they change by going to our website. he's been.org/election grants >> see spanish or unfiltered view of government, funded by these television companies, and more. including comcast. >> you think this is just a committee center? no. it is more than that. comcast is partnering with the thousand community centers to create wi-fi so low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> comcast support c-span and public service, along with these television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> denis mcdonough talked about supporting veterans and the pact act. a new law for benefits for veterans who have been exposed to burn pits, asian horns and other substances. he spoke at an advance hosted by the national press club in washington dc. we are happy to accept your questions and will take as many as time permits. email [email protected] and put v.a. in the subject line. i would like to introduce our head table, thomas young, u.s. air force veteran novelist and commander of american legion post 20 the persian coast of the national press club. [applause] dr. lisa thomas, executive director human capital management national cemetery administration. [applause] max r, publisher of stars & stripes. aaron lee, phd executive director office of human veterans benefits administration. [applause] kelly kennedy, managing editor of the war worth. [applause] dennis mcdonough, we all know him, the secretary. [applause] tara cobb pentagon, the associated press. we have a kevin wincing, retired navy captain and the national press club member who coordinated today's speaker. [applause] and sue fulton, assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs u.s. department of veterans affairs. [applause] irene loewen's income a marine corps reporter for military times. [applause] jessica bongiorno, veterans health administration. ellen mitchell, defense reporter, the hill. [applause] michael phelps, vietnam u.s. navy veteran and board member of veterans in journalism. [applause] this my summer prison biden sign the pact act, i will provide disability for veterans suffering service related injuries and illness tied to a exposure and other pollutants while serving in the persian gulf and post-9/11 conflict. radiation exposure for those who served during the 1960's and 1970's among others. this new law prompted an unprecedented surge in disability claims. as military times boarded come the dashboard, -- reported, new claims. texas some struggling with 140,000 backlog claims. our guest today, dennis mcdonough, has promised to aggressively hire processors to handle the influx of claims, 20% increase over the number of claims filed this time last year. and has instituted an automatic system to cut processing times. the new provision means many more veterans will seek care of the v.a. medical facilities. where a shortage of medical practitioners lead to a long way for medical procedures. secretary mcdonough called hiring was a top priority and would have the v.a. look to pay he has institute edit -- instituted an automated processing system. more veterans will seek care at medicare -- v.a. medicare facilities, worry shortage has led to long waits and complaints. secretary mcdonough called hiring a top priority and said the v.a. would look to pay increases, recruitment bonuses, to attract the employment -- employees it needs, including 45,000 nurses. secretary mcdonough said he sees upholding promises to military veterans as a sacred obligation and notes many continue to struggle with the wounds of war. veteran suicide rates, although dropping, remain unacceptable, he says. we look forward to hearing more about hearing how the v.a. will address these challenges. please going been giving a warm, press club welcome to the honorable secretary dennis mcdonough. [applause] secretary mcdonough: good afternoon, everybody. thanks for that kind introduction and for leading this great, important organization. let me recognize the press club american legion post and commander tom young and other veterans service organizations here today. you are critical to helping us serve vets, caregivers, family members and survivors. in just a little bit as the sun starts setting over the vietnam war memorial mall, we will begin the solemn tradition of reading 58,281 names etched in those slabs of polished, black granite. among them, approximately 1500 still missing in action. on this 40th anniversary year of the memorial wall, i am honored to welcome home vietnam veteran corporal jan scruggs. [applause] jan agreed to stay only for that. [applause] he says he has work to do. on behalf of a grateful nation to jan and all vets, thank you for your courageous service, for opening hearts to vietnam vets' aerobic service, and for so well honoring your brothers and sisters in arms who died for this country, and for each other. words can never express the depth of our gratitude to each of you, our vets, for your courage, selflessness and sacrifices made by you and your families, but there is virtue in trying. and reminding everyone how these courageous men and women put their lives on the line for all of us, how much they gave, often there -last- their often their last -- -- often their last full measure of devotion. veterans' valor is a constant reminder of true loyalty, true courage. true patriotism. speaking of courage, it's all you courageous journalists here today, many of you have gone to battlefields, cities undersea, risking great danger to sell service members' feet -- service members' and veterans' stories. thank you for holding all of us accountable to all of the veterans. [applause] it is a privilege to be here as we prepare for veterans day. veterans day is a day to honor vets, to remember what they have done for our nation, and recognize that when those events serve and sacrifice, so do their families. there