The way advanced appropriations work. I support that and the frustration i have here is the billion dollars we spent. Last year about this time chairman remembers this very well, where we couldnt have an integrated Electronic Health record where the va and dod we flushed a billion dollars and still cant make it work. Thats something that i think this is my sixth year here. I cannot understand in todays technology why a veteran Service Member cant lead and electronically transfer their record. It hasnt been explained to me. It is coming down. I salute the secretary on that. He has a real commitment to that. The two things that i really am passionate about are Homeless Veterans. I think its heartbreaking when you see a veteran sleeping under a bridge that honorably served this country. We had the hud vouchers and that has come down. I salute general shinseki for that. Thats one of our problems at home. Weve got to work on a place to house Homeless Veterans and people to go ahead and get
Request i want to thank you, mr. Chairman, for allowing me to ask that question in case i have to leave. Thank you. Senator heller. Thank you for your testimony and everybody thats here today. Its good to see you here. At 4 30 this afternoon i have the secretary coming into my office and im going to ask him a lot of questions. Im going to ask him obviously about the veterans backlog issue and progress if any are being made. The issue of lack of communication between my office and reno will be another question that im going to ask and hopefully get a good answer for. But there are other questions that you might think that i should ask him. Are there any questions, if you were talking to the secretary today, what question would that be, and im going to take notes and this is your chance to advocate. I wouldnt presume, sir, to tell you what to ask the secretary, although the secretary is an Airborne Ranger like me, so he is my friend. He has told me that he will reduce the backlog by 2015
Get a fully develop the claim . I would make just a general comment before i turn this over to my staff. We believe that the reduction of the backlog is a combination of a claim process and dbqs and then also accountability thats passed onto the review officers. We think those three things are exactly the types of answers to not only reduce the claims but to a manageable level but then reduce the backlog entirely. Let me if i can ask a followup question, i know they work hard to encourage veterans be served to file as complete a claim as possible, but i also recognize they need options to file any way they want. Whether that is on that forum or perhaps on paper. Is that accurate and can you explain why its important that veterans still have the option to file a claim any way they want . Ill defer that to the staff. Its important that veterans still have the opportunity to file a claim, paper on the standard or regular form. Currently they can take that regular piece of paper or as many
We all know that states have been busy and it is a trend that starts in colorado and was made notorious in 2007 and in 2011, the Supreme Court upheld the legality. It allowed some or all employers to be involved. Studies done over time have shown the race has steadily gone down. One element which has not actually kept pace. Despite these weaknesses, one has to say it has left the station and those who thought the pilot programs would result in us, i think that speculation is over. We verified the remains as a part of the legal system. The only issue is at what level does it become mandatory and how do we improve that in the system. The Obama Administration works from targeting unauthorized individuals to targeting employers since january of 2009, there are more than 8000 employers. It imposed about 88 million and a very significant departure from the past. There has been an increased effort in the labor enforcement we all know that it is all part of our enforcement system. Therefore th
Stephanie has been active in democratic circles. She was the National Director for howard deans 24 2004 election. She helped to unseat an 18 year republican incumbent. Stephanie also managed the campaign of senator frank and i and minnesota. She defeated norm coleman, correct . She is a graduate of cspan. O [indiscernible] university in minnesota. She has a lot to say and then we will field questions from all of you. Thank you, stephanie. Thank you all so much for coming out. Good morning. Again, my name is stephanie schriock, president of emilys list. As mentioned, i grew up in butte, montana, where my heart and soul still reside. Special thanks to the National Press club for setting the solemn. It really is an honor for me to be here today. For those of you who do not know as much about emilys list, emilys list has been around for 27 years. We are solely committed to electing prochoice Democratic Women to office up and down the ballot across the country. As mentioned, we had a good e