaps
and if there are pauses in the government, organizations can
stand ready to help fill these gaps from a short-term capacity.
Not long term, but short-term capacity.
And I think with continued opportunity for integration with
federal agencies, we can be more prepared in the future, and
more resilient and ensure that veterans and military families
get the support that they need. Thank you.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. You know, I don't know quite
how to say it, but for me, any veteran household going hungry
is an abomination. Any veteran going homeless is absolutely
abhorrent. And I want to thank all of you because I know you're
seeking, and in many instances, succeeding in providing for
veterans in the face of these gaps in federal support. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Moran. Senator Sheehy.
HON. TIM SHEEHY,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA
Senator Sheehy. Hello everyone. Thanks for being here
today. As a combat veteran myself, married to a combat vet who
got out and had to go through the transition experience, this
is a topic particularly poignant to me, and my wife and our
family.
So, you know, and anybody can answer, but do you feel that
the VA is a partner in the transition process or an idle
bystander or an opponent? How do you feel the VA exists in your
transition ecosystem?
Colonel Galui. I'm happy to address this both from the Bush
Institute perspective and my own personal perspective, I too am
a combat veteran, and my wife is also a combat veteran sitting
behind me as part of my support staff today, along with my
daughter.
As an individual, VA's been certainly a partner in my
transition. I have not personally experienced any delays with
VA on both my payments from VA personally, and then also my son
who attends Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. And their
wonderful veteran coordinator there has been very helpful.
From the Bush Institute perspective, VA, as I mentioned in
my testimony, is a member of the Veteran Wellness Alliance. And
since its inception, the VA has partnered with us closely
across multiple administrations. And it's through that
collaboration and cooperation and forecasting that we're able
to have a strong partnership with VA, and we can have an open
dialogue. Again, this has been true both in this Administration
and in previous administrations.
Ms. O'Brien. Liz O'Brien, Hiring Our Heroes. We focus
solely on economic opportunity. In terms of how the VA partners
with us through multiple administrations, they have come
alongside of us. To include their CHCO, Tracey Therit, who has
worked very closely with us to ensure that we are creating
opportunities for military spouses to go to work within the VA
structure across the country. And as you know, that's
unbelievably important, that if we can get a military spouse a
job, it increases the likelihood of a service member remaining
in service.
The VA has also continued to partner with us on local
installations. You know, from 2011 to 13, we were hosting
hundreds and hundreds of hiring fairs for veterans as they
return to their communities. And about halfway through 2013, we
said, well, why are we waiting until they return as unemployed
veterans? We need to be on the installations, multiple
locations, across the globe to make sure that we're meeting
them and sharing about transition long before they transition.
And so, the ability to meet service members while they're
in service and create educational opportunities around what
transition looks like, and the VA has been a part of that
through multiple administrations for us. So, we feel like
they're investing in economic opportunity for when service
members are preparing to transition, and also being supportive
of how we put military spouses to work.
Mr. Lyon. Senator, I love the question. Thank you for your
service and service of your wife. The VA in spirit is a 100
percent collaborative partner in everything that we're doing.
And I think all of my colleagues would agree.
In function, some days they are adversarial, right? In
particular when it comes to allocating the funds that this body
puts forward specifically for like technology improvements.
It's one of the frustrating things about the GI Bill and
other VA administered benefits that can be a challenge, in
that, by the time the law gets passed, allocations get done
from this body, and then get all the way down to the person
that's executing them. Sometimes it can be a bit frustrating to
see old outdated systems that funds have been put toward that
are still old, outdated, frustrated systems. But in spirit,
they are partners.
Senator Sheehy. Yes. And I think you know, there can be
great people buried in a bad bureaucracy. And that's true of
anywhere. It's not the VA. That's just bureaucracy at writ
large. But I think you know, it was a bit of a leading question
in that, you know, what you just mentioned is, for example, we
are looking at agricultural in America and the slow, it's
actually not that slow, pretty rapid death of multi-generation
Ag in this country, as we're seeing farms close, we're seeing
families recognize that the dirt that the farm sits on is worth
a hell of a lot more than the crops that the farm creates.
And they make the decision, which you can't blame them for
making that decision. Hey, you know, I'm going to set up my
kids for a future and I'm going to sell this farm or ranch and
we're going to get out of the business and they can go invest
it in the NASDAQ and do a hell of a lot better than soybeans
and cattle.
But we also have a system of incentives that doesn't
support that, you know. When I was getting out, you can get a
VA home loan for Frederick--four-bedroom condo in Miami, but
you can't use that same loan to purchase producing agriculture
land, which feeds America.
And I think whether you're an entrepreneur, I got out and
started a business with an all-veteran founding team. The
incentives haven't historically been there to start a business.
And sometimes that's good. A lot of veterans shouldn't start a
business. They should get a job. But where I'm going with this
is, I think as you said, Jared, the spirit is there to support
transition. But transition shouldn't be the goal. That's a step
in the goal. The goal is to have America take advantage of the
tremendous talent that we've invested in and created in our
veteran population.
Our veterans are not charity. They don't need handouts.
They don't want handouts. And the goal shouldn't be to build a
box of freebies for every veteran. It should be let America
take advantage of the amazing training and development we've
given these individuals, so they come back and they serve our
country again in another way, whether it's as nonprofit
leaders, whether it's at a top university, whether it's
starting a business or feeding America as a farmer, or going to
work for a tech company.
And I think our transition process should be less focused
on the transaction of transitioning and on the creation of the
veterans' benefits, the loans. The programs aren't there to
serve themselves, they're there to create a return on
investment with that veteran who gives back to America, and
finds an empowering career going forward.
And I think we're grappling with this in the wake of
America's longest war, as we've had a very tiny percentage of
our veterans, very tiny percentage of Americans has served the
whole country. We never had this small amount of people do
multiple deployments back over and over and over and over
again. Now they come home and we have to find how they find the
next chapter.
So, thank you for the work you're doing, and I would
encourage you to continue to engage with us on how we can help
the VA be a really meaningful partner. And also, the branches,
the active-duty branches, you know, let's make sure they're
alongside in that journey. So, thanks for everything you're
doing.
Chairman Moran. Senator Sheehy, thank you. Senator Murray.
HON. PATTY MURRAY,
U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON
Senator Murray. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And let
me echo something Senator Blumenthal talked about, and really
point out something that I think has not gotten enough
attention. And that is that 1.2 million of our veterans rely on
SNAP, that is about a third of them are over the age of 65 and
40 percent are disabled.
We know right now that President Trump is blocking them
from getting the SNAP benefits they need, so they don't go
hungry. The money to fund SNAP exists. Trump has chosen not to
use that funding and his Administration said they were going to
do partial benefits. They'd be late. And then he posted
yesterday on to socially, he is going to block it all together.
So now we are of course hearing reports of veterans
flocking to food banks. They're not sure where their next meal
is going to come from. Mr. Chairman, my family was one of those
families. My dad was a veteran. He got multiple sclerosis, and
we had to rely on food stamps for a while. So, this is not
something we should tolerate. The money exists, it is supposed
to go out, and I hope every Member of this Committee lets the
Administration know that they need that money to get out.