caregivers. the survivors. -- their caregivers. their -- veterans day is a call to duty to all of us to serve veterans as well as they served us, not just on veterans day, but every day. i want to talk about what we have done at v.a. over the past year to serve vets, as jen is just given us a short summary of, and what we will do next year to deliver for them. with the president's leadership, congress' support, the work of the eso owes and others, we are stepping up for vets. since president biden took office, we have delivered more care and more benefits to more veterans than any other time in our history. when it comes to benefits, vets have earned and deserve and we are processing their claims faster than ever before. v.a. processed 1.7 million veteran claims in fiscal year 2022, shattering the previous year record by 12%. we have gotten the claims backlog down to the lowest number in years, nearly 144 thousand claims as of this month. when it comes to honoring vets with lasting resting places that they earned and that they richly deserve, we are now providing almost 94% of deaths with access to burial sites within 75 miles up their home. that is possible the building -- possible by building and maintaining our one hundred 55 v.a. national cemeteries and funding construction and expansion of 121 state, territorial and tribal veteran cemeteries. we have expanded our online veteran legacy memorial row graham to 4.5 million vets, keeping veterans' stories alive long after they have gone. when it comes to providing world-class health care to veterans, study after study shows we are delivering better health care for veterans than the private sector, which is why 90% of the vets come to v.a. for outpatient care trust that care to be easy, effective and taste in respect for that veteran -- effective and based in respect for that veteran. when it comes to respect for veterans, president biden is leading the way. he challenged us to make veterans upward part of the unity agenda that rises above partisanship and politics and he is fighting for vets with that same kind of indomitable will and sheer determination that they bring to the battlefield. when it comes to our vets and families, he is unyielding. all that work adds up to the one statistic that will not are most -- veterans' lives saved, veterans' lives improved. there is nothing more important than that. we made this problem -- progress by challenging ourselves every day with three questions. first, are we putting the vets at the center of everything we do? that means making sure we meet vets where they are so they can access everything we have to offer. it means making v.a. easy for veterans to use, with tools like v.a. mobile apps that give vets access to their benefits right on their phones. it means making sure we are delivering for vets on time, every time, through initiatives like claims automation, cutting claims processing times from several months to several days. and as we approach the one-year anniversary of the untimely death of major ian fischbach, let me underscore the vital importance of this question -- putting vets at the center of all we do. every door at v.a. has to be a front door, with multiple touch points to all our services. that means, wherever a that is treated, a local hospital, a state hospital or at the federal level, that care has to be integrated. it has to be coordinated. especially when it comes to mental health care. that's and their families expect that. in fact, rightly demand it. and going forward with new tools we have in place and this intent, they will have that. the second question, are we improving outcomes for veterans with everything we do? that means timely access to world-class health care, earned benefits and lasting resting places that vets have earned, no matter what. because ultimately, vets will judge whether we are successful, not us. the third goes back to something president ivan charged v.a. with everything -- with the day i was sworn in. he said your job is simple, to care for vets, their families and survivors. that is our northstar. so we ask ourselves, are we fighting like hell for our vets? that is what we seek to do every day. let me give you examples. we are fighting like hell to maximize access to world-class health care for vets across america know vets have the best possible experience wherever they access v.a. health care -- in-home, the community or at the v.a.. for those vets any care at home, we are meeting them where they are, doubling down on tele appeals, telehealth and importantly, teleoncology. v.a. clinicians have now seen more than 9000 vets through tele the space oncology and we are expanding the stool to include clinical trials, meaning that rural vets are not getting opportunities previously and available to them for clinical trials. we are also supporting caregivers by expanding the program of comprehensive assistance, as we did last october 1, to cover all generations of that spirit and by changing the policies so that even more vets can access to that innovative programming. for vets getting caring the community, we are working to make their experiences timely and as seamless as possible, so they get the care they need wherever they live and when they need it. and for those getting care directly from v.a., we are going to modernize our facilities, because vets in the 21st century should not be forced to get care in buildings early in the 20th century. we need health -- we need a health care system with the right facilities in the right places to provide the right care for vets in every part of the community. every part of the country. the bottom line with access is the same as ever. vets who get their care at v.a. do better. our v.a. clinicians know vets and in many cases, those clinicians are vets, and there is nobody better at caring for vets than them. that