>> are right, thank you are a match. if you have information imh or snack. there's a big picture will need to be pursuing as far as the safety of our country. thank you. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you. senator paul, good questions. let me go ahead and dive into a little bit of a follow-up from previous hearings and just other matters that we were done here together. that would be -- i am interested in the way you to see your specific roles and investigation and my understanding is that type to both of you, both of their offices about this. there has been the past been some i guess friction or maybe i don't know if i'd say caps, but they be friction, some disagreement about what the rules should be. my understanding is you have worked hard to try to address these and also understand you may be fairly close to doing some sort of written agreement on what your rules would be. i'd like to get a status report on that. mr. edwards, do a start their? >> sure. well, the inspector general played a critical role in the transparency on this and the fact is accountable government. both personal and organizational independence of oag is investigated caveat work. secondly, also avoiding duplication. the statutory authority that ig has, we do 100% of the investigations. we feel, you know, our position is cpi a place to grow and even congress recognized that. cbp, that is the integrity work right doing the screening of applicants and including polygraphs and background investigations. i have worked, both myself and alan have been working together trying to come up way or cbpia agents could work, could be detailed to oig and work on the oag supervision to work some of the cases. that gives commissioner bersin the information that is looking for in the agreement that died, in fact last night signed in senate over to sign it because i have to look into my independence, tax authority and management to write to her oig has delayed. i think allen recognizes that, but we just have come from this point he still has some differences, but i've done my part. >> mr. bersin? >> first, i should say, mr. senator, what a difference three months makes. yes, i think it's fair and the law-enforcement professionals, both in oig and iaa know i say this respectfully when i say there was more than tension and friction. there was outrage confrontation and an unacceptable situation. and this is not, in most situations like this, it makes no sense to try to fix the blame, but rather fix the problem. and i went to complement both offices for endeavoring to do precisely that. in april of this year, the inspector general reached out very directly and said that he wanted to discuss this issue and he wanted to see that working together we could actually reverse the history of the last few years, which again was a function of people passionate about their duties and dedicated public servants who saw the world in a different way. i think we've made huge strides toward that goal. a january 2011, as the senator knows, we entered into an unprecedented agreement within dhs with ice, with homeland security investigations, which for the first time, cbpia agents are detailed in two ice offices and are working to supplement resources. ice office of professional responsibility to break down the investigative caseload and we've seen tremendous progress in the first five months of that collaboration. when you put law-enforcement professionals together in the field to work in the case, the work gets done without the kind of friction that often attaches to turf battles that occasionally surface in washington. but we've seen already in the ice cbp collaboration is the number of cases being were but it didn't decrease from 160 to 127 and we've seen the cleanup of cases because of the additional resources. we recognize in that agreement, the memorandum of understanding, that ice in the case agent has supervisory responsibility. we have engaged in best buy or i think very successful negotiations with oag, our staff members have brought us to the positive brink so to speak of entering into a similar agreement in which cbp recognizes the director of oag and will be i believe welcomed into the oig investigators assert as a full law-enforcement member. that can only be to the good of the american people into challenging and taking on the threat of correction. so i think we're close then i think we can overcome the remaining issues. this issues frankly are not so much about the relationship between the cbp and oig, but rather the way in which oig could be welcomed back within recognizing its responsibilities under the inspector general at and its responsibilities under the dhs management direct is could be welcomed back to the border corruption task forces that exist in 22 sites in the united states, that have been organized by the federal bureau of investigation, department of justice and are critical elements in a whole of government approach to taking on border corruption. those issues need to be worked through. that happens to be a tray part negotiation and i'm confident over time we can address it and expect that we can overcome the issues. but that's where the issues are. those were the remaining issues are in terms of closing off a chapter that all of us want to put behind us in terms of tension between cbpia in dhs, oig. >> mr. edwards committee sent a draft agreement over last night. is your intention the draft agreement would cover all the outstanding issues are there still issues beyond that? >> first, i must commend secretary janet napolitano for leadership in bringing us together. she has given, you know, pretty good advice to us to get this thing resolved. i have taken into account our dependence has statutory authority behalf. at the same time, we don't have resources necessary because we have to have dhs. there has to be one phase. i recognize that and my staff has been actively working with allen's staff and we have an agreement, but there is still taking point because we feel that if you are working along with us and you're having visibility to 98% of the cases and mental bond with bct a few are still there, it's a duplicate of the affair. the reason we pulled out last year was because it goes against the whole oig statutory authority. everybody is equal partners, but the statutory requirement is that we supervise leading investigations. sbi is a leak. so we've been back and for the last several months we've been working with a similar situation in san diego that for several months we worked together with the u.s. attorney there in the scituate leadership between fbi and oig. the talks for a couple months in the u.s. attorney agreed with us, but all the parties do not agree to that. the u.s. attorney has withdrawn and taking cases directly. but having said that, there are several instances throughout the country, even though we haven't signed an mod with the fbi, were still working with them. so we are hopeful we can resolve this and have cbp i-a agents work under us and bring them caseload. >> janel, from my standpoint, this is just too important to get into a turf battle line and it's kind of like what both of you outside. what you're talking about your security of our country and make sure we don't have the corruption that may be rampant in other countries, but is greater here. i just hope you will continue to work together to get this resolved. i have no idea what is in your proposed agreement, that mr. bersin, i hope you all look at it and continue to work to some understanding and get some agreement as quickly as possible. >> i am confident we will continue to do that as the inspector general indicated. secretary napolitano indicated very compellingly to both of us into our offices that she expects a resolution. as i said, for the most part we have a resolution between our offices. what we need to do now is to see if we can take that spirit and create a whole of government approach. i do not think it makes sense to see us in competition with the department of justice, but rather to net the department of justice and the department of homeland security into a satisfactory arrangement maximizes our joint approach to the threat of worker security and the challenges to that security goes by corruption. >> i think both of you all are committed to working together and getting this done and close. that goes along way. i appreciate secretary napolitano and her leadership on this. she and i talked about this and i know she's knows i'm concerned. if you can get this done as quickly as possible, i think you'll do nothing but be a good thing for the country. but they asked a few more questions. mr. bersin, let me start with you on the current status today at the new hires receiving polygraphs, my understanding is is your not at 100% on the new hires. what percentage are you and when we get to 100% click >> in fiscal year letting we have polygraphs 22% of the applicants. and what we've done, we currently are implementing a business plan that would move us from 35 calligraphers and 10 cbp said we can meet the january 2013 requirement set forth set forth in the act. we have solicited help from other federal agents seized in terms of providing polygraphs calligraphers and i'm pleased to report that as expected, federal law enforcement community has reacted by creating 20 additional calligraphers so we can wrap a consistent with the business plan was outlined. >> with that just be temporary to help you with the backlog for which you retain those clicks >> those 20 would be temporary and help us deal with, and so we build up our in-house capacity, mr. chairman. >> is there concern about your backlog actually increasing at the beginning of 2011, 2012 and 2013? >> the challenge that we have is we have a fairly stable attrition rates a weekend project with sun to create certainty how many border patrol agents and how many cbp officers were going to need to replace by reason of attrition. the challenges coming this year, but it's a challenge we welcome because it provides more border resources to accomplish the mission in the south the supplemental bill, as you know, $600 million provided we hire additional thousand border patrol agents in 250 cbp owes. the fiscal year budget provides an additional 350 cbp officers. all of this gets added on to the attrition numbers that we replace each year. but this is a plan we have developed an calligraphers and getting our periodic reinvestigation stun as well as the new background investigation that accounts for that. >> went to get your backlog down to where it needs to be, do you see this as the backlog going away permanently? or do you again in the out years quick >> cbp doubled in size between 24 and 2010. so what we are seeing in the issue of backlog really arises from this kind of job in the size of the workforce so that next -- by the end of this year we expect to see 5000 mark. if investigations required because every five years were required to do these investigations. so we'll have to live three. where because of that steep slope and grows, we will see this steam steep growth in the five years from the periodically investigations are to come absent whenever attrition has taken place. what we need to develop within our agency has over the course of time we're going to need to even out and make some adjustments by having some periodically investigations done in three years, some four years, some five years and so we can get a much more given flow into internal affairs. >> listen, i have other questions. but i'll do is submit those for the record. i appreciate both of you out being here today. the fact you're doing a better job in both of you are saying it's a better job working together in coordinating and not have a nice internal that you have. i know we're not completely done yet, but i hope sometime soon will get that written agreement done and everybody will be on the same page. i want to thank you all for being here today. like i said, will have some additional questions for the record. we'll keep the record open for seven days. 14 day spirit will keep the record open for 14 days. as members of the subcommittee may submit those, we'll get them to the committee staff will get them to you and we appreciate you getting those returned to us. thank you for being here and i want to thank senator paul for his time here and i look forward to working with him on the subcommittee. thank you very much. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> in a few moments, a hearing on unemployment among veterans >> now, if senate veterans affairs been a hearing on unemployment among veterans. committee chairman, patty were civilians workforce. this is a little more than two hours. in a few moments, the federal communications commission looks at local media in the digital age. in about 2.5 hours-- >> an ambitious agenda which reflects hard work of members on both sides of the aisle in the committee. we have numerous challenges to meet for nation's veterans and i'm pleased this committee has worked and will continue to work to develop legislation that substantially improves the lives -- their lives in the lives of their families, especially during this time of her. there is much on the agenda that's important, but i want to see briefly one item. my hiring here is that in 2011. ensuring our veterans can find employment when they come home is an area where he believes we have to do a lot more. for too long, we have been investing billions of dollars in training our young men and women to protect our nation, only to ignore them when they come home. for too long we have patted them on the back and push them into a civilian job market with no support and that is simply unacceptable and doesn't meet the comments we made to our men and women in uniform. her hands off has left us now with an unemployment rate in february of over 27% among young veterans coming home from iraq and afghanistan. that is over one in four of our nation's heroes cannot find a job to support their family when they come home. over one of four of our servicemen and women lack stability that is so critical to their transition home. i introduced the bipartisan heroes act of 2011, which now has 19 cosponsors. this legislation will help us rethink the way we support our service members as they return home and search for a living wage jobs. i introduced this critical legislation because i have heard first-hand from the veterans for whom we failed to provide your job support. i've had veterans tell me they no longer write, they are a veteran on the resume, because they fear the statement they believe employers attached to the work. i've heard from headaches to return home from treating battlefield wounds 24/7, who cannot get certifications to be an emt or check an ambulance. these many stories are heartbreaking and frustrating. more than anything, they are reminders that we have to act now. the hiring heroes act would allow our men and women in uniform to capitalize on their service, while making sure the american people capitalize on the investment we made in none. for the first time it would require every service member transitioning from active duty to participate in the transition assistance program. a program supports veterans by providing that fraud, job skills training before they separate from service. it will also allow servicemembers to begin the federal employment process prior to separation. it will require the department of labor to take a hard look at what military will be translatable, which is a much-needed step towards making it simpler for veterans to obtain licenses and certifications. finally, my legislation allow for innovative partnerships between va, dod and organizations that provide mentorship in training programs designed to lead to job placement for veterans. all of these are real and substantial steps to put our veterans to work and come at a pivotal time during economic recovery and servicemembers. the second bill i went to quickly mention is the veterans programs improvement act of 2011, which will allow the department of veterans affairs to continue the important work of bending veterans homelessness. it will improve quality of the fiduciary programs administrated by the va and provide for a number of other va enhancements. va has made some great strides in the effort to eliminate homeless as. in a report released jointly by va and hud in january 2010, via estimated approximately 76,000 veterans are homeless on any given night coming down from 131,000 in the previous year, but clearly we are not there yet. this deal will expand assistance by improving the grant and per diem program as well as tools such as health care service is, community resource centers and case management for homeless veterans. will also direct the va to provide further details about an comprehensive plan to eliminate veterans homelessness and finally come the bill addresses needs of some of our nation most vulnerable veterans by improving oversight of fiduciaries and eliminating