And that food be happy to invite any of you to come to our daily stand up that we do every morning we review the data and take action. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Schatz. Thank you mr. Chairman. I know va is working with dod so that the two can share servicemembers medical records electronically but progress as you know has been slow p. Gao cited the lack of progress is an issue and added va to its 2015 highrisk list. According to gao quote the two departments have engaged in a series of initiatives intended to achieve Electronic Health record interoperability but accomplishment of this goal has been continuously delayed and has yet to be realized. The ongoing lack of Electronic Health records interoperability limits of va clinicians ability to access records and so on. What kind of progress are you going to be making and when can we expect for you to be off of the gao highrisk list . First of all when i met with ahead of the gal isp put on that list. They run the largest Largest
Those reductions would have these effects. It would cut veterans medical care by 690 million. It would eliminate the funding for four Major Construction projects. This would reduce the va ability to provide additional Outpatient Services and will impact the following projects. The planned rehab therapy building in st. Louis missouri. The initial phase of the alameda california outpatient clinic, construction of the longsought after french california communitybased outpatient clinic. The replacement 155 bed Community Living center in. Center in. , maryland and would eliminate funding for cemetery Expansion Projects in st. Louis portland riverside, bayer month, and pensacola and a new column in alameda at reducing our ability to provide burial honors for as many as 18,000 veterans and eligible family members annually. The impact of these tested veterans care and benefits is unacceptable to me and i no it is unacceptable to members of congress. Chairman, Ranking Member members of the comm
This forum on u. S. Customs and Border Protection. And this event is being broadcast live by cspan. And as many of you may know customs and Border Protection is the largest federal Law Enforcement agency and also it provides the second largest revenue collecting source for the federal government. On a typical day, cbp seizes over 10,000 pounds of drugs, 650,000 dollars in undeclared or illicit currency, and 3. 4 million of products with intellectual property right violations. So needless to say this agency is working very hard to safeguard americas borders while also enhancing legitimate trade and commerce. Our feature speaker today is commissioner gil kerlikowske. Hes going to discuss his insights from his first year of leading this agency. Hes also going to look at some of the highlights in terms of his vision for moving forward. The agency has put out a new vision and strategy 2020 document that lays out what the agency would like to do in the future. The commissioner was nominated
Screeria nigeria. Eric can for and health and human secretary kathleen sebelius. Whistle blowers from the Veterans Department spoke about retaliation used against them for reporting wrongdoing. Employees told members of the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee that they faced demotions and public embarrassment for their actions. U. S. Special counsel carolyn learner was also a witness and spoke about the number of whistleblower protection claims. This hearing is two hours. Good afternoon. I would like to ask unanimous consent that the admiral seeing no objection additionally i would like to ask unanimous consent that three statements be entered into the hearing record two from whistleblowers. Hearing no objection, so order. The hearing will focus on the department of defense im sorry. Within the department of Veterans Affairs particularly, the types and levels of retaliation that they experienced when reporting problems. It will serve as a follow up to the hearing conducted by the commi
Undocumented workers serves to suppress wages overall. Fp there are people who can be hired and are potentially exploitable because theres the employers can hold it over their head the fact they could deport them or report them. That suppressed wages for everyone. Theres sort of two sides to the issue. When we dwet to the level of unemployment thats closer to full employment andy gave the examples of looking for workers. Theres a demand for workers then more people will be em ploiped. The challenge we face now while we see this sort of displacement at the local level is theres still a lot of slack in the labor market. Tell us who you are. Give us your name. In your comments you said you work better in the physical element. We have three major disruptions in our economy. The deep recession which i call Great Recession and the second vegs of 2008. Theres a singularity between all three of those. That is we had major tax reductions both in Capital Gains and the highest rate employment wen