American political rhetoric and history waits to judge us, guide our lawmakers. Lord, make this Upper Chamber of the legislative branch a truly deliberative body. Learning from the lessons of history, may our senators strive to defend our constitution against all foreign and domestic enemies. Grant that this defense will involve looking before leaping. May our senators make decisions that will not seem foolish in the cool light of retro specks. Arise, oh lord, remind the nations that they are merely human. We pray in your sovereign name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell both parties have long agreed that no child left behind is broken and needs to be fixed. The house
Continuing to review the document and make sure that weve got it correct. The fact that it went to the Department Without the statement its a process until the last day that we sign a final report. It came up in the reason you dont put draft report out because they are subject to interpretation and they are not final and shortly after the draft came up here it was reported in the press but heres proof that somebody in the va changed it. That is not proof that just means you dont understand the process and i can show six days before the initial draft is released we were having discussions internally that if we dont declare that delay was the cause of death, we need to say so. It took a couple more drafts before it was concluded that on may 14 in the hearing where the original 17 names that we received came up i was asked if we had a chance to review those. It doesnt demonstrate the causality in a persons death. That is three and a half months before this final report. So there should ha
Scope a future project to go out and verify that, in fact, everything is working according to the plan. Do not want to make recommendations that just sit on the shelf. No. We follow up on a quarterly basis. I share your enthusiasm for the new secretary, and i believe he is committed to both changing the attitude of the va and making these specific reforms. Do you think the bill that we just passed, the compromise bill, will be useful in addressing some of these 24 recommendations . Im afraid im not totally versed on the bill. I know there have been a number of legislative changes made in order to assist the department in accomplishing their mission. But id like to take that for the record if i may. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Members, we do need to pause. I apologize to the witnesses. We think it may be about 30 minutes for us to go and do that. Well give you a heads up when were going to start back. And this hearing is in recess un
[inaudible conversations] good afternoon. This hearing will come to order. I think everybody for attending this hearing which we will examine the oig report on the phoenix issue. I would also like to ask unanimous consent, he is not here yet but that our colleagues David Schweikert from arizona be allowed to join us here to address this issue. Without objection, so ordered. Also members we do have a series of votes that will start at 1 00. I apologize for that. This hearing was moved from its original schedule time because of the joint session of congress to hear the president of the ukraine. What we will do is immediately after the final vote move back as quickly as you can. We will resume the hearing as quickly as we possibly can so that we will not keep the witnesses waiting any longer than absolutely necessary. On the 26th of august, the va office of Inspector General released its final report of the Phoenix Va Health Care system which defaulted to National Attention after hearing
Our findings and conclusions in no way reflect the rights of a veteran, or his or her family, from filing a complaint under the federal tort claims act with va. Decisions regarding vas potential liability in these matters lies with the va, the department of justice, the judicial system, under the federal tort claims act. In december, 2013. While i have views on many aspects of what has come to be known as the scandal i would like to use this statement to comment on the downplaying and frankly inadequacy of the Inspector Generals Office that continues in the report issued august 26, 2014 that i fear is designed to minimize the scandal and protect its perpetrators rather than to provide the truth to the veterans and families that have been affected by it. All the employees receive training on their duty to report waste, fraud and abuse to the Inspector General whose job it is to investigate these allegations. I did this in february, 2011 that resulted in the indirect debate director plac