procedures other than necessarily contribute to raising claims of incompetent doctrines. lastly, all across the nation, to many veterans and families continue struggling to make ends meet. the veterans compensation cost-of-living adjustment act of 2011 cosponsored by all members of this committee may provide some much-needed relief. the bill increases the rates of compensation and the rates of dependency for survivors of certain disabled veterans. we know there is a lot to be done if they continue work on behalf of or any transgressions and we are considering a wide reach of bills to address challenges and an eager for a discussion about items on this agenda. i look forward to yelling from witnesses and i want to thank senators in particular here to talk about their legislation this morning. the tricky about than just a moment, the first title here from a ranking member. >> good morning, madam chairman. i want to welcome the witnesses and colleagues first. i also want to highlight one of our witnesses, gary and spare for my home state of north carolina. thank you for your tireless advocacy for veterans and their families who lived in camp lejeune and paste the water contamination. madam chairman, i also want to know when the administration commits it on time. the committee had relatives ahead of time. we did not receive the department of labor until less than 24 hours ago. adam chairman, this cannot be allowed to continue. it seems like it's almost every time we have a hearing. before i discuss a few bills, i want to talk generally about the past 40. the legislative hearing is one step in figuring out whether 35 those on the agenda should be advanced by this committee and to market later this month. these bills would collectively spend billions of dollars to expand or modify existing veterans programs in some cases create new ones. as we examine each bill, think of them poured to keep in mind our nation is faced with staggering deficits and debt and a sunny fiscal path is unsustainable. at the same time, the gao has been telling us that there's a duplication in fragmentation and overlapping of federal programs governmentwide. according to gao reducing or eliminating overlap actually help agencies provide better services and save billions of dollars each and every year. so as we consider whether to create or expand veteran programs, we should start by taking a serious look at what program sardi exposed in a novel they ask how well they were. we shall look at whether reducing any duplication could make existing services more efficient market to. this would help us narrow and none but legislative changes are actually needed to improve an offense and services for veterans, their families and survivors. in addition, i hope it would help us avoid a situation like we discussed in recent committee hearings, where efforts to solve problems facing the transitioning servicemembers seem to have created more bureaucracy without improving services to our nation employers. finally, need to understand the cost of the legislative changes and more importantly we must figure out how we would pay for that. i might shy away from providing those who have served and sacrificed the nation with misfits and services they need. more importantly, they are promised. i also want to make sure we pay for these benefits and services by cutting other spending so we don't continue to saddle future generations of americans enormous financial burdens. turning to today's agenda, not to mention three does have introduced. the first is the catechin veterans that 2011. as we discussed at their hearings, the water was contaminated with known or probable human carcinogens for decades. unaware teenagers come to service members and families rank, date stamped with the water. unfortunately, some have become seriously though portside from devastating conditions like rare cancers. today we'll hear one heartbreaking account of a child , jerry is your study was born at camp lejeune while the water was contaminated and tragically died of leukemia at the age of nine. to try to provide some answers about why jerry's doctors and others have become sick, studies are underway to gauge how much dangerous chemicals they were exposed to and how it impacted their help. but those who are put at risk should not have to wait for these studies are for the va provide them with care. we should make sure we get the treatments they need now to combat any adverse effects from these toxins we know they were exposed to. to that end, the bill would allow veterans to get medical care from the va if they were stationed at camp lejeune in the letter was contaminated. it would also allow families who have lived on the base to receive care for conditions that can be associated with the contaminated water. after hearing jerry's painful story, i hope my colleagues will agree that this is the right thing to do. families that juries authority we too long for answers they deserve and help they need. another bill, s. 423 with help deal with the backlog of claims of the va. if the veteran gathers up any necessary evidence before sending a claim to the va, the bill would allow benefits to be paid for up to one year before the claim was submitted. let me say that again. veterans who send in fully developed claims, we would actually give them one year of additional benefits. this would ensure veterans will not lose on benefits while putting together a fully developed claims it would allow the va to provide faster decisions on claims backlogs they've got today. finally, s. 928 would ensure if ea realizes he. savings we have made on bits that are outstanding on major construction projects. there will be more congressional oversight as to how the funds are used with the large backlog of medical construction projects at the va, it's important to prioritize every available construction dollar, regardless of its source. i look forward to discussing these bills and other bills with witnesses. more importantly, look forward to working with you colleagues, administration, veterans groups and other stakeholders to improve effectiveness of programs to figure out a legislative changes are truly needed and find the best ways to pay. an enchantment come a thank you for holding this hearing and i look forward to the exchange with witnesses. >> thank you. very significant number of bills on the agenda. i do think that reflects the tremendous need families when they come home, a constant worry when making policy decisions here and they think it is important we don't lose sight of that in the broader conversations we have in front of us. i do want to say my goal is to have the va or cbo cost estimates on the legislation to the full senate and the factors that has been working very closely with cbo to make sure we have cost estimates for other bills before us. senator bozeman, do you have an opening statement? >> i think in the interest of time, i know these folks are >> i think in the interest of time, i know these folks are busy, so i figure at a time start that. >> thank you for your consideration. we have three senators at us today who are spending legislation and i appreciate the work all of you at done on all of this and senator snowe, we'll start with you. >> thank you, very much, madam chairman and ranking member per, members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to testify in the legislation introduced. otherwise known as the rights to families to want a lot a loved one at a military fever but dignity and solemnity appropriate to the occasion. in chair mary, you certainly want to say, congratulations to you being the first one in chair of this committee and veterans affairs and also the first woman to ever serve on the committee. he appreciate your leadership at time in which we have so many people assert our country and are serving in iraq and afghanistan and around the world. i also have joined in one of my constituents who met sherry murphy, who's here today at the district high school in maine, who truly became the catalyst for the inch reduction of the bipartisan bill. either way, zach is graduating this weekend sunday in the middle of exam week. so we appreciate the fact you stand 24 hours to make the trip down here to hear this testimony. i'm pleased to report that this bill now has 25 cosponsors equally divided between democrats and republicans. as was reported in one main newspaper, zach and his classmates each assigned to place a social issue and act upon it. on january 5 at this year, to raise awareness about the imperatives of proper decorum and respect of military funerals and this is when the supreme court case pending with snyder versus wealth, arranged a public seminar that true 400 individuals on a cold night and brought attention not just in maine, but nationwide. i went to partially thank you for your patriotic initiative and being with us today. your inspirational love of country and advocacy is a uniform speak well, not just of you in your generation, that the future of america. factor in his classroom project into a strong statement for citizen action against the protest the approach has been close proximity to military funerals. sadly, all of us here have attended services for those who perished in iraq and afghanistan. without question, would all agree that those in defense of our constitution and principles we cherish her road to men and women in body and the courage and boundless love of country due to her deference, reference and eternal gratitude. and for the families they leave behind to have the linchpins and allowing brave men and women to perform duties tornatore nation. it is painful enough to lose a son or daughter without them having to confront that this peaceful protest that exponentially compound their agony in english. indisputably, they have more than earned the right to urge love one of the veneration the ceremony commenced. it was beyond horrific with the family of lance corporal matthew sayer was forced to endure in 2006 in the subject the station's justice same the church with the one and only opportunity to say goodbye to their beloved not be taking place. the family had no choice, no chance to fight back, no options to move to another location, no recourse in a moment time they could never ever recapture. that is determined not to let this injustice gain. so eventually the case was heard by the supreme court. regrettably, the court was in favor of the protestant pitting free-speech protection of the first amendment. there should be no mistake that decision does not mean preserving both freedom of speech and sanctity of the military funeral and usually exclusive. to contrary, the ability to vigorously express opinions need not and should not come at the extensive expense of family of those aired photos. the supreme court addressed the right to protest, leaving open the question of where and when protest a tape plays in providing the genesis of our legislation by further defined time and place, where funeral disruptions are not allowed. with the serve back does is to build federal lot enacted in 2006 that establish buffer zones of 150 servants than 300 feet from the road, to and from a military funeral. however, that only covered funerals, which has excluded the funeral. that is why we provide a uniform zone of protection around civilians as well as federal locations where funerals are taking place. specifically, based on a wide variety statutory provisions in 43 states, our bill increases before and after military funerals in 60 minutes to 120 minutes, increases the buffer on a military funeral for 100 feet, which is approximately from here to the end of the building, which is virtually no buffer at all. we increased to 300 an increase from 30500 feet the buffer on access routes to a funeral service with at least 20 states currently employed. moreover, the first time you provide a deterrent and allow immediate family members as well as the u.s. attorney general for monetary damages that the 50,000. what we do not do is dictate the content of any fee. madam chair,, a military funeral is a one-time event for the survivors. there are new two overs for something so heartbreaking. that is why this bill has been endorsed by 35 veterans service organizations, including military coalitions and military families united who are here today to the vfw, american legion and the gold star. as backus said that this is about people to sacrifice their lives to serve this country. i'm going to be what we could accomplish. not an chairman, ranking members who are members of this committee, this is a battle we should all feel obliged and i hope this committee would view this bill favorably with your full support that honors america's true american heroes and families to whom you a debt of gratitude we can never, ever repay never ever again. >> thank you, senator snowe. thank you for your work on this. good luck on your graduation next week. senator warner. >> thank you, not a chairman or making them the bird members the committee. appreciate the opportunity to testify. i lend my support to senator snowe and our leadership on this use of legislation and for zach and the contribution he made. i have a piece of legislation that i hope will be equally as noncontroversial. it was last june when many people first heard about some of the excesses and problems at arlington national cemetery. i think all of us americans were shocked to hear about some of the mismanagement and ineptitude taking place at the cemetery. on top of what a dirty been reported, earlier this year there were media reports that there is a practice going on at arlington cemetery for the last two superintended had been in effect reserving gravesites for their friends. now, army procedures since basically 1862 had been when saturday had fallen we would go to a procedure in effect the next leg. unfortunately what was taking place as superintendent for going out to having a secret reservation list, some general might come if they want that spot underneath the tree over there. because there were no record-keeping techniques, the slot would be reserved. astonishingly, the inspector general came up with her porch in the early 90s same practice is ongoing, yet nothing was done about it. so in late march, i filed largest nation to once and for all and the proper system of reserve gravesites at arlington. legislation passed overwhelmingly in the house three weeks ago and i appreciate support of house chairman runyon and ranking member of the enemy. obviously this is an issue that knows no party and has no custom-built the legislation were discussing what codifies army regulations that ban sites and accountability and transparency to process a full audit and report back to congress. will direct the army to fully investigate and report to congress within 180 days on the number of plot and may have been set aside in violation of army pilot v. what we are simply saying is the i.t. managers must follow the rules. it can come general shouldn't be able to jump the line in front of any affair at their service brave men and women who have served. i think the past procedure has been a sensitive to touch his veterans, but any american in the small piece of legislation will corrupt it once and for all. only like to make one other comment. i know we have senator waite has here, but the circumstance at arlington and end of the committee has it another committee for the senate, but it's still an ongoing challenge. when we found the first report that not only have misplaced remains, but in effect with the record system was not told me one fire, but when spilled cup of coffee away from destroying or other records and remains were at arlington. so the army said they were going to work on this. we took a sacred approach. we actually contacted a lot of tech companies in northern virginia was about 300,000 remains. it is a challenge, but it's a record-keeping system and we got about 20 companies to come together on a pro bono basis, they spent thousands of hours coming forward with the report on what would be a step eisteddfod impassive to correct this problem. secretary, thank you, we received a report and said they would work with it doing it all pro bono. we only got this report about 120 days ago, which included short-term and long-term recommendations for the cemetery such as digitizing records system and improving handling remains were cochairs for business practices and basically techniques. but to see the army in 120 days has implemented these actions to our knowledge. this is still an area and concern of the committee and nonmembers of congress, this is a disgrace. and not quite the stories that come, but let me close and mention and salute the work done by a virginia high school student who is not graduating this year, the 11th grader whose ricky callahan, a whiz kid computer student from stafford county, which is south of fredericksburg. ricky has succeeded in doing something on his own but arlington hasn't been able to do. so he went out and with his own