So, Mr. Lyon, let me just ask you about that. What are you
hearing from your members who do rely on SNAP, and tell me why
it's so important to student veterans in particular.
Mr. Lyon. Senator Murray, thank you so much for the
question and your ongoing support for our community. At Student
Veterans of America, we leverage a lot of research. Basic needs
have been something that we've been looking into for the better
part of the last five years. Food and housing insecurity are
remaining challenges for veterans in higher education.
To leverage a Yale example, there was a young naval aviator
who got out of the military after World War II, attended Yale
as an undergraduate, was a baseball player, got married and had
two kids while he was at Yale, all having the GI Bill fund, all
of that, that was George H. W. Bush.
That notwithstanding, the GI Bill is not like that anymore.
The GI Bill is designed for a single person that heads back to
school. And when you look at the modern student veteran, over
half are married or in a committed relationship with children
when they head back to school. Another 20 percent of us are
single parents while we're back in school, and over 75 percent
of us are working full-time while we're in school, just trying
to make ends meet.
It is very difficult to transition without a military
pension, without healthcare for life. And that is what the
average veteran is doing when they head back to school. So,
it's no surprise to see benefits like SNAP and other things
being relied on while you're back in school and trying to make
ends meet. When those benefits go away, veterans are impacted,
and more than that, their family members that rely on these
benefits are impacted as well.
Senator Murray. Yes. Well, thank you for sharing that. And
again, I urge all of our Committee members to let the
Administration know that money is there. They're legally
required to obligate it, get it out. We have people who need
that.
Let me ask Colonel Hermes's about women veterans. They are
the fastest growing demographic of veterans. And I personally
have heard from many women veterans that when they return home
to civilian life, people don't respect their service or assume
that they are a military spouse, not the actual veteran. And it
is disturbing that we now have a Secretary of Defense who takes
every opportunity to insult women who've been in the military.
And that really, I believe, adds to the barriers that women
face now when they return to civilian life.
So, talk to us a little bit about some of the barriers that
women veterans in particular face when they come home and seek
civilian employment.
Ms. Hermes. Yes, Senator. Thank you. That is a very
important question for our society to wrestle with. And as I'm
here for Yale today, I'm going to frame it in terms of higher
education.
In our group of enlisted student veterans, which my
testimony focused on, because that's our most vulnerable group,
we have a very small number of women, and I'm going to even say
parents or families. Because it is very difficult, just like
Mr. Lyon mentioned, to support a family while you're going to
college. The GI Bill benefits, the federal benefits that we're
able to give even institutionally, can't support some families
as they leave the military.
So that's a huge challenge, and I think that's something
that our society needs to keep wrestling with. And we could
talk to the VA about programs that could support that in the
future nationwide, not just at one school or another.
Senator Murray. Thank you very much. I have run out of
time, but this is something I'm very concerned about when we
hear discussions about DEI and then it impacts women who we
need in our military. And not just then, but when they come
home and they're a veteran. They actually don't want to
identify as a veteran or don't see themselves as a veteran, and
they then don't get the services and benefits that they've
earned. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chairman Moran. Thank you, Senator Murray. Senator Hassan.
HON. MARGARET WOOD HASSAN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE
Senator Hassan. Thank you so much, Mr. Chair and Ranking
Member Blumenthal for this hearing today. And thank you to our
witnesses, not only for being here today and sharing your
expertise and time with us, and your advocacy for veterans, but
to each and every one of you who has served. Thank you so much
for your service.
Lieutenant Colonel Galui, I want to start with a question
to you. I'd like to discuss the importance of making sure that
veterans get connected to resources and how facilitating that
connection can often require trust and understanding with a
veteran.
In your testimony, you discussed the Check-In program and
you detailed how veterans who reach out for help through the
program are first connected with one of two social workers who
have an understanding of where the veteran's coming from. One
social worker is a veteran and the other is married to a
veteran.
I think this hits on something really important. Veterans
need to trust that when they need help, the person they connect
with can understand where that veteran is coming from. And
that's something that Senator Ernst and I worked on with the VA
and the American Legion through the Buddy Check Week, where
veterans are encouraged to check in with each other because we
know that peer-to-peer relationships can be critically
important.
As a veteran yourself, can you please discuss the benefits
for veterans who are seeking resources when they're connected
with somebody who understands them and their experiences?
Colonel Galui. Senator, thank you for that question. I
think Senator Moran said this a little while ago, that trust is
everything. I mean, it truly is. This entire American
experiment that we're all persevering is built on trust, right?
And likewise in the veteran transition when seeking care,
specifically through the Bush Institute's Check-In program and
mental and brain healthcare, it's critically important that the
veteran trusts the initial contact that they have.
And as I wrote in the testimony, one of two women who are
part of Wounded Warrior Project, again, they're part of the
Veteran Wellness Alliance. Those two women personally respond
to the person reaching out for care. And within a short
conversation, the veteran on the other side of the phone will
recognize that Susan or Kristen truly understands them.
And when we referenced Check-In, it connects people to high
quality care. Part of that high quality definition that we
partnered with RAND to define, was ``veteran-centered.''
Senator Hassan. Sure. And I'm going to follow up Ms. Hermes
on the line that Sarah Murray was pursuing, because one of the
things I hear in New Hampshire from women veterans, is how
lonely they feel in trying to find other women veterans in our
small state, especially in our rural areas. So, can you speak
to the need of women to be able to connect with other women
veterans?
Ms. Hermes. Thank you, Senator. That's definitely true. I
think it's true for all veterans. We want the students to
integrate into our community and share their diverse
perspectives. But we have had great luck with having mentoring
groups, social groups, even casual meetups among our grad
student, women veterans and undergrad women veterans and cadets
and midshipmen, as they prepare to serve.
So, it's a great point that you make, that that connection
helps women veterans learn about these resources and take
advantage of them and helps them feel supported.
Senator Hassan. Thank you very much for that and for your
work. Colonel Carson, in your testimony you discussed how
veterans face what could be a complicated and confusing process
to get help during their transition from military service to
civilian life. You also mentioned the importance of making sure
that these veterans are able to find the right resources at the
right time, specific to their individual needs.
Senator Cramer and I worked on this with our bipartisan
Solid Start Act that requires the VA to reach out to veterans
at least three times within their first year of leaving the
military, with a focus on trying to meet each veteran's
individual needs. From your perspective, what are some
additional things that we can do to help make sure that
tailored, useful, timely information is provided to
transitioning veterans?
Colonel Carson. Thank you for the question, Senator. I'll
build on what Mr. Lyon said as well, that we want forecasts
that can help. And encouraging service members and making it
easier for them to be enrolled in VA. They, of course, have
agency, but that would be a great assistance.
Each service member does complete an individual assessment.
We want the members to have privacy, their concerns considered.
