The committee on health education, labor and pensions will please come to order. First, the usual administrative matters like the theater announcements we use to receive, we are getting used to those, we follow the advice of the attending physician and sergeantatarms consulted with all the right people, we are seated 6 feet apart, that means no room for public or the media here but the media is participating and we hope the public is as well. And the videoconference is a real change for the United States senate and a very welcome one because it makes it possible to attract witnesses who have busy schedules on the same day such as today, by video conference, you may remove your masks since were 6 feet apart. The sergeant at arms, press gallery, architect of the capital, capital police, committee staff, Evan Griffiths for their hard work to keep us safe. We will each have an Opening Statement and we turn to our witnesses we thank for being with us today, each witness we ask you summarize
Www. Health. Senate. Gov is our website. I think it makes it possible for us to be table to attract witnesses who have very busy schedules on the same day such as today. Some senators are participating by videoconference. Senators may remove their masks since were 6 feet apart. Im grateful to the rules committee, the sarge want at arms, the press gallery, the capitol police, our Committee Staff for all their hard work to help keep us safe. Senator murray and i will each have an opening statement, and then well turn to our witnesses who we thank very much for being with us today. Each witness we would ask that you summarize your remarks in five minutes, which will allow more time for the large number of senators who we expect to participate to present their testimony. Well have one round of questions for a five minute round. Less than four months ago on march 1st the coronavirus situation was about this. At the end of february there were 79,000 cases around the world, only 14 in the Uni
45 minutes. Chairman tester i am going i want to thank secretary mcdonough and her friends and partners for joining us today. For those of you joining us on television, you will hear a great opening and questioning of the secretary of the v. A. We have three people who were going to do a combined statement , which will be particularly entertaining. So we have something to look forward to. Chairman tester we do. We are here to take a closer look to the president s 2024 budget request for the department of Veterans Affairs. We have to ensure the department is wellequipped to care for our veterans. The v. A. Completed more than 1. 7 million disability claims. They served over 6. 3 million veteran patients, more than 150 million employments. Demand is only increasing. This law created a fund to cover the new cost of delivering. I have serious concerns to got the fund. Gut the fund. It is all bad news. We send people off to war, we put it on the credit card. They come back and we make excus
Live here on cspan three in the Senate Veteran Affairs Meeting testifying on the president s 2024 request for his department. May join this meeting live in progress. I visited there, as you have, as your staff had, you do the right thing. We want to keep working with you. I want to talk about the pact act a little bit. Do you have numbers, up to date numbers of how many veterans are taking advantage of it . I like to say when i do these round tables that this is government and right. This bill passed if, i remember, of august 2022. By january you had it up and running. Hundreds of thousands of veterans were getting care. That is exactly the way governments should run. All of us are proud to be part of that. Do you have an eye to the number of how many people have been served . Yes. Thank you very much. As of may 6th, 251,584 total veterans or survivors have had completed pact act relating claims. We are granting at about 80 . That is the beauty of the presumption we are able to grant a
The command. Forces, the armed forces are incompetent, they used to be given discounts for nothing, but today its just a horror, its being delivered again, chinese lowquality crap is in place, not only tourniquets, entire firstaid kits, despite the fact that effective means are recommended by international organizations, there are tens of thousands of them in warehouses. You and i talked about this one story more than once, and we talked about the fact that there should be some kind of reaction, is there one, what from your observations is happening now . Yes, it is difficult to say, to discuss, of course on the day of the holiday, when everyone congratulates our defenders, but the best greeting is caring for our defenders, this is the best greeting, and the situation with firstaid kits and its turnstiles, well , i think that it already needs own intervention of commanderinchief zaluzhnyi, because this is his command of the medical forces, these are his subordinates, ostashchenka is hi