little computer, started to digitize world to remains for all iraq and afghanistan. the army spent $8 million in i.t. contracts and had been able to, she's the fire. the access public records is create the preserve in honor.com site has gotten some national news and catalogs throughout the iraq and afghanistan veterans prepare. so freaky can do this in 11th grade with his home computer, the army had to be able to do millions of dollars of resources of appropriate management to get this job done for it way once and for all so we never again have to read about these kind of stories you one small step we take in the direction is making sure we do it in a final practice of jumping the line in having the superintended reserve is safe for a friend for some breaking official. both of those are bought for me on her. we are prone to plus 130 years we've been a site of what is truly hollow ground for whole nation. my hope is the committee black upon a small piece of legislation and eight apologize for having to set up. >> thank you, senator warner. when it comes to technology. tell ricky, thank you. senator whitehouse. >> thank you ranking member per, senator bozeman, i appreciate your service to the work of this committee and i am very pleased to join senator snowe and senator warner, having heard the legislation that have come forward to support today and detect the integrity and dignity of military funerals and integrity and dignity of the process through which the sites are allocated at arlington. i'm honored to be in their company today. i'm there to speak about legislation to improve protection for military families from losing their homes to wrongful foreclosure. while operations in iraq, afghanistan around the world have put tremendous demand on our brave men and women in uniform, lenders at home have repeatedly disregarded laws designed to protect servicemembers and families from losing homes when they deploy. just last month at that the department of justice announced a $22 million settlement with lenders who violated servicemembers of the really site and roughly foreclosed as many as 175 service members. military families have been overcharged some financial institutions have treated homeowners in distress. these practices, men and women to protect a country that deserves their attention. not only are these practices illegal, they can also be a dangerous distraction from our military mission. it is members of these have enough to worry about without worrying about her families being mistreated the homefront. returning service members have also hit particularly hard by the economic downturn. as this committee will knows, in 2010 the unemployment rate for returning veterans reached 11.5%, compared to a 9.4% nationally. furthermore, according to recent comprehensive report of veterans homelessness, vegans are 50% more likely to become homeless than other americans. these troubling statistics -underscore difficulty of readjustment to life at home. for returning servicemembers who need time to get back on solid financial footing, we should do everything we can to accommodate needs, especially during difficult economic times. to better protect men and women in uniform, it introduced the protecting servicemembers act cosponsored by senator baucus, blumenthal, boxer senator hagan platenburg, leahy, merkley kolsky, senator nelson, pryor, reid of rhode island senators sanders of another test repeatability of the next noncriminal double penalties for violations of current foreclosure protections. it would also extend the make permanent foreclosure coverage after military service offended. current laws amendment to protection under military service. order provision is due to expire in december 31, 2012. servicemembers will make it 90 days of foreclosure protections. my bill would permanently extend foreclosure protection beyond nine months. i hope senators on both sides will come together and join me in supporting legislation and a thank you again for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. unfortunately chairman murray, and members of this committee to pass legislation from which i believe will discourage phone service from further violations and hope protect the financial and emotional well-being of our military families. >> thank you, senator whitehouse. without all of you what senator snowe, senator whitehouse that all of your provisions of strong merits and i hope to work with senator byrd to include them in the package that we will consider for a markup on the 29th of this month. i don't have any questions. thank you or image. really appreciated. we will now move to our first panel. if you would please come up and had not the witness table. i will introduce you join us from the perpetrators, we have michael cardarelli, undersecretary for benefits and not to robert jesse, principal deputy secretary for health. they are accompanied today by walthall and richard triplett, both attorney general counsels. john mcwilliam, deputy assistant secretary for the veterans employment and training service them as they are being seen in, i senator burst of doubt, but i do want to address the issue that he mentioned in his opening statement. mr. card really, dr. jesse, i understand from my staff that her testimony was due in large part because omb and recognize that if you're responsible for how about, but i do want to emphasize for everyone who comes before this committee that we do require testimony to be with the 48 hours before a scheduled hearing because our members need time to adequately prepare for the hearing and positions of the respect due properly presented for this committee. i will be following up to make sure they understand delays in testimony before this committee to accept the ball. we will be talking to omb. i want an opportunity on the bill he has before returned to her panel. [inaudible] >> thank you for having me and i particularly want to thank you, senator murray and i've introduce a bill, s. one years exterior color be honoring all veterans that and s. 1147, the chiropractic care available for all veterans act, which very much followed the provided other colleagues in the senate who started and carry forward this effort with the men and women who served and sacrificed. they've taken strong steps towards the goal of building a 21st century support vista, but the gaps in the system remain in our debilitating indebtedness dating for many of our veterans would be better and we must do more. the legislation i introduced provide a package of 16 provisions aimed at your health care,, jobs, educational opportunities in streamlining and modernizing the va. and i will submit for the record medical testimony my experience as i know other members of the panelists we need to have a comprehensive approach to deal with the signature wins of the afghanistan and iraq conflicts, which are germanic brain injury and posttraumatic stress as well as other injuries that veterans of prior conflicts have suffered. a comprehensive approach has to evolve both the departments of defense for example providing effective diagnosis from these wounds. they need to provide treatment, not just diagnosis. we need to make sure information track in a caring transition between those agencies next to the veterans administration. veterans leaving the va medical facilities throughout the recovery plan for the centuries that would provide for qualified psychiatrists, psychologists to work in va medical hospitals and outpatient clinics and access graduates are in uniform services university of the health sciences, for example, in connecticut and other institutions. an economic opportunity trying to survive and find jobs and is still faltering economy. the honoring all veterans act with those already initiated by this country to address issues such as the recently expanded post-9/11 g.i. bill. the legislation would raise statutory caps for the vocational rehabilitation and employment independent living program to welcome hundreds of veterans. it would authorize to reuse the dod transition assistance programs and meet with counselors that any military installations for two-year after their separation. it also authorizes measures such as studies of how civilian importers and educational and dictation recognize veterans and military training and reauthorizes veterans educational outreach program to provide for campus-based outreach programs to veterans. we need also measures to block a job and a home and eat a roof heads. those kinds of facilities can be supported and funded by the veterans act another acts that are considering. i'm realistic about the difficulty of approving passing the measure. i hope for bipartisanship work. i in keeping faith with veterans demand support and i know you have worked very hard to muster the support and a thank you for it in thank you also for giving me the opportunity to sponsor legislation and chiropractic care available for veterans act, modeled on legislation to you introduced in the past. .. so the legislation would actually require the secretary of veterans affairs to provide chiropractic care at a minimum of 75 va medical centers by december 31, 2012, and that va medical centers by december 31, 2014, and again, i thank you for your leadership and others on this panel in supporting these kind of measures and look forward to working with you and again many thanks for giving me this opportunity to talk today. >> thank you very much for your comprehensive consideration of issues. very important to the men and women who serve the country. thank you very much. we will move to the first panel. thank you very much for joining today and we will begin lahoud. >> good morning, chairman murray, ranking member and members of the committee for inviting us here today to present the administration's views clear i apologize for the delay in delivering testimony to the committee. joining today is assistant general counsel. while the va riggins ayman what reviews have been submitted for the record i would like to briefly discuss the bill still would affect the nca. dr. robert jesse principal undersecretary for health will discuss the administration views on the related bills on today's agenda. chairman murray, the va appreciates your efforts to improve employment opportunities for returning service members. the support sections 235 of the heroes act of 2011. as 951 which would provide rehabilitative services in the systems to certain severely disabled active duty members and expand the vhf ready to the employers for providing on the job training to veterans among other things, we respectfully defer to the department of labor witness john mcwilliams regarding section 811 and 13 of the bill. although they do not support section line we would be happy to discuss concerns with the committee. let me assure you the leadership shares your concern of the veterans in plymouth and we are committed to working with congress to improve employee opportunities for the nation's veterans. s 536 with individuals eligible for the education benefits under chapter 55, from the 48 month limitation on the use of educational systems under multiple veterans and related educational assistance programs, the support the intent 536 in favor the amount of the bill subject to the congress finding offsetting savings. s 745 would protect certain veterans enrolled in the post - of an veterans educational assistance program as it existed before the enactment of the public law 111377. whoever is to be subject to the reduction in the assistance benefits. the va has concerned in the proposed legislation written in quitting time line for implementing the impact on the existing beneficiaries. we will continue working to ensure legislative changes do not make an impact education beneficiaries. a seat monday for the veterans' compensation adjusted living act of 2011 would mandate the cost of living adjustment in the rates of disability compensation and dependency and compensation payable for periods beginning on or after december 31st, 2011. the va supports chairman memory's bill and believes veterans and families deserve no less. s 780 veterans mission protection act of 2011 would exclude certain payments from the determination of annual income for purposes of determining eligibility for improved pensions. the va opposes excluding income payments received for pain and suffering because such payments to not constitute a reimbursement for expenses related to daily living. this provision of the bill would be inconsistent with the needs based program. va does not oppose the remaining provisions of the bill. s 423 would authorize a potentially retractable awarded disability compensation to a veteran whose compensation application was fully developed as the date submitted to the va. the v.a. does not support the bill because would result in the inequitable treatment of the veterans and litigation over whether the claim was full when it was submitted. although the va doesn't support us for 23i appreciate the attempt to create to file fully developed claims. s 815 to serve at 20 levin would guarantee military families are conducted with the dignity and respect. the support this because of the established a unified approach to preserve the dignity of the funeral services and reinforce the commitment to protect the privacy of the attendees during their time of bereavement. the bill will also ensure the privacy protection of grieving families during funerals, memorial and ceremonial services meant to honor those fallen heroes who for their service paid the ultimate price. finally we know turney murray's and ryckman act of 2011, essey 1184, carries many provisions proposed by the administration. in the draft of veterans benefit improvements act of 2011. although we have not had the opportunity to review the bill closely we offer is part of the general intent of the bill and the appreciation for your introducing them for consideration. we believe they are worthy of the committee's endorsement and also look forward to reviewing the other types which address the programs to combat homelessness as well as the fiduciary program. madame chair, this concludes my statement and now dr. jesse will discuss the administration views on the pulse related bills on the agenda. >> thank you very much. dr. jesse? >> thank you, madame chairman and ranking members. [inaudible] i appreciate the opportunity to be here before you today and provide comments on the veterans of administrative related bills on today's agenda. i am accompanied by mr. walter hall, who is the general counsel, and i apologize for the tardiness of our oral statements and appreciate your indulgence. the va supports s. as 90 for the coverage of children under the program until the age of 26. this would bring the the va health care benefits for children at the line of coverage available by the private-sector under the affordable care act which was enacted last year. this is an important program and would potentially benefit almost 60,000 children of veterans. we appreciate the intent of s. 666, the traumatic brain injury act which would require the secretary submit a report on the advisability of establishing a broad polytrauma presence in northern iraq and we appreciate concerns about making these valuable services available in this area, and i am pleased to report based on the assessment, we conducted last year we are expanding our services by establishing the polytrauma support clich team and for terrorism, montana. we expect to have the stuff in place to begin providing the services by the end of the year. we support the intent of s. 760 - have taken steps to address concerns with remedy the veterans equal treatment for service act of 2011 would prohibit the secretary from excluding service for use by veterans from any va facilities or property or any facility that receives funding from va. in march we published the 201-1013 that directed that veterans and members of the public to require the use of trained, dalia or service dhaka be allowed to enter the va facilities. we will publish a regulation for the service dog act to all va facilities and property that will ensure consistent standards while maintaining a safe environment for patients, employees, visitors and service dogs. we also support the intent of s. 966 for travel benefits to veterans using the centers for the readjustment counseling. this is an issue the center of attention for some time now. we begin the assistant to develop more insight to the possible impact of providing this benefit. the privacy issue is important as the center currently offer veterans confidential treatment and veterans would have to submit a claim for beneficiary travel which could diminish their pay that this treatment is indeed confidential. veterans have responded very positively with of the model and any changes we make to this service should not reduce the appeal of the benefits to the veterans. because of this concern we ask the committee to withhold action on the bill until we can provide results of the