Good morning. The committee has come to order. One thing, i want to thank the witnesses for your testimony. Those appearing in person, traveling to d. C. To give it orally, and, also, answer our questions. The title of this hearing now is, i guess, examining the u. S. Approach to early covid19 treatments. I thought it was i originally set out a title of early treatments for covid, a essential component of a covid solution. It was inevitable that the coronavirus pandemic to be politicized into the tragedy it was. From the start, i knew it was impossible to have a perfect response. We were facing a new virus. No one wanted to underreact, and as a result i feared the tendency would be overreact. The challenges facing us were daunting. Our National Strategic stockpile had been reduced during the h1n 1 pandemic. It took time to develop a test. The fact that a large percentage of people that become infected exhibit no symptoms made the coronavirus even more difficult to detect and contain. I
Of your words and you can pause when answering questions so that we capture your complete response. Thank you very much and ms. Barnes, youre now recognized for five minutes. Ms. Bans, yrnes, you may have t unmute. I think were having trouble hearing you. Proceed, ms. Barnes. I think you just unmuted. Okay. Chairman pappas, chairwoman brownley, Ranking Member bergman, chairman takano, members of the subcommittee and task force, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss gaos work for Sexual Harassment at the department of veteran affairs. I will talk about statements from my june report released last week. The protection board estimated that 22 of va employees experience some form of Sexual Harassment in the workplace. Va has several methods to address such Sexual Harassment complaints. But we found that the agency was falling short in a number of areas. Including one, its complaint structure, collection of incidents on Sexual Harassment and actions taken, and, three, provision in
Color, irrespective of party affiliation. We are one america. And lets try to act that way. And i close this briefing. Thank you. As that herring comes to a close, lawmakers discussing how the Veterans Affairs department, this is a live hearing getting under way now on cspan 3. If covid19 turned into a pandemic and portions of the United States Health Care System broke down the va may need to come back and ask for additional funds and since then congress has appropriated 17. 2 billion for vhas covid19 Pandemic Response and i was glad to help advocate for that funding. Now im not sure that many of us here on the dais know what to expect during that february hearing nor did we fully grasp the enormity of the Public Health challenges americans would soon face from the pandemic. This is largely because the administration failed to recognize these risks and communicate them to the American Public in advance of the crisis. Here we are a little more than three months later and exactly 90 days
Good afternoon. I call this meeting, i called the string to order. Without objection that shares authorized to declare recess at any time. We have a number of numbers participating remotely. Welcome. Before we proceed i like to go over some items for our members participating remotely. First, if you are having or expensing connectivity issues, please make sure you or your staff contact our designated Technical Support so those issues can be resolved immediately. Members participate in remotely must continue to use the video function for the duration of their participation in the hearing unless they expand connectivity issues or other technical problems that render the member unable to participate, to fully participate on camera. It is at the committees, it is Committee Policy that members participating remotely will remain muted when not recognized, just like turning her microphone on or off during an in person hearing. This is at a courtesy to all members on the committee and so that
Recounts his time as secretary of the Veterinary Affairs department. Ceo and afghanistan veterans of america, and after words has relevant hosts interviewing top authors about their work and after words are also available to listen to as podcasts. Dr. Shulkin, thank you for being with us today. Its an honor to have you here. I think the va is an important subject to talk about and i think its one of the areas of our government that a lot of people hear about, but dont necessarily know many of the details, frankly in the veteran community, i think a lot of us that dont understand the breadth and the depth of what the va does. Im excite today talk about the va in general and certainly about your book and about your time in the administration. If youd like, id love to begin by sort of what brought you to the va. You were successful in the civilian career and a lot of times making a transition from the civilian world into the government world can be a bit jarring. What drove you to want to