But if we can know what they need as they come out through
trusted partnerships, which we do have with the VA, we can all
better serve them.
Senator Hassan. Thank you. I'm running out of time. I did
want to just touch on with Colonel Carson and Ms. O'Brien, the
issue of military spouse employment. I will follow up with a
longer question but just really appreciate your work on this
because I think one of the things we really need to focus on,
Mr. Chair, around this issue is how the problem of military
spouses not being fully employed or employed to their
qualifications can really build over years. And it poses kind
of this mounting cumulative impact.
So, I'll follow up with a question to the record on that,
but thank you both for your attention to that as well as so
many other things. And thanks to the whole panel, it's really
an important panel for us.
And as the Chairman and Ranking Member said at the
beginning, we don't usually get this cross section of
nonprofits who are so critical to the network that we need to
have, to really make sure we're not only saying how much we
appreciate veterans, but showing them with real action that we
do. Thank you.
Chairman Moran. Senator Hassan, thank you. Senator Cassidy
you are recognized.
HON. BILL CASSIDY,
U.S. SENATOR FROM LOUISIANA
Senator Cassidy. I'm going to pick up kind of where Senator
Hassan left off, and you'll see why quite obviously. Colonel
Carson, Senator Hassan and I have introduced, and she may have
mentioned it, bipartisan legislation to extend and enhance the
Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Now, the Work Opportunity Tax
Credit gives the employer a credit on the amount of money that
he or she would spend to hire somebody for like a two-year
period. And the idea is to help those who might have an issue
with transitioning.
So, think of the one eligibility or the people leaving the
service. I like that, as a physician, we've learned that the
first six months after someone leaves service is one of the key
times in which they may commit suicide. That loss of structure.
And sir, I saw your testimony speaking about General
Eisenhower, like didn't have a clue how to do a career change.
As Senator Hassan pointed out that we are extending this we
hope, to the spouse of someone who is a veteran, knowing that
their constant movement may have made it difficult for her to
have long-term employment. So, any thoughts about that Bill,
the importance thereof, and why not all my colleagues shouldn't
be co-sponsors?
Colonel Carson. Thank you, Senator Cassidy for the
question. I appreciate very much, that incentivizes the private
sector to be involved in solving this problem with us. And that
yes, it's crucial that military spouses are included in that
number. I believe the Department of Labor also has looked at
including spouses as displaced workers. So, the benefits are
there. We help navigate military spouses that we see to these
opportunities, and prepare them. The same is crucial for
veterans as you said.
That first year is incredibly difficult. Liz O'Brien and I
have stacked programs together to build bridges. For example,
our program offers credentials. She has pathways for fellowship
with employers. And if the employers are looking for our talent
that we can help prepare for that opportunity, all the better.
So, we're supportive.
Senator Cassidy. And I'll toss this out, because I can
speak from intuition that a spouse who's been a trailing spouse
during the career of someone who's in the service, would not
have a work record that looks like they've been able to stay at
a job for a long period of time.
But can anybody put numbers on that? And put succinctly,
how we can help people understand the importance of giving that
spouse opportunity for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Ms.
Hermes, anyone?
Ms. O'Brien. I thank you for the question. I appreciate the
nod that military spouses are included in this. For over a
decade, I was a college basketball coach and then married my
husband. And we went through a process where we moved seven
times in nine years. And so, as we moved, you can see where I
was coaching at Hofstra University, I was coaching at West
Point, I was coaching at University of Hawaii, and then I was
coaching at Division II schools as we continued to move across
the country and eventually ended up in Germany, where options
were slightly limited, as you can imagine.
And so, when we moved back to the States, I had to make a
decision. I love to work. It's meaningful, it's purposeful and
it contributes income to my family. And so now, can you imagine
when I show up at the age of 40 at Hiring Our Heroes, looking
for them to help me find a different pathway, and instead they
offer me a job as a coordinator, right?
And so, who is offering, who else, but somebody that's in
this space is going to understand that there is tremendous
value in my work history. And so, one of the pieces that we
work on and work alongside the IVMF is one, the research that
is out there, how do we translate it for the employers? How do
we work alongside hiring managers, not just the recruiters, to
make sure they're educated to understand what a non-linear
resume looks like, and how to figure out what are the skills
underlying in each of those positions?
And so, as we work with our employers, we're also
encouraging them to embrace skills-based opportunities. And so,
as you look at the Work Opportunity Credit, we're grateful that
you're including military spouses. We believe they belong there
and encourage employers potentially to provide feedback, in
what the administrative burden of being able to include
military spouses.
It's very difficult for employers who are highly regulated
to ask the status, a marital status of a potential employee.
And so, as you work on that, that would be one piece I would
flag.
Senator Cassidy. Wait, so if they would say, I like your
term non-linear resume. Oh, you've got a non-linear resume.
Well, it's because I've been married to a guy that's been
transferred nine times in seven years. But unless you volunteer
it, they can't say, hmm, it looks like you've moved a lot. Can
you tell me why?
Ms. O'Brien. Yes. Well, savvy hiring managers often do,
which causes military spouses to be eliminated very quickly.
But when Jared applies for a job, or Colonel Carson, you know,
you can identify as a veteran, it's very difficult for an
employer or a company to put on their military spouse, right?
Because that is asking me what my marital status is.
And so, it requires an effort by employers working with
their legal teams to be able to put, you know, under the
identifying status when you're applying to have military spouse
on there. In theory, the companies we've worked with who have
been able to navigate it, then puts the military spouse to the
hiring manager who is familiar with what a military spouse
resume looks like, or a veteran resume.
Senator Cassidy. Very helpful. Thank you all very much.
Yes.
Chairman Moran. Ms. O'Brien, let me clarify for at least
me. So, there is also a downside to indicating that you're a
military spouse because it suggests lack of consistent
presence. So, it's a double-edged sword, if you're not one of
the companies that are interested in hiring the spouses of
veterans, you may decide not to hire somebody because of the
instability of the circumstance. Is that true?
Ms. O'Brien. 100 percent true.
Chairman Moran. Okay. Senator King.
HON. ANGUS S. KING, JR.,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MAINE
Senator King. Thank you very, very much, Mr. Chairman. Two
points initially. First, I want to thank you for calling this
important hearing and assembling this very impressive group of
witnesses. Following on that, I want to emphasize something
Senator Sheehy said. You know more than we do, and don't let
your contributions to our work end today. In other words, keep
in touch.
And as thoughts come out of, based on the hearing, let us
know and make, give suggestions where we can help with
authorities, with programs in the VA, with coordination
efforts, all of those things. You are a tremendous resource,
and I want to thank you.
And Ms. Hermes, I also want to hope that you'll convey my
thanks to Yale, because Yale is the reason for everything I've
achieved in my life. The reason for that is that when they
rejected me at the law school, I dedicated my life to making
them regret the decision. And it served me very well.
[Laughter.]