reassessment later this year. s. 957 the traumatic brain injury rehabilitative services and protective 2011 seeks to improve the programs by requiring a rehabilitative services to be an integral component of health care services. we generally have no objection to this, indeed, we have been developing individualized coverage plans for all veterans with sevier tbi for several years. our primary aim for veterans with serious or severe injury has always been and always will be to maximize the veterans independence, health and quality-of-life. my written statement identifies to concerns in the bill that raised the question the bill requires benefits beyond health care. regarding s. to 78 takes the camp lejeune matter seriously with significant concerns to the bill. to be able to provide treatment for any condition that cannot be specifically e eliminated as related to the contaminated water at camp lejeune. this would be a broad authority for the care of and back on the post persian gulf veterans. we have concerns about the adequacy of the scientific evidence available today. the ongoing research by the agency for toxic substances and disease registry is may provide a clear view on what kind of conditions are associated with this exposure. there are other concerns to tilt in the testimony such as being able to identify those who may have been at camp lejeune for a very short period of time. at the same time, we are committed to in responding appropriately to the findings. this concludes my prepared statement, my written statement provides positions on other bills on the docket, and we will provide u.s leader for those that we were unable to discuss at this time. madame chair, would be pleased to respond to whatever questions you have. >> thank you. mr. mcwilliams? >> i'm pleased to appear today before the committee to discuss legislation pending in this committee aimed at helping our transitioning service members and returning service members transitioning back to civilian life. i would like to comment on two bills. s 951, the hero's act of 2011, section 11 would require mandatory participation in the transition of social assistance programs. we believe all transitioning service members who plan to enter civilian employment would benefit from attending the deal will implement workshop but the fer to the department of defense on whether the program should be mandatory for all transitioning service members. dol supports the concept of the cap follow-up contained in section seven that believes the metrics of the redesigned employment workshop will meet the requirement unnecessary. as part of the redesign, a comprehensive follow-up program would be implemented to track purchase and success in entering the workforce. we believe this program may provide the information the committee desires and we would like to work with the committee to provide additional information on elbra initiative. dol believes that section 8 the competitive grant program for the nonprofit organizations is on necessary. we note the section seems to closely follow the parameters of the get assisting veterans workforce adjustment program. it's unclear whether the intent of the section differs from the intent. therefore we would like to work with the committee to discuss the potential overlap between the two areas. dol believes that section 9, concerning identify and equivalency between military occupational specialties, excuse me, and civilian employment duplicates existing policies that currently provide capability to crosswalk service member skills to equivalent civilian occupations. we know there are several tools that allow the service member to do that, as well as the redesign of the employment workshop which will include practical exercises to assist purchase pence in translating their skills as well as creating individual transition plans. the department's support section 11 but requests the time period be changed from 105 days to 15 weeks to coincide with the benefits week for the purpose of unemployment compensation. dol supports the concept of section 13 and believes that credentializing and licensing of veterans is helpful in transition service members to the civilian sector. we'd like to work with the committee to help resolve issues that are existing in the credentializing and licensing of the veterans. addressing s. 1060, honoring all veterans act of 2011 we defer to the va for most sections but point out we believe section 105 is unnecessary. the department created the americans heroes work program in 2008 to fulfill this need. we propose to work with the committee to determine if our program needs further enhancement. again, i think the committee for commitment to the nation's veterans and for the opportunity to testify before you today. we'd be happy to work with your staff to provide technical assistance on any of the bills and would be happy to respond to any questions. >> thank you very much. mr. mcwilliams, let me begin with the questions with you. i note that the administration opposed several provisions in the hiring heroes act and the goal of the legislation is to make sure that our men and women in uniform really capitalize on the service. the american people have invested a great deal of money in the training for these men and women as they go to surface, and we want to make sure that we get a benefit from that and they get a benefit from that. today we have an unemployment rate of 27% among the veterans who are coming home from iraq and afghanistan. and i think it is most telling to remind all of us that the army alone, just the army, is paying out nearly $1 billion in unemployment benefits every year. that's $1 billion because these men and women aren't at work. and we continue to hear all the time from veterans who don't have the job supports the need when they lead the service. so, doing nothing is not the right approach, and i want to ask you today what you propose. >> we believe the redesign transition assistance program is the keystone to assisting people as they leave the service. we -- our assistant secretary testified before this committee in the past and the parameters of that. we believe the restructured engineer program has great strengths that will allow the transitioning service members to identify the skills they need and how to translate the skills, military skills into civilian skills. one of the key unique aspects is the individual transition program plan where each individual participant will write down a plan to get them to their goals and moving to that. we believe there are many tools currently available that assist people in identifying and that translation between skills both into the civilian work force and into the federal work force and the program will strengthen the participants' ability to to get in and of those. >> i want to come back and ask more specifically about that, but before i do, i want to turn to dr. jesse. because recent work by the gao uncovered some very disturbing information about sexual assault at inpatient and mental health and other programs. it's unacceptable hour veterans especially most vulnerable veterans under the department supervision cannot be kept at bay and i concerned the va field to inform leadership about these allegations. i want to ask you today to tell us what is going on out there and what the va is doing to address the situation to make sure hour veterans are safe. >> the va does take safety very seriously. since the general was sworn in as the secretary, he has constantly reminded us that we have two responsibilities, to accomplish the mission and take care of the people. and much of the secretaries agenda has been around the safety of both veterans and employees, and was the first things he did is to stand up the office of the security and prepared this under assistant secretary which includes operationalize in in 2020 integrated operating center which gets reports on all the actor gets reports from all of the police departments at the va which provides the secretary frequent briefings on what indy 500 is going on, and we take any of these allegations very seriously. we investigate them very seriously. so we are in the process now of reviewing the gao's recommendations, particularly with a side benefit critical areas where we think we point out that we may have issues for improvements. we also have in 2010, i believe issued a va directive in 2010i believe is responsibility to the emergency department for the appropriate management of veterans to present to ensure that they get sensitive and appropriate treatment including treatment that meets all the standards the would protect the legal ranks. we think that is a very important component of bringing us in place. we will take steps to expand and reproof the allegations. we have to process these as i mentioned, but also the issue reprocessing the comes after the medical center themselves and we need to reconcile that we have coherence and clarity from both of those attractions. but the bottom line is we have to protect our veterans and our employees. and as our veterans have protected us to take that responsibility very seriously. i know we have discussions next week to go into this in debt. >> this committee will be following this very closely because it is very disturbing, and is hard to believe senior leaders in the facilities didn't know what was going on, and the breakdown in the communication is a serious issue. you ever arrested for a second there. just of these were happening and people didn't feel safe enough to tell people about it, or to follow-up on it or report it is extremely disturbing. so, dr. jesse, we want to keep this conversation followed. >> mr. mcwilliam i do want to follow -- you talked with the redesign of the program that we work very well with our legislation and i appreciate that but we've been waiting a long time for the redesign. when you expect to revamp? >> madam share, our dead line, our objective is to have this in place by this november veterans day, the have it in place worldwide and been taught at that point. >> november of this year? all right. well, you know, as you know the dod is opposed to mandatory cap coming into use the to all transitioning service members who plan to enter civilian employment would benefit from attending the employment workshop, so how do you explain the disconnect between the two agencies? >> madam chair, i hate to speak on behalf of the department of defense but i believe it is the definition of all members of the armed forces. i believe it is their issue and the mandatory issue perhaps gathers people such as people who retire and are not going into employment and are strictly retiring. i believe it has their concerns have to do with of the demobilizing of research and to bring them back for a full two and a half in polemic workshop. we will follow-up call with them as well. >> senator? >> madame share, we have so much that doesn't pertain to the bills we are here to talk about that we could spend all day with just the va alone. mr. blank and dr. jesse, i want to at least acknowledge the fact both of you apologized for not having testimony here on time. i will note i didn't hear either one of you say this won't happen again. now we've got rules in the committee, and i might say, mr. mcwilliam, i didn't even hear you apologize. this may be a joke to some of you. i don't know. maybe it's the instruction not to have it here to where committees can thoroughly go through and dissect what an agency says. many of the bills we don't have the views on. it is impossible for me to believe that pieces of legislation that have been introduced for some time you have no views on, you have no cost estimates on. it raises big questions when you take lightly the committee rules of about when legislation testimony needs to be here. i guess i shouldn't be bewildered we can't hit that lines that are statutory for claims processing or for other things when there is no sense of the deadline being anything other than ago. the chairman raised an issue wasn't going to raise but i will china, and that is the gao report, and let me assure to the va witnesses we will stand many hearings on this. let me just read to the chart of the gao report. 2010, 14 rapes, 44 inappropriate touches, three forced medical examinations, five forced inappropriate moral sex, 2,009, 23 rapes, 66 inappropriate touch, three force full medical vaccinations, three force or inappropriate oral sex, nine other. that is just for the new center. and of the 67 read allegations that were listed in 07, 08, 09 and ten, only 25% to the office of the inspector general. of the 67 rape allegations, only 25 were referred to the office of the inspector general. there is a breakdown that is tremendous. i can't imagine any company in america not referring to the council or outside counsel an allegation by an employee or customer of sexual charges. but it seems like this is just another piece of business at the va. let me assure you, and i believe the chairman will raise this to the highest level. i have absolute confidence that we will explore this in great detail. let me turn to the va witnesses. and you're testing my on my bill, s. 277, caring for camp lejeune veterans, you indicated that the number of the veterans and families affected by water contamination to be 1 million. in a preliminary cost estimate provided to me by the cbo, the put the number of affected veterans at 650,000. cbo a right to this number with information provided to them by the department of defense on the number of military personal family members who lived at camp lejeune during the affected period. can you describe the matrix we use to identify 1 million affected veterans and family members? >> sir, i think our testimony reflects we don't have good numbers, we don't have numbers that we could use to estimate the cost. >> the va estimated the cost in the past. that's what drew the conclusion i think that they came to, but can you account for the discrepancy in the two numbers? that's 350,000 people. >> no, sir, i can't. >> mr. mcwilliam, the program is currently undergoing a redesigned issue, as you mentioned, with a goal of rolling of the new program helped by veterans day. in your testimony, you indicated that the new cap program will provide a comprehensive follow-up plan to track the progress of veterans who took the tap while in the military. let me ask you, could you detail for us the comprehensive follow-up plan? >> yes, sir. the plan is to collect metrics on how well the program assisted the civilian employment and we plan to do it three times country moments of truth. the first when the person completes the program while they are still in the military, the second being a loyal they are in the job search mode looking for employment and a third, shortly after they entered employment and has become a member of the civilian organization. >> does this metric follow or check anything other than of a participant satisfaction? >> it's supposed to look at satisfaction and what portions of the program assisted them or what additional parts of the program they would need to have done better on their job search or to have done of the on boarding and to become a member of an organization. >> how long do you think it would take to collect enough data to engage the effectiveness and outcomes of the redesigned? >> sir, i don't know i can put a time frame on that. we plan to start doing this as soon as we start teaching the new cap. i'm assuming during the next fiscal year will begin gathering the data. >> mr. cardarelli, as you know, i have a bill on the agenda that would allow the veterans fully submitted developed claims to receive benefits up to one year before the claims are filed. last year, the va provided these views on a very similar piece of legislation, and i quote, of the va's views. the retroactive effective date for an award of disability compensation granted on a claim fully developed when submitting would create an incentive for veterans to finals the default claims. submission or more fully developed claims would free up resources the va regional offices to address the claims backlog. now, while i will be an honest with you i am going to use that testimony as my own words to why people should vote for this i think the va has made the simplest plan as to why the bill to become law. so, let me ask you what percentage of claims are now fully developed when submitted to the va? >> yes, sir. i appreciate your comment about the backlog. i want to reassure you that the leadership of my job we live in the backlog of reading. we have many initiatives as you know that we put into place, some short term, some long term. we have technologies for doing business process east. one of the things is what we call the fully developed claim is a program that we have we're basically we incentivize along the lines when you talked about that if your case comes complete to us we will process it within 90 days. on the idea of the tax -- >> how many fully developed claims? >> less