Come to the conclusion that whistleblowers have made allegations that were not based on fact, and you can do that pretty expeditiously, it seems to me. And you cant do as expeditious an investigation when it comes to holding a retaliator against a whistleblower accountable. Because guess what, the numbers support what im saying. You can give whatever explanation you want. But im telling you right now, the level of disrespect that you are showing to the veterans, who by the way, if and we know allegations are true in terms of treatment, mistreatment of patients, the lists, the laundry lists of stuff that is going on. Everyone knows that its there. Youre telling me youre spending all this time to try to hold someone accountable. Forget about whats happening about actually fixing the problem where veterans are not getting the services that they need. That is another disturbing thing to me. Thats almost an afterthought to you. So i cant hear an explanation that includes some kind of, with
Muchneeded reforms for this program that last year supported almost 11 million americans with 137 billion of american taxpayer money. I have closed with one remark. If you work somewhere in the federal government today, i would hope if youre seeing fraud, if youre seeing manipulation, if youre seeing things that are not right, that you will follow the lead of these four courageous women in bringing it to the attention of senator levins subcommittee, permanent subcommittee on investigations or my office. With that, senator carper, i thank you. Thank you so much. Im going to go out of order to ask senator levin who chairs the subcommittee under which this investigation has taken place and ask him just to make a statement. I will make a short statement after that. Then well turn to our witnesses. Senator levin . Thank you very much, senator carper and first let me commend senator coburn for his leadership and his and his staffs hard work in uncovering the abuses that are the subject of to
Rather than say yes or no to specific, to even show sanctions, i would just give you one perspective. To my left eye the guy who knows iran far better than i. To my right eye of someone who knows the nuclear account far better than i. What can i contribute to this . What i would suggest is first i know a little bit about dealing with the Foreign Government as i spent 40 years doing it. And last i know a lot about military engagements because ive been involved in a lot of them. What i would say is figuring out your position, remember that there are many other factors besides the United States and iran in this thing. We rely on other countries to accommodate us by carrying out the sanctions. Theyre the ones who cut imports of oil, not we. We put penalties on them if they do, but they have to decide going along with us and uploading the penalties is more important than bringing in the oil and such. And under certain circumstances, depending on what the sanctions are, they may or may not a
Quarter of a million times already. Nobody wants to be a burden. I think thats so at any age. Dr. Baldwin . One of the innovations i want to bring forward is something that weve been charged with at cdc. That is to think about the connection between clinical medicine and Public Health. In early september, all the cdc leadership was sent a note saying, how can we improve prevention in health care . He outlined four specific areas that i think crosswalk nicely with transportation. The first was to reduce practice variability. An opportunity in this space is as we get better and better about understanding driver fitness and how to evaluate it, reducing practice variability across Health Care Settings is going to be critically important. The secondary was engaging the entire health care team. So assisting with these screenings, understanding these transitions, engaging allied health, Occupational Therapists and others and importantly having those Professionals Connect with these transporta
You could just see the massive amount of numbers. After this investigation started, management was still pulling. Management was still pulling these cases out of the request states. At one point before, once they help them meet their monthly go, these decisions. They were waiting for them to come in the mail. They would bank fees for their own numerical purpose and hold them before sending them out the next month. There would be 50 cases all set favorable, on the record. Himould allow them to put where this is with the judge for writing. They had been written two weeks ago. All favorable sitting there for the next month. These are the individuals. That was a great overview. Thank you. People work inny the Social Security office in huntington . At one time i think we had about 60. At that office, maybe in the law office, other people had to know something was going on. Absolutely. Before of you have actually and areup shown courage here today. It sounds like you have been through a very