Senator King. Really what we're talking about is
transition. I believe that the Department of Defense and the VA
combined should spend as much time, money, and effort on
transition as they do on recruiting. And I think there's a lot
of activity, and I think it's improved recently, but it really
still is not where it wants to be.
There are two or three issues that I've been involved with,
and I'd like your quick thoughts. One is pre-enrolling in VA
healthcare before you leave active duty. You're nodding. Is
that a good idea?
Colonel Carson. Yes, Senator. Absolutely.
Senator King. So that there's not that gap of where do I go
and how do I move? Secondly, Form 2648 has a box on it that
says, if you opt in, if you want to have your contact
information shared with the state veterans agency, we'd like to
change that to an opt out. Because people often just don't
check boxes and reverse the presumption so that people, unless
they object to it, they can have their contact.
My idea is if you get a state veterans organization, that
state veterans structure that's in connection with VSOs, I
would like somebody to meet the new veteran when they're coming
to the airport. And that won't happen unless you have this
reverse, this presumption. Is that something Mr. Lyons, for
example, that you think is a good idea?
Mr. Lyon. You could envision the honor flights that we
bring to DC to see the Nation's monuments, to take that same
concept to a newly returning veteran to a community. All
politics is local. All transition is local. To the extent that
we could meet them at the airport, that would be phenomenal,
sir. Yes, sir.
Senator King. But we can't do it unless we know that
they're coming. And the only way to know that is if their
contact information is conveyed. So, you would support that
change?
Mr. Lyon. We would support that change, the opt out.
Senator King. Finally TAP promotion, that is having VSOs
involved in the TAP process before the active-duty member
leaves. That strikes me as just common sense. Is that--you're
nodding. I hope that doesn't go in the record. This guy can't
record nods.
Ms. Hermes. Yes, Senator, we agree. Having VSOs involved
would be a great idea.
Senator King. Thank you. And finally, Mr. Hutchings, I'm
fascinated by your website and in fact, coming into this
hearing, not being fully aware of what Combined Arms did, my
suggestion was that the VA should create such a website, but it
sounds like you've pretty well done it.
The question is how do we make veterans aware of this
really rich resource that you've created? And again, maybe it
should be on a form somewhere, that you know, check here if you
want to hear from a website provider that can give you access
to literally 40,000 resources across the country. How can we
help get this resource that you've created into more veterans'
hands?
Mr. Hutchings. Thank you for your question, Senator. And to
your earlier point, I will keep in touch. Three very
commonsensical recommendations you made that I think we all
agree with. So that is you know, a question that we're
constantly struggling and iterating with as an organization, I
think all of the respective organizations here as well, is how
can we make people more aware of our partnerships, our
collaborations, our collectives, like the one that was just
announced here recently? And I think it's continued discussion
and continued integration in the form of pilots with federal
agencies, with state agencies.
Senator King. But one thing that might help is if, as a
veterans walking out the door, they're handed a card with the
website, or with a series of websites saying, you know, if you
are planning to go to school, here's student veterans. And,
it's a matter of making connections. And again, I'm trying to
think of how this can be done through the official process
where everybody is passing through, rather than people who hear
it by word of mouth. So, make----
Mr. Lyon. Senator, if I could, you said it at the beginning
of your remarks. If the DoD and the VA were working together to
spend as much on transition as we do on recruitment, it's
bringing the Department of Defense to the table as well, to
hold an equal part and an accountable part to that transition.
Senator King. Yes, and we're spending most of the time here
talking about the VA, but the Department of Defense is a big,
big part of this. That's where it starts. So again, share your
ideas, but I think this is a very important hearing. Thank you
again, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Moran. You're welcome, Senator King. Senator
Slotkin.
HON. ELISSA SLOTKIN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MICHIGAN
Senator Slotkin. Thank you, Chairman. Thanks to all of you.
If you're coming to me, you're almost at the end. I'm at the
end of the line here. Thank you for what all of you do. I think
you know, I'm a former CIA officer and Pentagon official. I did
three tours alongside the military in Iraq, and I was a
military spouse. So, thank you for working on this very
important issue.
A couple years ago, in 2020 when I was in the House, I had
a bunch of veterans come up to me actually at a veteran event
in Howell, Michigan and say, you know, they just had no idea
what they were eligible for. Right? Typical, like, I heard
there's programs, but I don't know. And we wrote, along with
Senators on this Committee, something called the Solid Start
Act, that was signed into law in 2022, which required the VA to
reach out three times in the first year of separation, to
ensure that we're showing all the services that the VA has.
Again, many of these would be solved by opting out instead
of opting in, if we had just kind of signed people up for VA
healthcare originally. But this was my attempt at least having
some outreach. And it's good, but I think the thing that I'm
struggling with is, with all the programs that you all
wonderfully do, how do we make sure that people even have any
idea? And while a signing up for something and checking a card
and all that might have worked with veterans of my age, right,
the 9/11 era, the newest veterans are going to be coming out of
service with like, no even history of reading their snail mail,
of even reading email. It's all digital, right? It's all how do
we get to them?
So how do we, I guess this is a question I'm going to maybe
ask Mr. Lyon if you could answer. How do you amalgamate all the
services so that our newest veterans will have a one stop shop?
And then how do you make it available in a form that they want
to consume it in, not what their parents' generation wanted to
consume it in?
Mr. Lyon. So first off, thank you for your service as well
Senator, and I appreciate the question. I wish there were an
easier answer and I'm not sure that there is. It starts with
organizations like ours here that have been invited to testify
today. And we're grateful for those invites. We collaborate
outside of rooms like this too, which is important.
But I think that something that should be known as the
majority of us that are going to get out, are going to be
enlisted like I was. And the majority of those that get out as
enlisted are not going to retire. And when we think about the
localized aspect of transition and returning back home to a
small town in Michigan, or anywhere in the country, it starts
with those units.
I mean, people don't get out of the Army, they get out of
their unit, they don't get out of the Navy, they get out of the
Navy from a ship. They're getting out at the smallest level of
service. And if we tied officer promotion evals, for instance,
to the transition success of their troops, you would see a
shocking improvement in the transition process. So that's one
radical idea for you, Senator.
[Laughter.]
Senator Slotkin. Yes, I like that one. That's good. I just
think we need to be thinking about how the next generation is
going to be consuming their information. And I was pushing for,
you know, hey, let's move from snail mail because people don't
know their addresses, where they're going to end up when they
separate.
So, let's at least go to email like, I was pushing for the
big development of taking their email address when they
separated, their civilian email address. But I think we need to
think differently. Particularly since our private sector
companies certainly know how to target different communities
and pump them the algorithms. Like I want to pump the veteran,
the algorithm of like, Hey, there's a new program. You can get
discounted Disney tickets. Hey, there's a whatever.
Mr. Lyon. It's at a unit level; that's the first sergeant
or the chief. Right? Like, have them there meeting their
troops, kneecap to kneecap where they are.
Senator Slotkin. Yes. That's very interesting. So how do we
make sure, given that so many of your organizations they're not
affiliated with the government in any way, it's just like,
really good people wanting to do good things for our veterans.