than 1%. so we put into place -- >> working? >> working. so what we realized -- >> is it working like you thought it would? >> no, sir, as we realized when we put it into process come into use, we realize one of the things it lacked is the outreach to the veterans coming sure that they were aware of this program, us reaching out to them, so we realize we have an initiative, and we want to make sure we do is we don't get inundated with so many that we are working with so many we can't focus. we started with this initiative and then we realized as we started to assess it we were not getting the return we wanted to be a disconnect the fully developed claim how much does dva stand on the outreach and yuli? >> i don't know. i know that we have put a priority on that because the more information we can get out of the veterans the more communication it enhances our trust and confidence. the development gathering of information and we can partner with the veteran to do that that would help us get better claims that will come -- >> you understand my frustration. we're standing up a new national outreach progress. fully developed claims and i would be willing to bet -- >> we are trying to do going back to your point about outreach is working with veterans but also working with the have a them letting know we have this capability to say this is a great way to how much we can add adjudicate. fy with >> i'm seeing through the administration agreed plan they had in effect to reduce the backlog and annually i have seen the backlog increase and increase and increase. he and every year we've been told about the technology and not sat down and got tremendous confidence in him, but if it doesn't work, isn't it time to focus on how -- it reduces the amount of time an individual has to spend, finding the information that they need to make a decision on a claim. i hate to bring my business background to this, but sometimes common sense has to just from a half trying to look for some major breakthrough that is not being used. the good news for veterans is we have used every excuse since the disabilities claim process isn't working. we are just about out of new suggestions, and it may be that if the technology doesn't work then we have exhausted everything, and we can all get on the same page and focus on what we would deutsch to drastically change the outcome for the nation's veterans. i think the chair. she has been very patient with me. >> thank you. >> thank you, madame chair for your leadership and the ambitious agenda of this come in committee and the amount of work you've done and i appreciate the leadership on a s. 894 the compensation cost of living adjustment act and the hiring he rose act of 2011. the focus of the administration and a major component of our focus on job creation should be about veterans and all we can do in that direction. i think this plays a role in doing this. we can perhaps more in this committee and others said a powerful bipartisan message. that the veterans issues are more important than partisan politics and job creation among veterans especially is important as we spend so much money in this country on defense, and so many veterans are out of work, something doesn't quite fit. finally, madam chair, i hope the committee will consider s. 572, the bill to improve collective bargaining over pay matters for the va doctors and nurses, and in a moment i will ask dr. jesse about that. the bill passed up a committee to restore bargaining rights for the va clinical care employees, bargaining rights that have been the road and over time. the bill is not about bargaining over pay scales, but a law giving employees the right to challenge the va's own peril. it's about fairness and ensuring the medical professionals have the same rights as other va employees and doctors and nurses and other federal facilities. the bill is about holding the va accountable to those employees, accountable about complying for complying with its own payrolls. i look forward to the testimony but later will have david cox the national security treasury and the government employees on this matter. my question, dr. jesse, a couple of questions about this, the reason for this bill if you will come to questions. does the va collect data on how many professions quit the va over the pay policy or the lack of bargaining rights over the lack of bargaining rights on the unfair practices and second, is there a good chance of a physician who's promised pay to come to the va may leave when they break that promise, and because of the lack of collective bargaining, the employee doesn't have the records that she might have otherwise. dr. jesse, if you would weigh in on both of those. >> in response to the first question, i don't know the answer offhand, so i would have to get back to you. and we can look at that. the second is, in answer to the second question is that my sense is that we've done very well over the past several years in both recruiting and maintaining work force thanks to the congress for their physician pay bill that passed in 2006i believe. it was an extraordinary effort that really changed our capability to get high coley physicians both to come to the va and to stay there, and i can speak to that from a personal sense having been a chief of cardiology in richmond and having to recruit what are very competitive positions in both interventional cardiology and electrophysiology, and we have been able to retain those positions. in terms of our people leaving because we reneged on performance pay, my sense is yes, and would be to our loss that they would come and because frankly these positions can get paid to treat four times higher in the private-sector than we already pay them. what we offer is a superb working environment. that is unencumbered by having to build, unencumbered by having to have their salary predicate on doing procedures that i'm not to be careful about my words, but we can do inappropriate procedures for patients because we have a model of physician reimbursement that supports doing the right thing for the patients. and that work construct come to pay construct, the pay rates we have now have been very beneficial in doing that. when we do use retention bonuses and to keep the more challenging positions which i would include interventional radiology and a lecture physiology, nuclear medicine, some of the surgical specialties, and -- apologies -- i don't know that we have suffered a significant loss because we reneged on them. >> are you acknowledging you have reneged on some of them? >> no, i don't know that we have. i mean, i sign off on moving them forward, but i don't have the visibility into ones where they may have reneged on them. i can find that out for you. i don't have that in front of me. i haven't heard it as a problem and i haven't heard complaints from physicians that there would even be cause. they had a pay agreement reneged upon. i do know that people may move because we don't pay them salary that they want to get, but frankly the pay rates, the pay structure we have in place now, thanks to the physician pay reform in 2006, makes us able to compete for good high quality physicians and we are free proud of that work force. >> i didn't just make it up. >> okay. >> i also don't have -- >> i'm sure there are incidents. >> and i accept that, and we don't -- we just want to export more some physicians are the most qualified physicians and nurses leaving that, but the point in part is that collective bargaining, that legislation will help work that through so that there is some recourse for the doctors and nurses in an environment that can be not all that contentious to make it work in the best way as we were having a major fight in ohio right now, political fight on the whole idea of collective bargaining for public employees and people that can support taking away collective bargaining rights forget that when people are talking that there is actually less animosity and less anger and more resolution and political agenda sometimes or an ideological fervor. thank you. >> thank you very much. dr. jesse, as you know, there are a lot of reasons veterans become homeless. sometimes it is the impact of the invisible williams of the war, brick of the stammerich come on loss of a job, a lot factors, and currently the va can on the contract emergency shelter care for veterans who are mentally ill or have substance-abuse issues. some in essey ligon 48 of veterans affairs and provide act will allow the va to contract free verso shia shelter care for veterans regardless of the current eligibility restrictions. i know we don't have clear views on god, this section of the bill, but can you talk generally about how expanding the population of homeless veterans who are eligible for emergency shelter would halt the va accomplish its goal of eliminating homelessness? >> sure, and i would like to start by saying that your question is exactly on key. our goal was not to reduce it. the secretary has been very frank and committed to eliminating homeless of veterans and we know this is not an issue of just providing a bed. it's an issue of health care and education and an issue of working with the court's to try to support veterans who might be otherwise in trouble and need help. it requires not just -- requires the broad base of the social services all woven together if we are going to accomplish this goal. so my sense is that anything we can do to move that forward is useful towards reaching that goal of eliminating homelessness. i think we have made great strides. i think the ranking member said we are about 111,000 last year down to about 67,000. it's difficult numbers to get because it is a population that actually is an influx, but i think that the trend at least is very promising and we're moving that in the right direction. and i am extremely proud of the va's homelessness program. it's got extraordinarily talented people who have managed this in just remarkable ways in a relatively short period of time. >> okay. mr. cardarelli, i want to turn to you because we have heard recently about an employee of a fiduciary who was recently charged with embezzlement of over $626,000 from the estates of an incompetent va beneficiaries. as you know i've introduced legislation to improve the va ability to actually access the bank accounts of the fiduciaries and i want you to comment on that today and whether or not the provisions of the bill would allow the va direct access to the fiduciary bank accounts to better increase the likelihood of something like that not happening. >> yes, ma'am. one of the major concerns is fiduciary, realizing that these are among the most vulnerable veterans and emphasized that to the leadership so we take them very seriously. one of the things we do, we realize what we want to do is have better oversight, better oversight within our organization and also externals to the organization. as you know and members of your staff know we are doing a reorganization that allows us to do that to create the executive position. we are doing some consolidation of the fiduciaries to less sites so we can have this devotee of people who do that. we think the bill he introduced what i know of will allow us to have more access and oversight so that we can look in and if there's potentially something going on that doesn't look right we can raise that issue so whatever we can do to have better oversight and insight into a bank account or whatever would assist in providing better oversight of that program. >> i appreciate that. i have a number of questions i am going to submit for the record. senator birch, did you have more for the panel? senator brown? i note senator begich just arrived and before i have believed to dismiss the panel to you have questions? if not we will submit questions for the record. we want you to respond to those in a timely fashion. at this point thank you very much for your testimony. i'd like to excuse this panel and move to the second panel. to be expeditious i'm going to introduce you as you are coming up. so if everybody can keep the comments down as you move around, that would be great. i to understand that there were a lot of bills that some of the panelists at dressed in their written testimony, so i want to thank all of you for your participation. it benefits of this committee to know your comments. we are going to be hearing from jeff steele, the assistant legislative director at the american legion. joe violante for the disabled american veterans. raymond kelley got a nationalistic of director for the veterans of foreign war, jerry ensminger is a retired master sergeant in the united states marine corps, and javan cox is the national secretary-treasurer of the american federation of government employees. i think all of you for coming before the committee today with your testimony. mr. steele, i'm going to begin with you and i know you barely sat down. are you ready to go? okay. thank you. >> churn and coloring the member for turkoman members, think if the opportunity to present the views on legislation pending before the committee. i will admit my remarks to three issues we would like to highlight for today's hearing. the american legion supports s. 815, the sanctity of the eternal rest for veterans act be read this bill would create a zone and protection of funerals for limiting protests within 300 feet of a funeral for 120 minutes proceeding or falling in service and any cemetery in the country additionally the bill would extend the zone to 500 feet for in a memorial service and cemetery under control of the national cemetery administration in arlington national cemetery. the american legion supports the freedom of speech, protected by the first amendment to the constitution which all our members or to protect and appalled. however the supreme court has made it clear that, and i could come protected speech is not equal the permissible in all places and times. the trace of where, and of quote, the choice of where and when to conduct picketing is not beyond the government regulatory reach. it is a including the supreme court subject to reasonable time, place or manner restrictions come end of quote. we embrace fully a world where groups espouse very and unpopular political messages have the ability to voice those concerns and proper in use. however, in so doing it is not necessarily to harm the grieving families of or heroes. this legislation will protect families of fallen soldiers and help preserve the dignity of military demos from those who wish to disruption and cost and suffering while respecting the intent of the first amendment. finally it should be noted there is no cost to this bill will be priceless for the families of the following service members. s 490 would expand eligibility requirements for children who receive health care under the civilian health and medical program of the va. the and of the bill is to give the champ va the same benefits available to other americans to establish the patient protection affordable care act signed into law last year. prior to the passage of the legislation concerns were raised the provisions extending health insurance coverage and pending children under 26 did not extend to tricare or champ va beneficiaries. the fiscal 2011 national defense authorization act enacted earlier this year gave the defense department the authority it needed to extend tricare coverage to young adults. this leads on the champ va beneficiaries without this extended dillinger nobody. it is only fair to afford children who are chance va beneficiaries the same eligibility. surely coverage for veterans family members and in need should meet this national standard. the american legion supports this bill. s 1104, the transition assistance program audit act of 2011 calls for an independent third-party audit of the department of labor transition assistance program were tap every three years to ensure it is providing services up-to-date and useful to serve as members and spouses making the initial transition from military service to the civilian work place. while acknowledging the current efforts underway to reform the top program the fact remains it should not have taken the department of labor nearly two decades to modernize this program, and the department should welcome the assistance the would come from an independent audit recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the program and figure intervals. the american league and supports this bill. it would recommend, however, that a sunset provision be added to the bill. this concludes my statement. i would be pleased to answer any questions you or the committee might have. thank you. >> thank you. mr. violante? >> chairman murray, a ranking member burr, members of the committee, on behalf the disabled american veterans, i am pleased to be here today to present our views on the bill under consideration. these bills impact almost every va business line as of those programs under the distinction of other departments. as requested, am i oral