is one reason why vets who come to v.a. emergency rooms by ambulance are 20% more likely to survive in the following days than those who are transported to private hospitals. so, if anybody's asking where vets should get their care, please send vets to us. we are going to get them the world-class care they have earned. next, we are fighting like hell to end veteran homelessness, a phrase that should not exist in our language. our focus is on two simple goals, getting vets into homes and preventing them from falling into homeless in the first place. we are making real progress. last year, i told you about two ambitious goals for last year, to address veteran homelessness in v.a. -- in l.a., where there are more homeless pets than anywhere in the u.s. the first goal was getting the roughly 40 homeless vets on homeless road to get a homeless encampment just outside our hospital into housing. the second was getting 500 vets in l.a. into housing by the end of the year. we not only accomplish those goals, we exceeded them and use that to demonstrate that if we can tackle this problem in l.a., we can tackle it anywhere. so, we have established yet another set of ambitious goals for this year. we will place 38,000 homeless veterans into permanent housing by the end of calendar 22. [applause] at the end of september, the moment for which we have the most comprehensive data, we had already housed nearly 31,000 vets, which is more than 80% of our goal even though we are only 75% of the year, putting us on track to house even more vets than we anticipated. and we are not letting up. we are driving hard on homelessness prevention by increasing housing supply, making existing housing more affordable and getting every veteran wraparound services they need to prevent homelessness in the first instance. last thursday, we released the 2022 point and time since his count. it shows the number of vets experiencing homelessness on a single night in january was 33,136. far too many, but an 11% decrease over january 2020, which was the last year a full pitch count was conducted. that is the biggest improvement in more than five years. so, we are not just taking our best shot at fighting veteran homelessness. with the help of partners like head, u.s. ich, vs owes, -- bso -- vso's and the v.a. front-line office, we are going to end homelessness. [applause] because no veteran should be homeless in the country they swore to defend. not now, not ever. third, we are fighting like hell to prevent veteran suicide. you saw v.a.'s most recent support of veteran suicides in 2020, the most current data we have. a couple things stand out from that report. more than 6000 veterans died by suicide that year. that is devastating. unacceptable. and it is why this work is so critical. but that report also reminds us that suicide prevention is possible, that there is hope. there were 343 fewer veteran suicides in 2020 dining 2019. -- in 2020 then he and 2019, the second year in a row we have seen a decrease. that is 343 vets alive today, getting a second chance at life. nothing matters more than that. so, we are building on that momentum. we are providing first-of-they're-kind grants to suicide prevention organizations and communities across the country. we are ramping up our lethal means safety efforts to prevent warning signs from turning to tragedy. we are continuing to offer telemental health sessions to vets who want them. we are making sure they get their mental health care exactly when they eat it and not a second later. and we rolled out 988, the new national suicide prevention hotline that is connecting vets quickly and directly with the veterans crisis line by, again, just dial 988 and then pressing one. because preventing veteran suicide is our top clinical priority, and we will stop at nothing to ensure that vets not only survive, but thrive. fourth, we are continuing to fight like hell to make sure all vets feel welcome and safe at every v.a., not some veterans, all veterans. we are doing that by helping noncitizen vets to stay in the united states, where they belong, and making sure that eligible deported vets have access to v.a. benefits that they earned. we are delivering care and benefits to those with other than honorable discharges. we are eliminating any racial disparities that exist at v.a. and setting up processes to prevent them in the future. we are making sure that lgbtq plus vets are supported, and well served across the v.a.. last month, we closed at the gap in benefits for surviving spouses of lgbtq plus vets, righting a wrong that is a legacy of the discriminatory federal ban on same-sex marriages. and we are getting women vets, our fastest growing contra of vets -- cadre of vets, the care that they deserve. [applause] i agree with that. a few weeks ago, i visited the military women's memorial for their 25th anniversary. etched in the class panes and the ceiling are powerful words of courageous women vets, words that the sun illuminates when the light hits the glass just right. none are more illuminating then the words of world war ii veteran lieutenant and bream, " let the generation -- anne bream, "let the generations know that our resolve was as great as the men who stood among us." at great -- a great friend of veterans, former secretary asked carter, was a great believer in doug rowland opened military roles to women, something women had already proved to they were surely capable of. he would be proud that women vets have been our fastest-growing cohort. we are very proud to serve them, but we haven't always done well by our women vets. so we are fighting like hell to serve them as well as they have served us. we have done that by taking important steps to make our health care facilities and programs safe, respectful and welcoming to women vets by providing women but coordinators he never