[inaudible conversations] good to see you guys. call this hearing good to see you guys. let s call this hearing to order. today considering what we are dealing with i m sure there s going to be a lot of good questions. to look at the budget for fy 2023 as i said earlier we are very close as you know to having this become a reality. it s a big deal because we are taking care of all areas after decades of inaction by the government. this bill has had a broad bipartisan support with a vast majority of senators voting to move it forward, and i think everybody on the committee would agree we don t need to waste a lot more time to get the benefits where they are due. there is a negotiation on amendments going as we speak. the ranking member and i couldn t do this, but we did agree on a couple of amendments when this bill went out. both republican amendments. unfortunately [inaudible] so, they are continuing to hopefully move forward on that. so, we have a lot to visit about today
Front line defenders on the war on sexual assault, ill say. They report to me overwhelmingly that they think were making progress on all fronts but one. And here comes the hardest of all, i think. Were definitely not satisfied. And that is the issue of retaliation. So, retaliation, by the way, can be if you report sexual assault, the boss takes some action against you, which is or feels like retaliation. Ill call that official retaliati retaliation. The other form is just when your peers in the unit kind of find out whats happened or what allegedly happened and they take sides and maybe they treat you differently or maybe people who are your friends now shun you. Ill call that unofficial retaliation. Our piggest problem is on that unofficial part, people who rush to swrujudgment to and take si who is going to replace dr. La plant as acquisition czar . Rich lombardi is now in the acting capacity. Thats dr. La plants deputy, who has floeeted up to the actig role. Beyond that well have to
Sexual assault response coordinator. I immediate privately with the front line defenders on the war on sexual assault, ill say. They report to me overwhelmingly that they think were making progress on all fronts but one. And here comes the hardest of all, i think. Were definitely not satisfied. And that is the issue of retaliation. So, retaliation, by the way, can be if you report sexual assault, the boss takes some action against you, which is or feels like retaliation. Ill call that official retaliati retaliation. The other form is just when your peers in the unit kind of find out whats happened or what allegedly happened and they take sides and maybe they treat you differently or maybe people who are your friends now shun you. Ill call that unofficial retaliation. Our piggest problem is on that unofficial part, people who rush to swrujudgment to and take si who is going to replace dr. La plant as acquisition czar . Rich lombardi is now in the acting capacity. Thats dr. La plants dep
Call this meeting to order. Welcome, everybody. Hope yall had a great thanksgiving and hope everybody has a wonderful Holiday Season coming up. This is a very important hearing for the United States senate. On november 4th, if my memory is correct, we had a meeting at the va. Sloane gibson, dr. Schulkin and some others were in the room. In terms of Va Health Service delivery to our veterans, veterans choice, consolidating programs, reimbursement rates so there wasnt any preference over another. A reality in our lifetime and in their lifetime. With that will come a number of decisions. This will not be the first time i heard most of this information. We had that meeting before. It will be the first time a lot of people have heard it. Of people have heard it. Of people have heard it. Of people have heard it. This is a critical there are a critical number of decisions we will have to make to make my va work. The new veterans choice work and make sure that va does what it does best well bu
What youve probably thought about in terms of the enabling legislation for this particular program. If you dont do that, then youre building the transformed system on outdated policies that may or hey not have ever been appropriate. They just happened to get through congress and you have to live up to them because theyve been mandated to you. Im not going to get into a lot of questions except that the reason i continue to have this flavor to my discussion is i want to help you establish a plan that transcends your tenure and your positions. So do we. That continues when we get another president. That needs to be articulated. And we need people in the va to put the mirror back on us, saying youre asking me to do this thats shifting away from the other thing you asked me to do. If we do at that, and you put the mirror in, its our problem. If we make a request, and you dont reflect back on us, its your problem. And i want to make this our problem so that we can help facilitate the transfo