remarks will focus on the bills and issues with which we have the greatest interest and concerns. many of the bills under consideration today address important gaps in services to disabled veterans or enhance and improve the current programs. the delegates to the most recent national convention in august, 2010 passed numerous resolutions mandating the support for many of the issues under the consideration by this committee. and i have identified the dav's position in detail in my written statement. however, as congress considers authorizing new programs or enhancing or expanding the current programs, it is the social they do so in a manner that does not have negative effects on existing programs and services. in today's economic environment, the va cannot be all things to all veterans and families and survivors without obtaining substantially more resources which are dependable and stable. if we are to increase the services the va must provide we must also allow the va the time and the resources to properly plan how best to deliver the services offerings by congress to a deserving of veteran population. madam chairman, five dav and our members are acutely aware of the -- aware and grateful veterans programs have benefited from generous increases and have been scared from deep cuts facing other federal programs. however, we also realize that we are a nation at war and that war produces more sick, disabled and wounded veterans every day. thereby increasing the need for the va services for veterans. as of this committee knows well, veterans needs do not end when the shooting stops. the va is still carrying for the widows of world war when veterans, veterans and families of world war ii, and all of the war since. the va today also confronted with a new generation of war disabled veterans that many complicated and expensive needs that will continue for decades to come. all of this demand put extreme pressure on the va current resources. in the face of this ambitious legislative agenda, we ask this committee not to forget its responsibility to ensure when it mandates a new service in law or at mincy new eligible population the va rules, that sufficient resources a company that mandate to ensure the promise is kept the creation or expansion of a new benefit should not create the unintended consequences of restricting, reducing or limiting benefits or services currently available. authorizing new or expanded current programs without providing new financial human and capital resources will only force va to slice their budget into smaller pieces. and when a relatively fewer resources are available, va is forced to ration services an outcome that should not be supported by this committee. madam chairman, what we share the goal of expanding access to va health care for all eligible veterans including those who live in their role remote location, dav believes that doing so would not diminish or threaten the quality-of-care for the emerald veterans. sustaining a robust va health care system capable of providing a full continuum of high-quality time the health care to all general veterans remains one of the highest priorities. we have concerns about the proposes to increase access to the v.a. health care but do not identify or guarantee new funding to pay for extended care. in particular, care provided to veterans outside of the va system would pay for from within the va budget must be done in a judicious manner. so was not to endanger va's ability to maintain a full range of specialized inpatient and outpatient services for enrolled veterans. va must maintain a critical mass of capital, human and technical resources to promote effective high-quality care for veterans especially those with complex health problems such as blindness, amputation, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and mental health problems. madam chairman, we've noted in our testimony the bills that we support. i would like to note that we strongly support passage of 894 which provides a cost of living adjustment for disability compensation and other payments. however, we oppose a continuing rounding down of the cost-of-living adjustment. veterans are the only federal recipients who have such a rounding down. madam chairman and members of the committee, this concludes my statement, and i would be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you. mr. kelley? >> madam chair, ranking member, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to allow me to testify today. and on behalf of the 2.1 million members of the veterans of foreign, i'm going to limit my remarks to just a handful of the bills that were on the table today. when the vfw supports the concept of the caring for completion veterans act of 2011, while we believe the government has a moral obligation to provide care for those affected by contaminated water at camp lejeune, we would emphasize the burden of care provided for the family members affected should be on the department of defense. the vfw supports es 4011, homelessness can best be reduced with local solution. the bill would allow the va and local communities to partner together to help reach the goal of the eradicating veterans homelessness. vfw add my years the concept of s. 423 but house reservations and will withhold support for the legislation. the veterans can perform all the medical evidence available, making the claim appear to be fully developed, but further medical tests could be needed to determine severity of the disability. the vfw also believes this could lead to new types of appeal. if a veteran feels the submitted a claim and the d.a. decides to do additional but unnecessary development, should the veteran be allowed to protest or repeal the additional development or appeal the effective date? also, the fully developed incentive is not limited to initial claims. symbol claims being reopened for an increase that take little to no development would qualify for the retroactive payment. as it claims for certain hospitalized veterans would lead to every 100% rating. all these veterans would need is a report of hospitalization with an entry and discharge date, diagnosis, and they would qualify for one year of retroactive pay and 100% rating. the vfw does not believe this is the intent of the legislation, that identifies the most potential unintended consequences. vfw also sees an impact in veterans service officers to help veterans file claims. if the service officer pronounces a claim full developed, the va develops the claim further liability on the service officer and the nds so could increase when the federal and sues them for the loss of the retroactive payment because the va or the vso stated it was developed. the vfw supports esen 745 the legislation protect students currently enrolled and degrees seeking program for any possible negative effect of changes that were made in the post 9/11 g.i. bill last year. these students chose their degree program with expectation the yellow ribbon program they began with would still be there until they completed their degree. we must keep up our end of the bargain. the vfw supports s. y s. 18 and we fully support any legislative effort that emphasizes the right of free speech that emphasizes the right of free speech doesn't trumpet family's right to mourn in private. those who use the first amendment as both the shield and sword to harm their fellow citizens need to have limits on such abuse and s. 815 provides limits. vfw supports s. 951 the hiring heroes act of 2011. i'd like to highlight a few of the provisions of the bill. tap must be mandatory for service members leaving the military. the vfw also believes consultation with the va should be included in all tap programs. the correct hiring authority for the federal agencies and offering citizen work experience for potential civilian or civil service employees while on leave would cut down on the red tape for veterans seeking careers within the federal work force. the intent of the vote had this to ensure veterans who are disabled and the line of duty would be trained and employable in a new field. if a figure and has used the rehab benefits yet remains unemployed, than their initial rehab program clearly has failed. adding an additional two years of the benefits to those veterans would greatly assist them in finding employment. madame chair, this concludes my oral remarks and i look forward to any questions the committee may have. >> thank you very much. mr. ensminger. >> good morning. my name is jerry ensminger. i served our nation faithfully for nearly a quarter of a century in the united states marine corps. i want to personally thank you, madam chair, and senator byrd, the ranking member and senior senator from my home state of north carolina. for providing me this opportunity to testify and support s. to 77 the caring for camp lejeune veterans act of 2011. i became deeply involved in researching the history of the water contamination at camp lejeune nearly 13 years ago. after i learned that my daughter, jane, was exposed to the base contaminated drinking water. my daughter was the only one of my four daughters to have been conceived, carried or worn while living aboard camp lejeune. when she was 6-years-old, our entire world was turned upside down. after she was diagnosed with acute lymphoma or aol. she fought a battle for nearly two and a half years. but she ultimately lost that war. we watched her go through hell during her illness, and all who love her, we went through with her. she succumbed to her disease on it 24th of september, 1985. she was only 9-years-old. unlike the tragic stories of combat troops who have died in the past decade overseas or have come home with broken bodies and painful memories, the human tragedies caused by this massive contamination incident have been going on for many decades in private homes and private hospital rooms in every state and territory of our nation. .. >> i along with marines and family members have devoted years of our lives and marine corps documents to find the truth about how the contamination was allowed to continue, despite the warnings given to them. my 13 year journey has taken me and my allies down many paths. it has led us to numerous revealing and very, very troubling discoveries related. i must say that some of the most troubling have been the department of the navy and united states marine corps own documents which clearly revealed the leadership knowledge that the tap water was contaminated nearly five years before they took any action. to locate the sources or to stop it from flowing. another disturbing revelation has been the discovery of the marine corps regulations. some dating back as far as 1963. that required a protective standard of care for the bases drinking water systems. had the regulations and orders been followed, moat of -- most f the tragedies would have been diversed. lastly as a career marine, the most audacious has been the lack demonstrated by the army and marine corps related to the issues. a problem that continues to this day and reaches the highest level of leadership. the document that is we have uncovered there have been many half truths and outright lies by the organizations and heard leaders and statements to the press and correspondence to the affected community members, in brochures issued to congress, and, yes, even in congressional testimony. but i would be more than willing if these mischaracterizations are too numerous for me to miss here today in the testimony. but i would be more than willing to provide examples today if the committee is interested and i would gladly sit down with any senator and staff members to point these things out. i would encourage everyone to visit our web site and view the timeline of events leading to our home page. our timeline of events is interactive. the reader can click on the blue document movers embedded in each entry to access the department of the navy and united states marine corps own duck documents. it was done to ensure the reader we don't speculate and that our timeline is factual. senator burr's bills is a step in the right direction. and some of you may not know this, but camp lejeune is the largest documented dod and contaminated incident on record. i know that some member of congress and couple of national veterans service organizations groups have expressed the lack of support for s277 when it was introduced as s218 in 2009. much have come to light. in the past year and a half, previously undisclosed documents showed that the navy estimated it was far greater than imagined in 2009. one navy documents sates that the total fuel losses from underground storage tanks on the base could have reached beyond $1 million and caused massive amounts of benzene, a known human carcinogen, to be infiltrated the drinking water systems. i would think that anyone here today found out the water they had been drinking contained gasoline would fine it alarming. there are currently over 170,000 members of the camp lejeune community who have registered with the marine corps since 2008. they come from every state in the nation. i have heard the stories over the years and crisscrossed the country looking for information and meeting weren'ts and the families. in the past two years alone, we have discovered over 70 men who lived at camp lejeune, who now have male breast cancer. a rare disease which afflicts only about 2,000 men a year in the entire united states. this issue is the subject of an award winning documentary titled sempra fie always faithful. i hope the senators on the committee will take a closer look at the issue and seriously consider the scope of the contamination and what we owe to the loved ones who were exposed to camp lejeune. i ask each of you to see the film or send a member of your staff to do so. this very real story is finally being told after years in the shadows. and the people who's lives are directly affected by it need help. s277 is the first step towards doing the right thing. thank you, i look forward to your questions and thank you for bearing with me in my overage of time. >> thank you very. i appreciate your continued diligence and work on this important issue. >> mr. cox. >> thank you for the opportunity to be here today and testify on s572 on behalf of the government employees. the largest employee representative of federal employees including over 80,000va title 38 medical professionals. chairman murray, this is my first opportunity to testify for you as a chairman and i join with the senator snow and commending you and feel and being chairman of the committee. as a man that spend 40 years being a registered nurse, i applaud you as chairman and look forward to the leadership. is -- s572 provides a small common sense fix. the law that gives va professionals the right to grieve and negotiate over routine pay matters. the va must be accountable for it's own pay policies. sending to law is the only way to get that accountability. how can anyone oppose making the va abide by it's own pay rules? last year secretaryies acknowledged the widespread abuse of va payrolls and pulled back the under secretary authority to make 7422 determination. now all 7422 cases go before the secretary. you may hear from opponents that s572 creates new rights and give va more rights than other federal employees. this is simply not true. medical professionals who work for the department of defense and bureau of prisoners can grieve and negotiate agency violations of pay rules. all the bill does is restore the same rights in the va. under va's current policy on compensation bargaining, registers nurses working weekends have no recourse when he refuses to provide weak and premium pay, even though it's required by the va own pay regulation. va own management officials have acknowledged they cannot run their hospitals if they did not apply the same payrolls as every other health care provider. however, the va found an unexpected loophole in the law. the compensation in section 7422. the broad interration prevents the nurse pay and 2010 caregivers, as well as other nurse and position pay laws passed in recent years to keep va pay competitive. it is clear the congress intended to provide va medical professionals with full bargaining rights. such rights as other employees in the va and the rest of the federal government. congress enacted section 7422 and it's been a direct response to the federal court decision that the va had the right to refuse to bargain with a group of colorado nurses. the plain language in section 7422 confirms that only compensation matters that are off of the bargaining table are establishment, determination, and adjustment of employee compensation. that's because congress has federal pay scales. the va has never been able to come up with an example of the union trying to bargain over pay scales. even in the face of the clear intent and va past agreement, the va continues to refuse to bargain over the pay disputes that have nothing to do with setting pay scales. this is why the law needs to be tweaked. to