How do we make sure that there's some strategic use of
resources? And we don't have repetitive organizations. You
don't have what we call silos of excellence over here that
don't talk to each other. I don't know if Mike, you want to
take that or who wants to take that, but I'm worried that we
have all this great effort, but, it's sometimes redundant in
the effort.
Mr. Hutchings. Thank you, Senator. And you are a hundred
percent correct. There is incredible repetition within the
support space and duplication of effort. I think there was a
great component called out from a cohesive and collaboration
perspective, a national veteran strategy to better identify the
guidelines and principles.
And then a national veteran data commons, like Mr. Lyon
said, about integrating disparate datasets together, pulsed in
with state agency data, with community-based organization data,
data mapped pars standardized to basically have real time needs
and demand signals of what veterans and military families need
at the national level. So, a strategy and a data informed
strategies is what I would recommend.
Senator Slotkin. Yes. I feel like if you gave this to a
bunch of really smart 24-year-old programmers, like, okay, we
have all this data, how are we going to--maybe it's you. Yes.
How are we going to make this easy and accessible and we could
get at this problem. But my time is over. Thank you, Chairman.
Appreciate your work everyone.
Chairman Moran. Senator Slotkin, thank you. Thank you for
your questions. Senator Banks, it's not true that Senator
Slotkin is the last to ask questions. It's now Senator Banks'
turn.
HON. JIM BANKS,
U.S. SENATOR FROM INDIANA
Senator Banks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We've seen a lot of
progress in reducing veteran unemployment. The rate right now
is 3.1 percent, is even lower than the general unemployment
rate, which is really good. But I know that underemployment is
still a problem, and I appreciate all the work that your
organizations are doing to help match veteran skills to great
jobs to help them find meaningful careers.
In Indiana, we have a very successful organization called
INvets, that has been recognized by the Labor Department for
the important work that they do. And INvets partners with more
than 500 employers in our state. And they have placed over 800
Hoosier veterans in jobs. We're very proud of the work that
they do.
Colonel Galui, with the veteran unemployment rate near 3
percent, sometimes we forget what a serious problem that rate
was in the past. In your testimony, you referenced that
unemployment among young veterans was 29 percent in 2011. Can
you give us a bit of a history lesson, like walk us through
that history and how did we solve that? What were the good
things that happened along the way to bring those, that that
rate down?
Colonel Galui. Well, thank you Senator for your question.
And a quick version of history is that about 10 or 15 years ago
the conversation here would've been about getting veterans
jobs. And the response from corporate America was robust. And
we saw many companies committing to hiring veterans at high
levels, getting them jobs.
Fast forward to today, and we have, as you noted an
unemployment rate among veterans, generally speaking, that is
lower than their non-veteran counterpart. That's a great news
story that veterans are getting jobs. The question now that
we're asking at the Bush Institute through our policy work is
that, are veterans getting the right jobs? And our claim going
into this policy process is that the U.S. economy can employ
veterans better.
And so, in my testimony, I referenced reframing of that
transition question. Instead of asking service members what
they want to do when they get out of service, that's only one
half of the equation. The other half is what is it that the
labor market wants or needs from them? So perhaps a veteran
should be thinking about what it is that the veteran has in
their talent set, their skills, knowledge, experiences,
education that has evolved during their career.
And I would say that transition begins at accession. And
understanding how your skills are evolving is critically
important. And that requires leadership at your unit level,
such that when the time comes for you to separate and begin to
thrive, you have a better way to address your own employment
question and try to understand that that labor supply labor
demand match.
Senator Banks. Talk about that more, unpack the labor
supply demand mismatch, and how do we solve it?
Colonel Galui. Sure. I mean, that is a large economic
question, you know, broader than just veterans. The better we
can employ our human capital and our labor force as a Nation,
the stronger our economy will be, the stronger position we'll
be in with respect veterans in their transition.
And this might be a role for the Department of Defense.
We've talked a little bit about--Senator King brought up, you
know, we've talked a lot about VA. Well, there is a DoD role
here to some degree, and that is helping active service members
understand how their skills are evolving, such that they, the
veterans themselves or the service members that become
veterans, can translate not just their military occupational
specialty into a job, but really articulate their tangible
skills and their intangible skills to employers.
Senator Banks. I'm a big fan of what the Institute does and
I've visited with you all there, visited with you in my office.
Has the Institute done any research at all on the impact of
artificial intelligence on veteran skills and potential job
opportunities in the future? For better or worse?
Colonel Galui. We were in that process. In fact, the
gentleman sitting behind me, D'Juan Wilcher leads our
Employment Policy Working Group, which is a collaborative
effort across academia, former government officials, and
industry leaders that are coming together in an entrepreneurial
way to better address these questions. And we will, from the
Bush Institute, have policy recommendations next year.
Senator Banks. Are we optimistic or are we concerned about
how veterans specifically will be impacted?
Colonel Galui. We're optimistic.
Senator Banks. Good.
Mr. Lyon. Senator, if I could add from the artificial
intelligence perspective, public private partnerships are a lot
of the answer. For us, we work alongside Google. We've done an
11-state deep dive in policy analyses. And the beautiful thing
is that by leveraging AI, we have the sort of economies of
scale to find what the market trends are for the labor force,
and matching those with the skills that veterans and their
family members bring to the table.
It's through things like AI literacy, which is a big issue
in society today, but veterans based on what they did in the
military, are bringing a certain level of AI literacy to the
table. So, in addition to Mr. Galui's great work at the Bush
Institute you're having this population that already is
bringing the baseline to bear.
If we can combine that with the data for where the trends
are going, that data lives in Labor, Department of Education,
Department of Veterans Affairs, and Department of Defense. We
bring that all together, we can match it immediately, skills-
based manner to where if you're going to school or not, you
have the ability to leverage these things for a future that is
already here. And that veterans are very well prepared to
support strongly the American economy through.
Senator Banks. Very good. My time has expired.
Chairman Moran. Thank you, Senator Banks. We're going to
conclude this hearing in a little bit, but not quite yet. And I
have a couple of questions I want to still ask and that,
therefore equity requires that I ask Senator King if he has
anything he would like to ask. I appreciate that. And Senator
Blumenthal, I know has a couple of questions. Senator
Blumenthal.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. Just a couple of questions.
We've talked a little bit about mental health, but not enough
in my view. I recently introduced the BRAVE Act, which
reauthorizes the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide
Prevention Grant Program to increase funding to combat veteran
suicide. Just one example of the kind of program that I think
is important to reach veterans.
We all know that often they're reluctant to seek mental
health help in the military, and even when they transition out
for many of the reasons associated with the condition itself,
but also what they feel is the stigma of asking for help. I
think it's absolutely necessary to increase funding for the
VA's mental health program and to enable more veterans to seek
help outside the veterans community, whether it is the mental
health services offered on campuses or through employers or
others.
Colonel Carson, you work closely with community partners
who provide mental health care under the Fox Grant Program.