really regional office to help them access benefits and provide assistance tailored to them. by having vba dedicate one team to each military sexual trauma claim so that we do not re- traumatized survivors -- re-traumatize survivors. and we sounded the alarm that abortion restrictions were creating a medical emergency for pregnant vets. that is what we made the patient safety decision to offer abortion counseling and in some cases, abortion services to pregnant veterans and eligible v.a. beneficiaries. because v.a., we don't serve some that's. -- some vets. we serve all vets. and for far too long, too many that who fought around the world to protect our rights, my rights, my freedoms, have had to fight brutal battles here at home for their own rights and freedoms. but at v.a., those fights are over in this administration -- and in this administration, no vet will have to fight for the benefits he has earned, she has earned, no matter who they are our w -- who they are or where they are from. and last, we are fighting for vets who have the -- who have been exposed to toxic threats. one of your own is leading the fight, veteran journalist kelly kennedy. [applause] about this time 14 years ago, kelly started the thankless task of holding people like me accountable when she published her first of dozens of articles on the casualties of burn pits. her work catalyzed a national conversation on burn pits, educated us on the effects of toxic exposure on the battlefield in stark terms we could no longer turn away from. she told painful stories of servicemembers deteriorating, dying, after exposure to poisons they breathe the when they were deployed. she introduced us to the norms dangerous -- to the enormous dangers of things we never thought about, like fine and super fine particulate matter. veterans may have been ingesting arsenic, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, benson -- benzene, formaldehyde, sulfuric acid. kelly told the human stories of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and families who are suffering, so we as a nation would not, could not forget. i imagine part of that was about being a good journalist. there is a lot of them in this room, guided by the spirits of greats like joe galloway and dickie chapelle, among others. and i imagine a lot of it was about compassion, deep devotion to service members and her fellow vets. nearly a decade and a half later, as a result of her work and certainly the hard work and heavy lifting, persistent voices of many, many others in this room, one of the biggest expansions of veterans benefits and history was signed into law by the benefits. it will deliver care and benefits to millions of toxic-exposed veterans and their survivors. with this new law, v.a. has recognized new presumptive's of service connection to more than 20 health related conditions to toxic exposure including exposures like agent orange, burn pits and more. we will bring generations of new vets into v.a. health care and increase the benefits of many more. that will result in better health outcomes across the board. we will deliver benefits to more survivors of vets who passed away from toxic exposure and will invest in our workforce and infrastructure to deliver those additional services, modernizing 31 more v.a. health care facilities. this is a great thing. and i don't think it would have happened, surely not now, without kelly's dogged pursuit of the truth, without our vso partners' dogged pursuit of the truth. that is what i mean when i say you all make v.a. better, telling stories that need to be told and holding us accountable to veterans and their survivors. like anything else of this magnitude, implementing this law won't be easy. that is why i have our chief human resource officers of each of the administrations with me today. they are going to recruit each of you. [laughter] we are counting on you for your help. to hold us accountable, yes, and especially to communicate to veterans and their family members what this bill means for them, what this law means for them and their families. this is what we want every veteran to know about the new law on toxic exposure. first, we want veterans and survivors of central command from 1991-2021, 30 years of work, to apply for the toxic exposure benefits right now. so far, veterans have filed nearly 137,000 claims under this new law. second, and i want to be very clear here because it is important, we made all conditions outlined in this new law presumptive to august 10, 2022, the date the bill was signed into law, rather than facing them in over years as the law anticipated. v.a. will begin pressing benefits claims filed under this new law january 1, the earliest date possible. and beginning tomorrow, we are offering enrolled veterans a new toxic exposure screening, an important step toward making sure all toxic-exposed vets get the care and benefits they deserve, even if they don't know today that they were exposed. because vets have waited too long already. third point, for vets who file a toxic-exposure related condition before the one-year anniversary of the signing, that is, for those who file before august 9, 2023, their claim and the benefit resulting therefrom will be retroactive to the date of signing, august 10, 2022. fourth, i am proud to announce for the first time today, national cancer awareness day, that we are expediting benefits delivery for veterans with cancer conditions covered by the law. this work is part of president biden's vision for the cancer moonshot, which will end cancer as we know it. and it is part of his broader efforts across government to do so. so fifth -- any veteran, family member or survivor can learn about this by visiting the v.a.. or by calling one 800 my v.a. 411. one 800 698 2411. that is what every vet needs to know about this log. your help in