clarify what congress intended and what is common sense and helps the workplace. the va interpretation maybe permissible under the laws. but it is definitely not preferable. va current policy divert time and money away from direct veteran services through protracted labor management and the cost of losing nurses and doctors and other clinicians to other employees. we all vote with our feet when it comes time to getting paid properly for the work to do. in short, s572 restores what congress intended, saves va health care dollars that should be spent on veterans and helps the va remain an employee of choice in the health care marketplace. thank you very much. i'll be glad to take any questions. >> thank you very much for your testimony. let me start with you. in supporting the hiring heros act, you stated that it is critical that we bridge the gap between this and the civilian work force. i wanted to ask you today if you could share with this committee what you think the biggest challenges are facing our young veterans when they try to get a job when they come home? >> the biggest challenge is the job market itself. we have suffered in 2007-2008 massive financial crisis that has led to a large overhang. this is an overhang that will take years to work off. therefore, acknowledgement of that fact will -- and this is in difference to senator burr, what we can expect to do. there's only so much you can do. it makes it important that we acknowledge that and maybe target certain programs only for the time that it takes to recover. instead of making open-ended programs forever. this is trying to balance those senators concerns. the one other thing i would note is in my opinion, young veterans will always be lagging behind those of the same age for several reasons. those who never served, i believe that in time though, they will hold their own in the job market and give them that time, they are prove their worth. thank you. >> mr. violante, or kelley, what are the biggest challenges today? >> i think one the things that you've pointed out in your bill is the fact that government spends millions of dollars training the individuals and it's difficult when they come out to get the licenses and that they need to continue to practice the work they've been training for. that's one the biggest obstacles to eliminate that, i think we would see more veterans or more military flowing into civilian jobs a lot easier. >> i think it's cultural. military has culture, civilian life has a culture. they don't mesh. military personnel, especially if they are enlisted has probably never done a job interview. they have never had to go out and fill out a resumé. they had a recruiter find them. please join the military. take a test. they get to choose what job they want. they go into the military. get the training they need. when they leave they aren't prepared because of the way the military has worked that everything has been presented to them. now they don't understand how to work in that civilian environment. and providing them with reculture ration, having them under the process of getting a civilian job. what's important to say. how to present yourself. how to have a quality resumé that doesn't look like it's a military transcript done. those are the key issues. >> part of that requirement? >> yes. >> okay. i've heard a lot from veterans about their frustration with having to wait years for the board of veterans appeals to issue a decision on their appeal. on the agenda today is my legislation that seeks to reduce the delay by changing the way that new evidence is considered. do you agree we need to streamline and expedite the appeals process? >> that's one of the goals. we certainly support that and believe that your legislation would help us do that. >> the american legion agrees. >> vfw also agrees. >> very good. thank you. mr. cox, va testimony's refers to a joint work group. is that your view the work of the group reduces the need for senator brown's collective bargaining bill? >> no, ma'am, i don't agree with that. the work group has concluded. there were unions that came to an agreement with the va, afge, which is the largest union the va did not come to agreement with the results of what the final product that the secretary offered. there was consensus in the work group from the va officials that came to the work group and everyone agreed then it went back to the secretary and he passed on what the work group had consensus on. and afg could not agree. i believe the legislation is very important. it's nothing more than the va gets to decide the pay, all of the rules, the regulations, if they write them, they should be willing to live by them. and all afg is asking is for them to live by their own rule and for a way to enforce that. >> thank you very. i appreciate it. i do have more questions to submit to all of you. i will turn it over for any questions that he may have. >> thank you, madame chairman. let me give you an easy one. i mentioned earlier that i'm committed to providing veteran families with the benefits that they need and deserve. i want to make sure we pay for those benefits in the services by looking at other programs and looking at cuts so that we can -- so that we can continue to provide the benefit without saddling future generations of americans with enormous debt. i want to ask any that would like to submit to me areas that are current programs that could be eliminated because of the usefulness of them. maybe their time has run out. programs that have over lap or duplicative program. where it could be cheaper, but more importantly effective. any of the suggestions that they can provide, i'm interested. i'm sure the committee is interested in looking at them. david, let me ask in march 1995, kenneth kaiser, the under secretary of health wrote vision for change. that introduced the concept of restructuring the veterans health. in his paper, dr. kaiser anticipated it could range between seven and ten full-time employees. you noticed a significant growth in the number of employees in the visit? >> well, it's been five years since i worked for the va. i would suspect that number is higher than ten, senator. i'm sure the va could give you exact numbers on how many are working and employed by the business now. >> so far they have ignored the e-mail request. do you have any idea about the total number of employees? >> no, sir, i do not. i know it's higher than ten. i'm very certain it's higher. >> does afve have what would be a suitable amount for staff? >> that's a very broad statement, senator to ask. part of the way they consolidated services to this, many things that was done in individual medical senators now done as a collective hole. the employees and how they operate and those vary from visit to visit. i don't think we've come as a number. we would certainly be interested in the number of administrative employees that work and visit offices in the visit management level that actually, you know, the worker bees that's getting all of the veterans care out there in the medical centers is a whole different story. >> when i get the numbers, write down how many is administrative. i'll share it with you. >> thank you very much, sir. you can get them to pay us properly too. >> one the consolidations, by the way win don't think you find this shocking is that the business, medical facilities report to the business. sexual abuse claims. and it might enlighten us to some degree. the layers we have put in between the medical center and the ig. jerry, listen, you and i have talked many times and for some members, they are just hearing the story of camp lejeune marines. you've had an opportunity to tell the country. i've stated in the past that i perceived, it's problemmic have the department of defense be the provider of this population. i'm not going to go back through my case. i'll make it at the appropriate time. you've been out with the marines. you've been out with their families. what do they think? do they want to keep the dod in track care? or be under the va? >> thanks for asking me that, senator burr. because the general consensus is that everybody i speak to, and, you know, i would ask anybody, anybody that recommends that the department -- we be turned back over to the department of defense is the very people that was respond for poisoning us for our health care. they trust them? when today they are still denying they did anything wrong? how would they work out? i mean i'm sorry. dod still hasn't stepped up to the plate on this issue. they are still in denial. they are fighting and scratching at every inch to deny and escape the situation. like i said in my testimony. why would anybody even ask us to trust the department of defense with our health care. and that's the way, senator burr, most the victims feel. >> jerry, in the last panel somebody referred atstr. some members know that's the agency within cdc that charged statutorily with the investigation of the level of contamination. we had to do some rather rough thinged in the last 18 months to get the department of the navy pay for what the law required them to pay for. share with everybody what the level of cooperation is today between the department of the navy and the corps with the atsdr investigation. >> well, senator, thank you. it's like i said in my testimony, there's been many half truths and lies been distributed by the department and the navy and the marine corps representing to the issue. one of them was a letter that they sent out to every member that was registered on their web site. in that letter it stated that the national research council report had done a evaluation of exposures to certain chemicals in the water in june and they are expected negative health outcomes. and that one the chemicals they said that the nrc assessed was benzene. a known carcinogen. they never assessed benzene. if they would have, the affects would have been in the category in their report. but yet the department of navy and marine corps persist on saying that they did assess benzene. that misinformation was distributed to everybody that was registered on their web site. senators burr, hagan, senator nelson from florida, congressman brad miller, and congress john bangel sent a letter to the secretary of the navy asking him to rectify the mischaracterization of the nic report. their response was the secretary of the navy went to the nrc and had the director of the nrc answer a better that was written last october by the director of atsdr. that -- i'm sorry. i mean -- this is just a vision circle. >> jerry, thank you for that. the chairman that's been very kind and with me on the time that i have gone over again what i think the chair. >> important questions. thank you very much. >> senator begich. >> thank you, madame chair, i want to if i could to mr. steele and kelley and violante, i want to talk about the heros court. i want to describe it because sometimes there's -- and i read your testimony in detail and your concerns are equal treatment, fairness, reimbursements, let me describe alaska for a second. first off, i was just there on memorial day. and in quig, alaska, you have to fly from anchorage to bethel and then bethel to quig. there's no road. it took two and a half hours of travel time -- air time. in our state, we have the premier indian hill services in the country. why? indian hill services doesn't run it. we run it. our travel communities took control of indian hill services because they wanted to deliver health care the right way. is we have veterans in quig. in order to get to anchorage, it's $2,000 for transportation. who paying for that? veterans, administration. yet there's a clinic right across the street or road because there are no streets. trail. that's run by the indian hill services by the tribal consortium. providing the incredible health care in gnome, alaska we are building $170 million state-of-the-art care facility. if the veteran is there, they will not be able to use that facility. they will have to get in a plane, they cannot drive, because there are no roads, 80% of the communities. there's no state like this. as a testimony, i know you want to three to keep everything -- there's no state like this. there's no state that you can drive to another clinic. but yet there is a high quality run facility right there. and what we're trying to do here, and if you read this, i understand that your commentary and how you've written some of your testimony. the key part is roadless cities in alaska. that is pretty narrow. we have more and more, you know this, more and more veterans living in rural communities in the country. i can tell you right now in alaska with 77,000 veterans, highest per capita of any state, we have the high percentage in rural alaska. we want to provide them the best care. we believe this piece of legislation will actually lower the cost of the va. when the individual has to fly to anchorage and then sometimes to seattle because we have no va hospital. let me make sure we are clear on that. we don't have a hospital. we have a clinic and sea box. that's it. we have to fly. thousands and thousands of dollars. and away from their families. you know, veteran for care is critical to be closer to families. be able to have access. i want to work with you folks. your concerns are easy to be met by, i think, clarification. i want your response. it's hard to understand alaska until you've been to one of the small villages and meet the veteran who told me and the secretary of the va in order to get the care the fly alone was $2,000. that means someone cannot have -- that's going for airline ticket. it doesn't seem right. so can you give me some comments? i've given you -- it's a statement. but i want your comments so you understand where you are coming from. it's not montana, utah, north carolina, it's not washington. it's very different. any one of you three want to comment? >> senator, i'm not an expert on va health care. i have staff that focus on that. but i do think your question should be directed to the va. i mean they have the authority to provide the base care. >> we did that for years. it didn't work. that's the problem. and the reality is we have a fully-federally funded indian hill services sitting right there, run by a travel consortium delivers equal, or some cases to be frank, higher quality. so i understand the question. but you have posed or questions on mine. i'm asking you -- >> well, that's our concerns. va has the authority. they can provide community care or contract care when necessary. i don't understand, maybe they have explained it to you, why they would want to spend $2,000 to fly a veteran when they could go to a clinic nearby. to me that doesn't make sense. i'd like to know va's answer to that. with the authority they have, they should be able to take care of the veterans. if they are not, maybe what should be happening is oversight by the committee, getting va in here to find out why they are not doing that. i mean i just had my deputy went to the department convention in west virginia. and a veteran came up to her and said he's been on basis for years as a service connected disability rated higher than 50%. and they told him they didn't have funds to continue to do that. now this is the same va that this year said they have a 1.1 billion carryover and would like to split it up between 2012 and 2013. things aren't making sense. and our concern is va needs to be doing what they should be doing and i agree with senator burr that we need to be looking at ways for them to do it better. i just am not comfortable with your bill and what it means to other veterans also around the country who may not be in such severe situations but still in need of health care when va has the authority to take care of most of this. >> i believe joe stated the very articulately, i don't believe i have a whole lot to add. it's my understanding though that va and indian affairs is working to try to figure out a single pay method i'd like to understand that a little bit better and where that's going and if that would be an effective alternative to a veterans card that would allow them to use any of the fares. >> madame chair, i know we are over time. if i make a comment. they are mou driven by our efforts. the one thing we don't want to do with veterans, constantly worry about how to get service. we had one here three or four weeks ago. the individuals talking and the past facilities to go to the feed based because of some arrangement they had. and a lot, you don't get to drive. there are -- there's no other doctor in indian hills service. every single village in alaska has a clinic. there's no place like it. because we have to deliver health care in a very different way. so that's why they are doing the mou. they know something like this is necessary or at least they are aware that we have to figure the problem out. the current fee base system doesn't work in alaska because of the way the system is. it's a federal government facility and another federal