Maybe you can speak to why it's so important to fund this
program, supporting the mental health of transitioning
veterans.
Colonel Carson. It has been incredibly helpful already,
although there are many measures yet to have an available
outcome. But the reduction in stressors already from the Fox
grantees delivery is outstanding. The proposal to continue and
perhaps expand the funding for the Fox grants, along with
performance expectations and oversight, seems like a smart way
forward.
And I'd also say that there are other contributors from
each of the organizations who are here, who are doing the
difference. There are many ways to prevent suicide. Economic
opportunity, being part of a community, getting an education
that takes you to a career that you desire, are also
contributing. But this is an important grant, and we are
already seeing the performance.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. Lieutenant Colonel Galui, I
know the Bush Institute does a lot of work in this area. Maybe
you could talk to that point as well.
Colonel Galui. Yes. Thank you, Ranking Member Blumenthal.
Check-In, as I've mentioned, is led by the Bush Institute, but
powered by the Veteran Wellness Alliance. And half of the
members of that alliance are clinical providers, the best in
the Nation that can deliver high quality mental and brain
healthcare for post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression,
substance abuse, military sexual trauma, and mild traumatic
brain injury.
The other half of the alliance are peer networks that
engage with veterans every day, whether it's through physical
activity, whether it's Student Veterans of America, as Mr. Lyon
is sitting here with us, whether that is serving in disaster
relief, these veterans that are together get connected to
Check-In, and get connected to mental healthcare.
The two constraints on Check-In preventing us from
realizing the vision, which is that Check-In becomes a front
door to mental and brain healthcare access, is clinical
capacity and awareness. And we have to balance increased
awareness with ensuring that we have clinical capacity funding.
And all of our clinical providers have their own pursuits for
fundraising and the Bush Institute helps them along that path.
Senator Blumenthal. If we're creating demand for mental
health services, you got to provide supply. I want to give a
thanks and a shout-out to the VSOs--Veterans Service
Organizations, all of them, whether it's Veterans of Foreign
Wars, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Vietnam
Veterans of America, Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans. I'm sure
I'm failing to cover some of them.
Chairman Moran. You're making a mistake Ranking Member you
need to----
[Laughter.]
Senator Blumenthal. Not the first mistake I've made, but
let the record reflect that the Chairman has interrupted me
before I could complete the full list and I could go on. But
let me just say we've heard concerns from them and from
advocates like yourself, that the VA is not effectively
carrying out their referral process to private groups.
By referring veterans from the VA to community partners,
trusted partners like the VSOs and yourselves, the VA can
ensure that veterans have access to the full range of resources
and support available, at least more access, maybe not full,
but the VA often fails to follow through to make sure veterans
actually connect and receive that support.
They're just handing veterans a business card or an email
address or a phone number, rather than directly ensuring that
veterans are physically and effectively connecting with the
community partners. And I wonder if any of you would wish to
comment on how the VA can improve its referral process to
better track the outcomes for veterans?
Mr. Hutchings. Thank you, Senator. I would love to comment
on this. And I think, organically and hopefully this could be a
future iteration of the Fox grant, of where you're investing in
community-based organizations to help fill gaps and to help
supplement support across VA modalities.
But that there also could be a digital infrastructure for
these referrals to occur, to have data standards tracking and
accountability. That's the big gap currently, is we can refer
veterans into the VA, the VA will receive those referrals, but
then we have no visibility on outputs or outcomes or service
delivery. We have trust in the VA, but we can't see that.
And in the same vein, the VA has no digital infrastructure
tool to refer to community-based organizations. And so very
much the solution is a business card written on a piece of
paper. And we would advocate and recommend for at least
piloting interoperability for bilateral interagency referrals
with great vetted validated community-based organizations out
there, sir.
Colonel Carson. Senator Blumenthal?
Senator Blumenthal. Colonel Carson.
Colonel Carson. If I may, we have research that proves that
when these things do happen in a coordinated way, the data
sharing that Mr. Hutchings recommended, it is more successful
outcome for the veteran, nonclinical as well as clinical
outcomes. And we'd be happy to provide that research so that we
can see less variability in how VA units around the country
interact with community service partners. We'd like to see some
standardization. Thanks.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. I want to offer my thanks
before we conclude, and I know the Chairman has a couple more
questions, but thank you very much for spending this time with
us. Much more important, thank you for all the great work that
you do.
I just want to make the point that the VA needs more
resources and so do your groups. Your groups deserve and need
support so you can better help our veterans. The furloughs and
firings and contract cancellations that we've seen at the VA
began before the shutdown. The shutdown should not be blamed.
It may have exacerbated problems, but we need to resolve, as a
nation, that we're not going to inflict pain or cause
unnecessary sacrifice from our veterans through the furloughs
and cuts and cancellations of contracts that we've seen
beginning before the shutdown.
And so, I know we live in a very challenging world. You are
coping with those challenges in a very courageous and strong
way. And I want to thank you.
Chairman Moran. Sir Blumenthal, thank you. I actually think
this has been a really good hearing. So, thank you for your
presentation. Thanks for your time.
Senator Blumenthal. I agree with that, Mr. Chairman. Thank
you.
Chairman Moran. No, you're welcome. And I don't know
exactly what I expected to come from this, but I am really
pleased with the amount of information that I've garnered and
the suggestions that at least come to my mind and some that
you've made directly about things that we could do to assist
the private organizations as they care for those who serve.
A couple of things that I'd highlight, Senator King did
this, but I would make this same point again, and you
highlighted for us the importance of the Department of Defense.
And while that's not our Committee's jurisdiction, so many
things that we try to accomplish on behalf of veterans is
determinative by whether or not the Department of Defense
fulfills its mission, its task, things that they're legally
required to do upon transition.
And too often failure to see that happen has a significant
consequence in so many ways. And so maybe we can figure out how
we work harder to get DoD to do more, while we also work to
make sure the Department of Veterans Affairs is doing its job.
I'm also appreciative of the highlighting of a topic that I
hadn't thought about coming up in this hearing, and that's the
consequences to military spouses. Again, that highlights for me
an issue that we ought to pay more attention to and figure out
how we solve some of those problems. I suppose we stereotype
too often, but I mean, a spouse is a male or a female, a man or
a woman, and both can suffer the consequences of the careers of
their service member and their family.
And the idea of how we recruit people to find employment, I
think we probably underemphasize finding ways to find
employment for the accompanying spouse. So, I appreciate that
being highlighted. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, but I
mean, in part, is that in the position that I occupy, that
Members of this Committee occupy, we meet people who have an
organization that's interested in caring for veterans and cares
for veterans across our states, across the country.
I don't know that a week goes by, but what somebody doesn't
tell me, this is my veterans' organization, this is what we're
doing, and I'm in a community in Kansas and somebody says this,
you need to come see what we've just started. Tell me if that's
true? Is there a proliferation of these organizations like
yours, I suppose, particularly on the local level? And is there
something significant about that happening that says that the
needs of veterans are not being fulfilled?