communicating it. every veteran gets the care they need an event -- benefits they deserve it we will not rest until they do. it will not be easy. were going to do it. to -- from toxic exposure to ending homelessness, that is where we are going. that is how we will fight for our families, caregivers, and survivors. let me say a final word to the vets. your honorable service sets the example for the rest of us. in this great country. in so many ways, you are the keepers of the national ethos did that sense of purpose you learned in serving your camaraderie, your sense of teamwork that make you stronger read together. and now, your communities. so unique in the country. looking around, that is exactly what we need, today. camaraderie. truth, togetherness. true service. dude -- true patriotism. it is something that all of us, each of us, can learn from. we all are stronger work together. when we are one. again, to all of our veterans watching, thank you for everything. to the press club, i think you for the delicious piece of fish. and for all that you do. holding us accountable to veterans and their families and caregivers and survivors. telling the story of a powerful way. can't bless each of you, and can't bless our service members, veterans, amylase, caregivers and survivors and i am ready for those easy questions. [applause] >> thank you for your remarks. can everyone hear me? ok. excellent. during your confirmation hearing, you said you wanted to restore trust between veterans and the v.a.. more than a year and a half and, do you think you are succeeding? how do you measure trust and already succeeding? >> a question. here's how we measure trust we use the v signal. it is a great innovation going back to bob mcdonald. this is what i mean when i said that facts will be the arbiters of whether we are successful when we do. the bottom line is that we are trending positively on trust. what is trust incorporating? you all know because you take the signal. let me remind you. timeliness. outcomes. effectiveness. and emotion. meaning, do you feel respected when you come in? in the aggregate, i feel quite good. did you hear that minnesota, i'm sorry. my kids are laughing at me right now. in the aggregate, we are doing pretty well. in particular, we have work to do. for example, the younger you are, the less you are to trust us. the more diverse you are, the less you are to trust us. the more female you are, the less you are to trust us, so that the signal tells us where we have to get better, what point, because i know you have another question, and this new law which allows us a new conversation with the most diverse, most ethnically and gender diverse force in the history of our country, it gives us another introduction, another opportunity for a new conversation, and we will make every opportunity of it. especially with those younger and diverse troopers we have spent fighting. >> you said your first priority was politics, and on every step, dealing with the interview workings of bureaucracy, if you had to go back to the drawing board on everything from electronic records to working from world war ii europe abilities to how to reimburse caregivers, congress has not confirmed the benefits, and now you are implementing a taxed act, which talks about a team of experts from in each entity to address challenges, and your push to restructure the process with a presumptive status for disability as well as your ownership of the decision, your executive board makes. do you think those changes have been effective, in spite of politics. >> is a good question. i hasten to add that we do not have a confirmed general counsel. i really hope the senate confirms her general counsel. i think i will answer this question like this. you can go to the v.a. because we now publish all of that data on trust. all of it is there. fact, we've been talking over the last month about asking a team to renting the data. are we asking the right questions, and may wall you might do that yourself, and see what you come back with. and i'm going to let that determine whether we have been successful the thing we have been successful at that is important, and will contribute to better outcomes, is we are much more transparent. now, as transparent as we should be, i don't know. you be the judge of that. but we are getting there. a monthly press conference, it never happened. regular actions, with our vss, my guess is, if you ask a lot of people in here, they would say ok. not perfect. but that transparency is by design. if you are seeing us is opaque, that is meant to be a bug and we will be called on it. >> how has the workforce change in the past year, and to follow up, they have said they have to hire 50,000 people a year in the coming years, but given the tightly port -- labor market, what is the v.a. doing to recruit employees? >> thank you so much. i made a quick reference to this, but having lisa and aaron and jessica appear with me, these are among our most important teammates. what is undoubtedly our biggest challenge. that is hiring. for the reasons you talked about, the market is tight. they're are not enough providers for anybody. mental health care providers, in particular. but, the v.a. is competitive. in an otherwise tight labor market. first and foremost, because of the mission. secondly, because of how we practice. meaning, we are not subject to some junior account manager at a global insurance company. we get to practice medicine in the interest of a veteran. that makes us competitive, but we have to do better. we have to do better on how we are on board, and in some places across the country, i am hearing him teammates that onboarding can take up to four months. that is too long. congress has given us new tools and last year, including in this new law for student loan repayment, for more competitive salaries, for