government facility. not a private doctor sitting out there. getting the service. it's a different situation. and that's why it's draft. i'm going to work with you folks. every time i go to a veterans organization in alaska, when i mention this and go to a lot of speeches, senator, we get applause at the end. this issue, the way i described, it's not just an applause, it's a standing ovation. alaskan veterans understand this is the care to access it. they have tried the other ways. it doesn't work. i want to have you have an open mind and i hope we have described alaska a little. i'd love to take you to quig and drive on the road and fly into the airport that's a dirt road and a pad. that's what we are trying to accomplish. i'll work with you. i understand, i really think this is alaska is so critical that the veterans get the care that's sitting, you know 50 feet away and they can't touch it. i'll leave it at that. >> thank you, senator begich. senator? >> thank you. i apologize for leaving. we had a markup on the first responders bill. i want to thank senator begich for his help and with the bill that we've introduced. we appreciate you, madame chair, for allowing us to bring it forward. i appreciate all that you do and pushing your things forward and the support of the bill. again, we appreciate you and appreciate all that you represent. and i will put my statement in the record if it's okay with you. >> all right. >> i yield back. >> thank you very much. i want to thank all of our panelist for being here today. we will have more questions to submit to the record. i look forwarded to working with you as we develop legislation on today's hearing which is scheduled to take place on wednesday june 29th. and i want all of you to know as chair of this committee, i'm going to continue to make sure this committee does all it can to ensure the veterans receive the benefits and services they have earned through their service to this nation. thank you very much. with that, this hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> in a few moments, the federal communication commission looks at local media in the digital age -- >> federal communications reports says there's a shortage of local journalism. before looking at the findings of the 18-month long study, the meeting of the fcc began with the test of the energy alert system. this is two and a half hours. >> chief of the security bureau and administrator of fema will give a presentation regarding the emergency alert system. >> thank you, admiral burnett. i'm going to give you the floor in a minute. i want to welcome our partners from -- from fema, damon penn, assistant administrator, thank you for coming to help with the presentation, also i've lost your name mark paese. paese. >> i practiced before. >> from the national weather service. thank you both for coming. thank you for your ongoing work, admiral burnett. the floor is yours. >> thank you, i'm proud to be before you with my friend and colleague, the administrator of the federal emergency management agency, to brief you and in fact with my friend and colleague, martin paese, director for the national oceanic and atmos spheric has been another key partner in the emergency alerting system. on november 9 of this year at 2 p.m. eastern standard time, the commission fema and noaa will conduct the first test of eas. while eas has been around for many years, this is the first nationwide test. it's essential to ensures the eas functions intended during an energy. as we learned during the recent disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in japan and tornadoes and floods, reliable emergency program is the key. first let me provide background on eas. it relays on media-based communications. it's designed to transmit emergency alert at the national, state, and local levels. eas has been in existence since 1994 though it's antecedents had been around since the 50s. broadcasters, satellite, radio, satellite television, as well as cable television and video providers all participate in the system. these eas participates provide tremendous public service by transmitting thousands of alerts each year, regarding whether threats, child abductions, and many types. the slide that you see with shows how the present day reaches the public. it's a message distribution system. and an alert maybe issued by an authorized official at the gnash, -- at the national, state, or local level to a special message to a special network that delivers the message to eas participates. if public safety officials need to send an alert to a large region or even the entire country, we need to know the system will work as intended. only a top-down simultaneous test of all components can provide an appropriate diagnosis of a systemwide performance. we along with the federal partners wanted to conduct the first national test as soon as possible. however, we felt it was prudent to conduct the test when hurricane season was nearing it's end and before the severe winter weather beginning. after consultation with eas participates, we chose november 9th and chose 2 p.m. eastern standard time to minimize during rush hours. after the first test, the test will likely be routine. it may come at different times like the weekly and monthly tests now. it's designed to work with other methods are unavailable. while there's no guarantee that other communication methods will withstand, various elements of the eas will designed to withstand such calamities. the bureau will release the notice announcing the state and time. in addition, the bureau has begin meetings with fema and stakeholders to begin dialogues in the operational issues in advance of the test. the bureau is also working to develop a dedicated web site to provide information about the test to the public. i'd like to thank several people at the fcc, fema, and noaa for their hard work. specifically bureau chief, lisa folks, he's for liability and alerting. also greg cook, aaron, tom beers, damon pin, wade, antoine, and john, and also eric for all of their work on these emergency alerting issues. now i'd like to turn it over to damon pin of fema. >> thank you. mr. chairman, commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. it's really a great day for the chairman and fema to be able to jointly announce the national test of the eas partnership that have been firm. a couple with that and mark and his efforts at noaa, it really produced a vital service to the american people. thanks to all of us gathered for recognizing the importance and continued support of public alert and systems, also known as ipause. i'd like to talk how eas fits into ipause. and alerts and warnings. as many of you know, our programs hit the stride. again, that's been in really due to our partnership with the fcc and our relationships that we've built with the industry. but we've established common alert protocols as a standard and the outreach and relationship have made the turn around overall. as i describe ipause and how it helps us reach more of the american population of energy occurs, i want to ensure you that eas is a critical element. we completed two preliminary tests. we found that the system functions as advertised. we are forced to learn technical lessons and modified procedures. we have a basic understanding and basic agreement that the system will work as has been advertised. we've shared our findings with the fcc and broadcasters and in november will show the american public that we have the courage to conduct a test to the system. therefore we will evaluate and take steps and without a test, we are simply hoping the test will work as planned. as we reanalyzed, the task given to us, we quickly realize that accomplishing the task was more complex than the old beginning than it had in the 1950s. alerting the public is means and methods that needs to be all levels and reach the public. when we decided -- we also decided we needed a way to include technology and use ideas that exist and needed a way to incorporate emerging technology. we threw out the concept that we had of a requirement based approach and develop an applications approach. when we apply the approach to ipause, it becomes an device that we can use to exercise existing capabilities. but we open ipause to countless over applications that we have not even systemed. we abandon the my way or the highway approach. once that was approved, that allows us to show the leadership of the nation that we are looking much further into the future and setting a standard for inoperatability and all alerts and equipment. now if a vendor wants to develop, he can bring it to us and emergency managers can know in peace of mind that the equipment is compatible with any message that the federal government can send and any message that they want to generate. we've opened up the opportunity for development of new methods and warning at the same time. potential is boundless. now we can take emerging technology in the midwest and incorporate that, and incorporate signage initiatives in the southeast, we can include the internet, the mask can be maximized, for the potential it has for cell phones in reached community and in that method, and also reach out to community with disabilities and using this devices that they have. they will still be notified. to give you an idea of the potential and how it's -- the extended beyond some of our wildest dreams, noaa is helping us develop the capability to integrate the systems with several database and send multiple messages with instructions on how to protect themselves. as a another example, the national public radio can take one of our text messages and translate it through a voice to a braille reader. the sky and the imagination are only the limit that is we have to how to alert the public to eminence danger. to close again, thank you, commissioner, or mr. chairman and thank, commissioner for your support of ipause and in federal thanks to the team for helping us make this a reality and taking a great step forward. thank you, sir. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> we weren't letting mark talk. he's saving his voice for hurricane season. but he is available during your questions. >> thank you so all of you. let me ask if my colleagues have any comments. >> i think it's great news to do a test of the system. it's a national challenge. but also a national opportunity to develop the system that we are going to increasingly rely on to deal with national crises and weather emergencies and manmade and amber alerts that save abducted children. i want to highlight two things and commend the public partnership behind this. you mentioned all of the stakeholders and participate. it's a pretty wide range of folks. getting them working together and pulling together for the common good was admiral -- admirable. we found that out a couple of years ago. i also want to commend the interagency coordination that you've done here with damon and mark and others too. this is such an urgent priority. we have to have absolutely seamness coordination and cooperation when you were talking about coping with disasters like the ones that we have coped with in recent months and recent years too. so i want to commend that interagency cooperation that you've done here and i want to particularly commend admiral burnett for doing the same thing and many other issues under your office and under the bureau. i think that's commendable and a wonderful example for all of us as we seek to protect our people in the 21st century. thank you. and i wish you luck. and the test will run into some problems, we'll see some glitches. but you are already learning from the alaska experience. that's great. we'll learn a lot from this one too. i'm enthused and happy that you are here. >> thank you. >> just to echo the words of my distinguished colleague that as i've traveled the country in the past five years and served on the commission, i hear -- have hear from broadcasters and public safety officials the need to do exactly what you are doing. this is actually a historic step to learn a lot and make a lot of great progress here and it's going to help protect the system and the resources of our great nation. thank you for doing what you are doing. we look forward to the process. we look toward to -- look forward to learns about it and how to do better. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. >> i commend the staff of the public safety homeland and community -- community also. but security bureaus noaa, fema, and others for the hard work and coordination necessary to conduct the first ever top-to-bottom nationwide test of the emergency system. the goal is all americans if they are tuning into their favorite tv or radio station on 2 p.m. on november th should be able to see or hear those test alert. those like me who hail from states vulnerable to hurricane know too well that valuable time is during an emergency. i'm glad under the leadership of chairman genachowski and admiral burnett are doing all they can. thank you. >> thank you so much. i want to echo a couple of points. one on interagency coordination. it's symbolic that we have here not only admiral burnett from our team, but fema and the national weather service because we know that proper emergency alerting and response in the country can't happen without, effective, efficient interagency coordination. just the three of you here reflects a tremendous amount of interagency coordination that occurs on a regular basis and that includes agencies that aren't represented here today. that's a big deal. i commend everyone for working together on this and doing it in the spirit that's reflected by the presentations today. the second point is that this is commissioner mcdowell. this is historic. and, in fact, we're in the middle of what i believe is developed -- developing to be a time of a series of historic steps when it comes to emergency alerting and response. so this specific test, the first top-to-bottom the eas is in itself historic. the other steps touched upon today, some that weren't were also part of a full set of initiatives that are targeted at making sure we are harnessing modern technology to communicate with people in the way that is effective in times of emergency. and so what we all grew up with traditional eas remains very important. but can no longer be the only way that we seek to alert people. and the work that's been done in the last several months on plans, the mobile alerting service, it is very important part of the puzzle. the interoperability that you mentioned in the systems and protocols is a very important historical development. the progress that we're now making on getting a national interoperable, mobile broadband public safety up and running. yesterday the subcommittee, or full committee improved important legislation in this area. next generation 9-1-1. where there's still a lot of work to do. but it is now a matter that is being actively pursued in another area where i believe we can make progress of historical significance. so for all of that, on behalf of the public, we are grateful to the work that you are doing. we know that the eas test is extremely important. i think one the most impressive things is that you are thinking about the eas test not in a vertical silo unrelated to other emergency alerting mechanisms. but that you are thinking about the whole playing field. and that makes complete sense because from the perspective of a citizen and ordinary person, you want to make sure when you need to be alerted about something that's going wrong that there's a way to reach you whenever you are efficiently so that you have information that you can act on and save lives and protect your family. so very appreciative of this presentation. thank you again to admiral burnett and your great staff, to fema, national weather service, we look forward to further reports and all of the things that you are doing. thank you. >> thank you, sir. >> madame secretary. our next item please. >> the final item on your agenda today is a presentation on the impact of technology on the information needs of communities. >> mr. walden, prefer -- before i turn it over to steve walden for his presentation, let me say a few words of introduction. in 2009, a bipartisan commission of the night foundation looked at how technology is changing the media landscape and effecting the information needs of communities. the night commission called on the fcc to examine some of the issues more closely and i asked steve walden to come to the commission to lead a working group to do so, to assess the landscape, identify trends, and make recommendations on how the information needs of community can best be met in a broadband world. today i'm proud to say they have completed and delivered their report. the project chair, steve walden is here to present the key findings and recommendations of the staff report. before i turn it over to steve, a few brief comments about th

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