Good morning, everyone. The committee will come to order. I welcome our witnesses in person and those that are appearing distancely. We look forward to their testimony and getting a better understanding of where the department of Veterans Affairs and the Third Party Administrators are in administering the mission act. Im also very interested in hearing more today about the caregivers implementation, as well. Almost every member of our committee, though not physically present at the moment, some are joining us in person and others will be joining us, almost every member of our committee will be participating and is expected in todays hearing. The focus of todays hearing is the implementation of title 1 under the mission act by the department of Veterans Affairs related to Veterans Community care programs and the program of comprehensive assistance to family caregivers. I scheduled this hearing because of my dissatisfaction with the pace of mission implementation. While va officials were
Commitment for live Senate Coverage starting in a moment howevewe will recd the presidt elect and have it later on the cspan networks. Live to the senate where they e planning to wk on a nomition for u. S. District court for the Southern District of mississippi. The president pro tempor the senate will come to order. Thchaplain, dr. Barry black, will open the senate with the chaplain let us pray. Eterl redeemer, provide our laakers with your grace, mercy, and peace by your grace, may they forget the challenges behind them. By your mercy, may they reach for the opportunities that beckon. By yr peace, may they possess anquanimity of temperament during lifes fluctuating intricacies. Lord, give them a passion for truth and a reluctance to major minors. Use their exemplary lives to inspire people to live wh faith, purse, and power. Remind us all that though we may planned, you deterne what will finally happen. Amenray in your great name. The president pro tempore please joi me in the pledge
Responsibility. Speaking for myself and i hope others, healthy personal responsibility route will be the will we take. Staffing shortages due to the coronavirus exposure to the short supply of personal protective equipment to a lack of critical equipment like ventilators, are frontline healthcare workers have carried on this fight tremendous challenges. With cases climbing up parts of my state and around the country these heroes are in dire need of another line of defense. And the public, meaning congress on their behalf has the power to provide that help. The same simple steps weve heard about since the beginning of the pandemic we can stop or at least slow the transmission of covid19. Again it gets kiss back to the basics we have all been taught. More or less most of us have been employed. Washing her hands, wearing ain mask, practicing social distancing and dealt let pandemic fatigue win. We all need to remain vigilant committed to these basic practices until the experts threat. Lik
At this point we do not know what led up to the stabbing and we have no information on a possible suspect. We are working to find out more and we will bring you the latest information as we get it. Back to the coronavirus pandemic, some counties are seeing sharp rises in the number of hospitalizations. If rates continue to climb hospitals could exceed capacity. This week california recorded its highest number of cases since the start of the pandemic. They reported 15,000 new cases on saturday. That is the first time that many people have been hospitalized since mid august. Smith is here now after talking with healthcare workers about the new numbers. Reporter the resounding message is hospitals are able to treat patients now but if cases continue to rise at the same rate, hospitals will become overwhelmed. As the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise, hospitals in the area are seeing the impacts. Our unit is approaching full capacity for coronavirus patients. Reporter Regional M
We said tuesday night we knew there would be an effort to count votes that will extend through the week, and now was not the time to get ahead of ourselves. This is how the electoral process is supposed to work. These votes are being counted that were cast in places like arizona. Stage votes were people dropped off ballots on election day. They were set aside, there love the last ones to count, they have a different look to them than the ones cast in advance of the election. We see joe bidens lead diminishing in arizona. In pennsylvania, they set aside all of the early votes and counted the election day votes first, which looked good for donald trump. Now they are counting those ballots that came in later through the electoral vote process, through the early vote process, and it looks much better for joe biden. Until the votes are done, this election is incredibly close, just like in 2016 we have to be patient to decide who the end is. I would say all indication in each of these open s