better bonus structures, we have to make better use of that. then, we have to make a big piece of unfinished business with this, which is our health care provider, are specialists tapped out and an annual rate of $400,000. that sounds like a lot of money. truly, for a guy from stillwater minnesota react but it is not in this market. in fact, we are forced to end up paying a contract provider to see fewer veterans and pay that contract provider at rater than a million dollars annualized. because we cannot keep specialists at that or for thousand dollar limit. this is mostly on us. thank god we have jessica and aaron and lisa. that is three better human resource professionals in the country. mostly on us. [applause] mostly on us. we are using tools, but we need a little bit more help from congress. and i know you got another question, but july, for the first six months that we had this calendar year, that we added more nurses than we lost, from attrition, but also, fiscal 22, we added 3200 nurses. july, our best year ever, in hiring frontline service providers, that is to say, environmental managers. engineers. bas across the country. these new tools will work, and we have them. we will get to work on them. $400,000 cap is a problem. >> is the v.a. been able to hire the claim processors needed to handle the backlog, and will not be enough, now that the act is gone through. thank -- thanks to all the work we've just done, but what i'm about to do is say thanks to aaron. we have higher -- hired almost all of 2000. the challenge on top of that is people. a lot of those come from elsewhere in the dva. two hired those 2000, we have to backfill, quite a bit. but we are backfilling, as well. second problem or challenge is that hiring those 2000, those 2000 are overwhelmingly claims reviewers, but also, technologists, hr specialist, data specialist, and they go along with that so they are effective, but we have to also train those claims. that takes a year. before their performing at high levels. so yes, we've hired them, were well down the power curve of getting them trained, but we have more work to do, and as your question suggests, that is not enough red we need at least that many more, if not more than that. to implement this act, but it is an important innovation from tom mercy and the bva for my year ago at the end of fiscal 21. we've got money available. let's go higher now. aaron, tom, mike, randy, that team, willie clark, that team has gotten us a head of a power curve, which is why the backlog is as low as it is but we've got work we have to do. the summer, congress passed legislation that allows veterans to sue the government for exposing them to toxic water. that is through the 50's through the 80's. the lawsuit should be kept in mind for what reasons? >> i what you to keep in mind that provision. it is separate from the overall toxic exposure provision. i don't know anyone is watching football or baseball, but i watched a little. the advertisement on camp lejeune is ubiquitous. the use of the word claim in those advertisements, do not mistake that for a v.a. claim. that provision is expressly around a suit to be made whole in court. from dod. we've been talking about that with a new toxic exposure love. it is all around benefits, claims of the v.a., and access to health care. this provision does not address either of those. we really need your help to aggregate the two. we have a lot of learning from our bso teammates on that question. we will stand top of it. >> if they are -- are they anticipating the toxic exposure bill for health care, and if so, how will it deal with that? >> that is an excellent point. we have a little -- we will be on the clock. as it were. for scoring backlogs. for the benefit side of this law. as of january 1. we have a little bit of forbearance because the increased access to health care on the side of the law is really layered in over the course of the next year. we will make maximum use of the time we have to hire. this is what jessica is spending all of her time on. recruiting, doctors, nurses, nurses of all stripes and levels. the first thing we will do is take advantage of that time. the second thing we will do is make sure that we are being fully honest with all veterans and all of you on how we can calculate that. we updated the methodology and published a new methodology on her website in june. that is about how we calculate the wait times. it will then help veterans make some determinations for that access. third, we are getting better. we are ensuring that to needs access to care as an opportunity in the community that happens in a more timely way. that carries a coordination of the veteran record overall. those are three things we are doing. i do not believe it will increase wait times. we will stay on top of this, but this is one of the things to go back to the accountability metric this is why we want to update that data and make it available on the website and hold ourselves to account on that question. >> after the january 6 attack on the capital, there were calls to take weight benefits from veterans. where does this stand. in other cases, the critical activity cost benefit. >> the statute is quite clear on that. there is a law that says a veteran indicted, let alone convicted, for insurrection is not eligible for benefits. so, in those instances, where a veteran -- there is a number, but there is a number to date, and i want to say it is between seven and 15. the laws cut and dry on this. if you're indicted but not convicted, you would be back in and eligible for benefits. if you're indicted and convicted, you don't get access. as i said, the laws cut and dry on this. we are a nation of laws. we will implement those laws. [applause] >> in the virginia congressional race there is a veteran who is campaigning not in uniform, but with