Department services and programs. A panel of experts follows talking about how the va can modernize. The American Enterprise institute hosts the hour and 40 minute event. Lets try to get started here. Good morning. Welcome to aei and welcome to our program today. The value of our veterans, our conversation with representatives, mike levin and brad. Im gary smith, im a senior scholar here as strategic studies and im director of aeis program on american citizenship. I am going to skip a set of introductions since we will be talking the next two hours. So those joining us here in joining online or watching on cspan, if you want lengthier bios go to the website and go to the link for the page and you will see everybodys biographies. That may begin by giving a quick overview of the proceedings. We will first hear from representative mike levin, the recent elected congressman from californias 49th district, a district that runs along san diego to southern Orange County and quite frankly i ha
You have children being treated inhumanely, women, pregnant women, the elderly, vulnerable populations being treated like they are subhuman. You have an overfilled concrete where theyold floors are piled on top of each other. Children soil themselves without diapers. Mucus and vomit on their shirts. Inadequate amount of food. They are given burritos that are still frozen. Seeing one bathroom for 400 people. You are seeing open toilets where the women have to stand and guard their body around another young woman to use the toilet. It is so subhuman, these conditions. I am aground is that boardcertified emergency physician. , have done flight medicine medical command in the city of pittsburgh during my training. I am also an expert in public humanitarianained at harvard with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative as well andraining with the icrc responded after the Haiti Earthquake became medical director of the largest internally internal camp right after the Haiti Earthquake. What i saw a
Welcome to aei and welcome to our program today. The value of our veterans, our conversation with representatives, mike levin and brad. Im gary smith, im a senior scholar here as strategic studies and im director of aeis program on american citizenship. I am going to skip a set of introductions since we will be talking the next two hours. So those joining us here in joining online or watching on cspan, if you want lengthier bios go to the website and go to the link for the page and you will see everybodys biographies. That may begin by giving a quick overview of the proceedings. We will first hear from representative mike levin, the recent elected congressman from californias 49th district, a district that runs along san diego to southern Orange County and quite frankly i have a niece that lives out there, im not sure why he decided to move to d. C. , a patriotic act on his part. He is the chair of the subcommittee on Economic Opportunity with the house of Veterans Affairs committee. F
Unfortunately, we learned that the v. A. Is continuing to struggle with the culture of retaliation against whistleblowers. In too many instances leadership and supervisor turned a blind eye in those in v. A. Worker frs pointed out sowers problems or pointing out bad actors ace of using positions or breaking laws. Even worse the whistleblowers are targeted for active retaliation. One striking example dpram dr. Catherine mitchells testimony. In 2014 she was one of a group of people working at the Phoenix Medical Center to expose the secret waiting list of veterans in need of medical care. Instead of addressing the issue , the leadership actively worked to hide the exorbitant wait times. And it turned out such practices occurred at v. A. Facilities nationwide. The coverup was extensive and deliberate, and health and well the health and well being of veterans was put at risk. Congress responded to the allegations with hearings that confirmed the whistleblowers revelations of long and activ
Of what you can provide, and, there is a long way to go. I am concerned about those with disabilities who cannot meet the criteria. I mean, this would have a Chilling Effect on them, even seeking shelter. If they know they are not going to be accepted. If they know they cant do the care they have to, what happens . There has to be a whole population of people. I mean, there is a level of sophistication among people who are homeless. They know what they can access on what they cant access. It is a great question. It is something we also struggle with. Ive artie mentioned that we try to work with our other city departments because our department is not funded with any sort of board care, partial new nursing care and so on and so forth. We try to communicate smoothly with them. Another factor is, as you know, disabilities are very wide ranging and our shelters are basically congregate settings. There are people who cannot handle a congregate setting. There we have some solutions because o