The alternative to that, I think, could be that there's
just people who really care about veterans and are looking for
ways to find their role in fulfilling that mission. Is there
something that we should know about the seemingly growth? Is
there a growth in organizations that you deal with and that you
see serve a veteran that has a meaning for me?
Colonel Galui. Chairman Moran, I thank you for that
question. And I mean, I attribute it to the entrepreneurial
spirit of Americans in wanting to do right by veterans,
regardless of what the Federal Government or state or local
government are doing. At the Bush Institute, we see a wide
variety of different veterans service organizations from the
large ones represented at this table, and have been at these
tables before, to neighborhood ones that are just trying to
find a way to make a difference.
I think of one just north of Dallas, that's a neighborhood
veterans' group that within their homeowners association found
a way to provide resources to veterans in their community. And
in Essex County, Massachusetts, I know that they're just
launching a fund for veterans in Essex County. So, these are
popping up, and I just think it's a good-natured Americans
doing the right thing and doing what they can.
Chairman Moran. So, we should feel good about this?
Colonel Galui. I think so. Yes, sir.
Chairman Moran. Great. You know, I think of one that even
in my own family's life, that was significant. And you know, as
I understand, the story started with a realtor in Georgia who
decided that World War II veterans in his community should be
able to see the memorial built in their honor. And look what's
transpired from an idea and one person in one community, to the
honor flights that we have today that are so meaningful for so
many veterans.
I'm interested in, maybe this is for you, Ms. O'Brien. I
think one, I want you to start Hiring Our Heroes in Kansas. You
listed some communities, cities, that this is growing, and I
want to be a participant in trying to accomplish at least the
mission of what Hiring Our Heroes is doing in my home state.
And I mentioned this in another hearing. I read an article
in--I still read newspapers. I read an article in a newspaper
at home about veterans from Fort Riley, actually service
members from Fort Riley soon to become veterans. The community
of Wichita and the aerospace aviation defense businesses that
are there, brought those soon to be veterans from Fort Riley to
Wichita to see what the opportunities were for employment. I
know for a fact the opportunities for those veterans are
significant.
Those opportunities exist, but we got to figure out how to
make the connection. And it's my understanding that that is
what Hiring Our Heroes do. And so, I would welcome any
suggestions of how we, as Members of Congress in our own
states, can be helpful to the process that the Chamber has
started. Anything I should know?
Ms. O'Brien. Thank you, Senator Moran for the question. I
am happy to tell you that we have a presence at Fort Riley. We
have a presence at Fort Leavenworth. We come through multiple
times a year. We have also--we also hosted an AI round table
for small businesses that are in construction and manufacturing
just several weeks ago. I believe Caroline, who used to be on
your staff, was unbelievably helpful to us in that as well.
I think what's important for anybody who wants to invest in
their states, there are several models that work extremely
well. The Senator referenced earlier INvets, right? INvets
travels with us. We go to over 50 installations around the
globe. We're in Germany, we're in UK, we're in the Hawaii,
we're in Asia. And so, they bring the jobs of the states with
them to service members who would not know otherwise that these
opportunities exist. So that's one unbelievably successful
model that we have seen work at the state level.
We work very hard to bring SkillBridge opportunities to
states, especially for service members that want to return home
to that state that they're from. And we are working diligently
in Kansas to provide those opportunities.
And then how we create opportunities for military spouses
at the community level. You know, we can't do what we do from a
national level without those community-based nonprofits that
allow us to meet people where they are. And so, they become
unbelievably important and we find them for us through our
local chambers of commerce.
Chairman Moran. Is there a way this goes back to lack of
information that I think that Senator Slotkin was talking
about? Is there a way to know veterans from a state, I mean,
that are--how does an organization in either Hiring Our Heroes
and what they do, how do you find the veterans to connect them
with their home states? Is that possible?
Ms. O'Brien. It is for us, because we get to them before
they transition. So, if they attend our events that are on
installations, or they opt into SkillBridge through us, we are
collecting their ZIP Code from their original home of record,
that is something that they share with us. And so, then we're
able to discern, you know, we know about a third stay, a third
return home to their states, and a third return.
Chairman Moran. Once they disperse, that opportunity is
gone?
Ms. O'Brien. Yep. And so, we can pull data and share data
and make educated decisions on where we think people may go,
based on their original home of record. And so, for us, the
best piece of what we do is that we're able to connect with
them before they transition.
I would also encourage people to really think about, and
I'm far removed now, how do we meet young service members and
military spouses where they are? And it's certainly not even on
email anymore. What are the digital platforms that they are
using to gather information? And it's not the digital platform
that I'm using, right? They are not on Facebook, right? They
have evolved and it's changing almost yearly.
And so, we have to figure out, we get great results if
we're texting folks, nobody's looking at their email. There are
wonderful ways in different platforms digitally that exist
through social media. I am not our social media manager, for
good reason. But it has been an evolution that we've had to
learn to embrace, or we're going to miss out on the opportunity
to connect.
Chairman Moran. You've caused me to rephrase the question I
was going to ask the panel, which comes a bit from Senator
Slotkin. So, what should I be putting on my website that would
be able to be helpful to educating those about the
opportunities? And the answer, I should change my question now.
What in my social media platforms would be effective, what I
should say and what mediums I should use to connect with those
who are leaving military service and connecting with an
organization to help meet their needs?
Ms. O'Brien. Yes. we're doing a deep dive now to determine
which platform we should be moving our messaging to, based on
the fact that we are sharing economic opportunity, right.
LinkedIn has been a wonderful platform for us, but I think it's
dependent upon the message that you're trying to share. If you
are just trying to connect at scale with veterans, it's
probably going to be a different platform than LinkedIn for
what we're doing.
Mr. Lyon. Mr. Chairman, could I just add to--sorry, back
over here. So, one of the things that's beautiful about folks
that enlist our commission into the Armed Forces is, they come
from states. And so, what we know from our data is for non-
retiring transitioning service members, 80 percent of them are
returning home to where they came from or where their spouse is
from.
And so, one of the things you could put on your website, or
perhaps even better, is, you know, just literally working with
the young Kansans who are leaving Kansas for active-duty
service because they're boomerangs. They're coming right back
to Kansas within six years. And so, if you have the----
Chairman Moran. Oh, so you're telling me I'm late, like
you're there's an opportunity to do something much earlier?
Mr. Lyon. Yes, but you absolutely can. I mean, the big time
for enlistments will tend to be toward the summer times, but
not exclusively. Boot camps don't discriminate as to what time
of year you're there. Harder in the warmer months just from
speaking from personal experience. But when you look at the
young folks that are coming into uniform service from Kansas,
the instinct is to go to the bases there and talk to folks, and
that works. It's good. That's happening.
What I see happening less in states across the country is
actually working with those that are going into the Armed
Forces, making sure that they're aware of what's in Kansas for
them when they come back home. Because we make the assumption
that if they're leaving Kansas, they're never coming back.