camouflage, and there are photos behind him, and it is one of many emphasizing military background as a reason to vote. are you concerned that they are campaigning like this? >> i want to be careful. i've seen a lot of that, but i have not seen that, so i do not know if i can say what race you are talking about. i want to make some general comments without commenting on those races. you will know i am not a vet. if you don't know, you know now. the -- when the president told me to take the job, that's the way it works with the president. you do something with the president tells you to do it. i thought i wouldn't get confirmed because i'm not a vet, but i said let's figure that out. for one year, i've had a chance to travel across the country, including two my own country. in every corner of the country, one sees interesting things and one need not scratch hard. to see a veteran making those things happen. and that has nothing to do with politics. it has to do with the things i've put my speech. camaraderie, a sense that we are better together than we are as individuals. a sense that there is a dignity that comes with public service. that there is strength and recognition of truth and there is indeed truth. so, as i said, i've seen, and every corner of the country, veterans, as i said in my remarks, manifesting strengths, and even the nationally those. that has nothing to do with politics. i hope we don't let politics enter into this. >> as of september, they are offering abortions in cases of rape and incest. that is necessary for the life of a mother. is it considering expanding access to other veterans, or in your view, would that be pop -- impossible under the current law. >> thank you. we published a rule. it permits abortion counseling and in certain cases, abortion services. those cases are rape, incest, life, or health of a veteran. we are in the process of now collecting several tens of thousands of comments, public comments about that rule. we are responding to those comments. i have to be careful and consistent with what is called the administrative procedures act, have to be careful not to add any new analysis to this case or this ruling until we have access to those comments. we may -- i can and will say this with conviction. we made a decision from a simple perspective. the overriding concern we have as a health care system. it is for the patient safety. our providers indicated in this case that there is a confusion resulting in the supreme court case earlier in the year. it was creating a health emergency for pregnant veterans. in order to address that emergency, we took the step. we will obviously look closely to these comments and look closely at future comments if we need to, but we will look closely at these comments right now, and react to them and finalize this role. >> we are almost out of time. i'm going to ask one last question from the audience. before i close. you mentioned in your speech, efforts to make women more welcome. where do things stand on the v.a. modern -- motto. >> this is off the record, but, i'm just kidding. leo knows i only speak on the record. >> don't make his head explode. >> i have indicated that we will change the motto. i've indicated how we change it is important to me. we are in the process of consulting, and even in an expanded way with veterans and with our employees about that. i don't have news today for when that process will culminate, but we will change it. >> thank you. before we conclude this discussion, i want to thank our headliners. and the organizer of the event, kevin, and the club communications director and the executive director bill mclaren. [applause] >> i also want to let you know about some of our upcoming events on friday, november 11th. join us for a veterans day dinner featuring a celebrity chef, and on november 16, we will host: old mint, who will share his own insight about janet yellen and the subject of his new biography. it is also my honor to present you with the second club bug. now you have a set. as for our final question, how will you be spending your veterans day, and you have a per take her tradition for that day that you area out? >> thank you. i am really honored to be able to spend veterans day again this year as part of a very small part of your official program at arlington national cemetery. with the vice president, a second element and dr. biden, so, we will start in the morning with some workout with the vets, and we will have a breakfast at the white house, and we will have the removing ceremony at arlington national. then, for the reason that you mentioned earlier, this being the 40th year, a memorial wall, we hope you'll spend some time with the vietnam that's in the afternoon, and commemorate the new native american veteran morrill up near the national native american museum. the thing i like about this, i can only do this with one of my sons this year because the other one of my sons and daughters are away at college, but i spent the day with my wife and our son. i will say that i will long remember the veterans we met at the memorial last year. eight of them who had served in different years in vietnam. they had just then met each other, and it was quite clear to me that they had a deep and abiding bond as a result of their service on behalf of the country, so that is a very profound thing to experience, and it is very and i'm gratified that our young men had a chance to witness that. >> thank you. thank you all of you. our veterans. [applause] thank you so much for joining us today. happy veterans day. [indiscernible] >> today, the january 6 committee and out going vice president -- many chairman and -- talks about the future of the republican party, hosted by the university of chicago institute of politics. our coverage begins at 4:30 p.m.. and also on our free mobile video app, or onlinat