Watch booktv this weekend on cspan2. President biden has picked Denis Mcdonough to head the Veterans Affairs department. He previously served as white house chief of staff during the last four years of the obama presidency. His confirmation hearing he was asked about veterans access to healthcare, modernization efforts in the das responds to covid19. This is just over two hours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] i i want to call this evening to order. I want to welcome everybody. I appreciate all that are here, all those that are online. The purpose of this hearing is due from the i president s nominate to serve as secretary of Veterans Affairs, Denis Mcdonough. Before i talk about him i just want to say i appreciate this committee all the reasons we sat on this committee thats been bipartisan and its been nonpolitical, and we tried to do the best by our veterans whether you are the republican side for the democratic side of the aisle. I particularly appreciate the re
To face in person, so thank you for tuning in and obviously doubledip honored that youve agreed to speak with me tonight about the book ron kovic. Right. Not kovac. We were introduced by tom come sport media writer years ago. Ron has been very encouraging and helped quite a bit with this book in terms of background and research and so forth. Ron of course was a vietnam veteran. Most of the book that i wrote is about world war ii veterans and a just want to give you a little background before we start speaking. Before world war ii if you were paralyzed you were pretty much a dead ender, a no hope for as they were called. If the average lifespan was a team is for someone wounded in world war i. World war ii was a game changer. The advent of penicillin, sulfur drugs. They had surgical units right behind the battlefield come right behind the front lines and they had better evacuation back to the mainland so by the end of world war ii you had a cohort of about 2500 u. S. Veterans were paral
That they agreed to speak with me tonight about the book. Back. Host we were introduced a media local writer, years ago and ron, is been very encouraging and have a quite a bit with this book in terms of background and research and so forth. And of course with a vietnam veteran, most of the book that i wrote is about world war ii veterans and i just want to give you a little background before we start speaking. Before world war ii, if you are paralyzed, you are. Much a dead no hope for as they were called. Because the average lifespan was 18 months for somebody would do in world war i. World war ii was a game changer. The advent of penicillin, and other drugs. They had surgical units right behind the battlefield. Behind the frontlines. And they had evacuation back to the mainland. And so by the end of world war ii, you had a cohort of about 2500 u. S. Veterans who return home and there are paralyzed they had a chance at a normal life span. And this was the first cohort was quite have t
Here. I spent any evenings on the second floor and listening to the local authors talk about the books. So i really appreciate the invitation. I want to say hi to everybody out there who have not been able to see facetoface, in person. So thank you for tuning in. Obviously i am doubly honored that ron has agreed to speak with me tonight about the book. Go back. We were introduced by a local, years ago. Ron has been very encouraging and helped me quite a bit with this book in terms of background and research and so forth. Enron of course with a vietnam veteran, most of the book that i wrote is about World War Two veterans and i want to give you a little bit of a background before and i start speaking. Before world war ii, if you are paralyzed, you. Much but no helper as they would be called. Instead the average lifespan of someone would be 18 months of someone wanted in world war i. World war ii was a game changer, the advent of penicillin. In other drugs. They had surgical units are be
Financial roadblocks. This is an hour and ten minutes. Mr. Chairman, are you ready to begin . Yes. Please begin your fivesecond countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Good afternoon. I call this hearing to order. A quorum is present. Without objection, the chair is authorized to call a recess at anytime. I would like to go over items. If you are experience connectivity issues, please contact your staff. It is committee and Sub Committee, participating members will be muting when not recognized and its out of courtesy so that background noise did not interfere with another member recognized to speak. When you are recognized you need to unmute your microphone and pause before speaking so we can hear everything you say. In order to ensure that everything members say is captured on the live stream of the hearing members are asked to pause for two to three seconds before beginning to speak. If you wish to have a document inserted in the record please ask for unanimous consent and have your staff email t