They're coming back. And when they do, you can be there to
better meet them and support them.
Chairman Moran. Mr. Lyon, let me take that one step
further. So, what should I know about Student Veterans of
America and how do we connect with those who are already
students in our states?
Mr. Lyon. Yes, I mean, you know, if you want to figure out
where basketball was invented for the coach over here, there
are some good places in Kansas to go and do that. But when you
look at transitioning service members, and I'm going to define
the non-retiree population, just to segment the population
enough to have your niche. That portion of the population, 74
percent of them are going to be in a college classroom within
18 months of taking the uniform off.
IVMF's data tells us that since 2011, the most common
reason for an enlistment in the Armed Forces is the opportunity
for an education, post-military service. And so, one of the
things that we can look at in Kansas or otherwise, is that the
majority of that transitioning force that is going to pursue
education will do so through community college. But the
majority of those that attend community college won't access
their GI Bill.
They'll be there for on average three semesters, preserving
their GI Bill to where college is more expensive. That's their
undergraduate experience and graduate experience.
And so, by finding a way to have better identifiers, this
is again, data. I'm a one trick pony. But having that ability
at the community college level in Kansas to have an identifier
beyond, is this student using GI Bill? Are they a veteran? Or
asking the question more broadly, did you ever serve in the
Armed Forces? That way you'll know where they are at community
college and you can better help them as they look to
matriculate into four-year programs and graduate programs.
Chairman Moran. I assume there is statistical evidence that
hiring a veteran has great benefit. Is that true?
Mr. Lyon. Massive, sir.
Chairman Moran. Anything you want to put statistically in
front of me that we ought to brag about?
Mr. Lyon. So, LinkedIn's data is phenomenal in this,
veterans without any access to education training or anything.
When they separate from the Armed Forces, they already possess
nine out of the 10 most desirable skills. I didn't say
credentials, skills that today's employers are looking for.
Chairman Moran. Okay. We talked about, Senator Blumenthal,
I'm about done. I go last mostly so that no one has to stay if
they don't want to. We were talking about the Fox grants. I'd
compliment Senator Boozman, at least as I recall, that was a
legislation that he introduced that was then included in the
Scott Hannon Act that I think this Committee is very proud of.
I've introduced legislation, the Hope for Heroes Act, that
would reauthorize the program for five years, and the bill
would increase the grant amounts to $1 million. This bill
passed this Committee unanimously in July. And so, we have a
legislative item that would be of interest to you and we'd
welcome your support among our colleagues.
And that program is not currently active as I think we were
talking about because of the shutdown. But that it's the first
time, as I understood, back in the day in which we did this,
that the VA became a grantor agency. In my view, they were slow
to implement, but it was one of those things that I thought we
were doing that had great potential. And I hope to see the
continued use and fruition and benefit that comes from that.
Senator Blumenthal, did I take up more time that you want
to respond or Senator King, you're good. Oh, no, I shouldn't
have said that.
[Laughter.]
Chairman Moran. I thought they'd both say no.
Senator King. You all now know what the filibuster is?
[Laughter.]
Chairman Moran. I'm supportive of the filibuster.
[Laughter.]
Senator Blumenthal. That's good to hear.
Senator King. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Blumenthal. I'm all set. My thanks to the
witnesses.
Chairman Moran. Alright. Let me do one thing that may
prolong the meeting. It did the last time, it doesn't need to,
but is there anyone who wants to make certain that something
that needed to be said that wasn't said, wants to say it? Oh,
Mr. Hutchings.
Mr. Hutchings. Yes, Mr. Chairman, just one point that you
were asking the panel of, what should I be informing veterans
returning to my home state? What should I put on social media
or my website? I think one of the things to look at, especially
to Mr. Lyon's point, about 80 percent returning back to the
state that they come from or where their spouse is from.
It's looking at the state agency level from a secretary and
commissioner of your either department of Veteran Affairs,
department of Veteran Services, what systems in place. That's
what we very typically see in states, is people returning their
communities and very quickly connecting with those state
agencies for local support.
We've done an analysis of all 50 states and over 95 percent
have no digital infrastructure or service delivery mechanism.
It's a website with signposting and a directory which becomes
outdated. There is no continuum of care, no closed loop
process.
So, looking internally at that state system of support,
whether you could recommend that, or provide a little nudge to
get the state moving forward would be something I would
recommend sir.
Chairman Moran. That's a really good suggestion, thank you.
Mr. Galui.
Colonel Galui. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Not to prolong too much
longer or complicate our challenges before us, I have two
comments. One, as we think about taking care of today's
veterans and improving the transition experience for currently
serving members, I just also encourage us to think about the
12- and 14-year-old kids, who today don't know that maybe in 15
or 20 years, they themselves will be veterans of whatever is
ahead. So, our work is doubly or triply important on that
front.
The second comment I'll make in terms of how do we reach
veterans, specifically what social media platforms we might
think about today and into the future. We've learned at the
Bush Institute that our foreign adversaries are deeply embedded
in some of our social media and are deliberately targeting
veterans to undermine trust in the delivery of care.
And so, as we kind of progress through this evolution of
our own transition and how we reach people in the digital
space, just recognizing that there are those out there who want
to undermine our own way of life, that will make transition
that much more difficult.
Colonel Carson. Chairman Moran?
Chairman Moran. Yes, ma'am.
Colonel Carson. I would love to share a bit, as Members of
your Committee have said, technology is important, but
technology is not the solution. It does enable many of the
solutions that we proposed here. And I believe it was Senator
Slotkin who said that she wants a one stop shop. I'd recommend
instead, no wrong door. And that's what we can provide.
If you picture the different networks that Mr. Hutchings
has developed, and we are working with our communities of
practice and intend to do even more with the Veteran Employment
Collective. I'd say those might be patches of networks, but
they can be a quilt that are interconnected, so that there is
no wrong door.
And one of the things that the Committee can do with us is
build on what Mr. Lyon suggested. The data sharing among the
agencies and sharing where possible with VSOs so that we cannot
be reactive, we can be proactive in our solutions and have them
to be evidence-based and held accountable. We want that from
our services and we expect that from our agencies as well.
Chairman Moran. It's a very nice summary. Mr. Galui, I
would say that I always look in the audience when I'm speaking
to try to find someone who smiles and nods while I speak. You
brought two of yours with you. I've been able to see them both.
You have not. They were very supportive of your testimony and
answers.
Colonel Galui. I'm grateful for their support. Let the
record show that. Thanks.
Chairman Moran. We're going to bring this hearing to a
conclusion. A couple of magic words I need to say. Each Member
of the Committee has five legislative days in which to submit
statements or questions for the record. I ask any Senator who
would like to submit a question for the record to today's
witnesses to do so in a timely manner.
In other words, the Members of the Committee have an
opportunity to ask you in writing questions that we would want
you to respond to. And we want you to respond to those
questions for the record received in a timely manner as well.
And with that the Committee hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 6:11 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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