The committee on health, education, labor and pensions will come to order. Senator murray has an important meeting right now and she has asked me to proceed with the hearing because we have six excellent witnesses and we want to make sure that we hear from each of you, and we want the senators to have a chance to ask questions of each of you. So patty should arrive about 10 00. When she comes, why, well interrupt and let her make her Opening Statement and then we will resume the hearing. Good morning, senator murphy. Nearly a year ago dr. Brent james from the National Academies testified before our Senate Health committee with a startling statistic. Up to onehalf of what the American People spend on Health Care May be unnecessary. Let me repeat that. Up to half of the 3. 5 trillion the United States collectively spent on health care in 2017 was unnecessary according to dr. James, and many of the other witnesses at our hearings agreed with that. Thats 1. 8 trillion, three times as much
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
And now Veterans Affairs secretary Denis Mcdonough testifies before the senate Veterans Affairs committee on president bidens 2024 budget request for the agency. He weighed in on the camp lejeune water contamination suits, the agencys claims process and womens healthcare. There was also testimony from the heads of various veterans groups. This is just over an hour and 45 minutes. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] i am going to call this hearing to order. We are little bit ahead. I want to thank Denis Mcdonough and our 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 va and what is interesting is we have three folks who are going to do a combined statement which will be particularly entertaining, i think. Something to look forward to. We are here to take a closer look at the president s fiscal year 24 budget request from the department of
Hour and 25 minutes. Good morning. This hearing of the military Construction Veterans Affairs and related agencies subcommittee will please come to order. I would like to begin by welcoming Ranking Member bozeman and denis mcdonough. We appreciate the effort of the v. A. s dedicated staff to provide benefits and support to veterans and families and their communities every day. We are here to discuss the department of Veterans Affairs fiscal year 2025 budget and 2026 advanced appropriations request. This committee take seriously the obligation to make sure and provide for the men and women who have fought and sacrificed to keep our country safe and ensure they have the medical care and benefits have earned. Over 210 billion and the discretionary probation of 120 9 billion in fy 25. The v. A. Has access to 24 billion from the Toxic Exposure Fund. These resources are extremely important in providing funding to carry out the expansion of medical care and benefits of the pact act. Without t