During a Senate Veterans' Affairs committee hearing last Week, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) asked VA nominee, Don Bergin about improving the VA's communication with Congress.
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00:00I look forward to your questions.
00:02Mr. Bergen, thank you for your statement.
00:04Thank you for your service to our nation.
00:06And we welcome your family members who are joining you here today.
00:10I thank them for their support of your service to the country.
00:15Mr. Bergen, for nearly 30 years, I've been a member of either the House or the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.
00:20I cannot recall a time in which I thought that the legislative affairs of the Department of Veterans Affairs
00:27was as helpful to me as a House member or as a senator, but more importantly to my constituents.
00:35I can't recall the time in which I thought, wow, this is really a good job being done.
00:41We had a bit of this conversation in my office.
00:46And as I became a leader of the Veterans Committees,
00:52I had more opportunity to have conversations and hearings with those who were assigned the task of improving
01:00service to members of Congress, service to the committees,
01:04but most importantly, our efforts to make sure that veterans who need our help are getting our help.
01:10So if confirmed, what actions would you take early on?
01:14What's the first steps you would take in your tenure to improve the quality and timeliness of VA's communication with Congress,
01:22instill greater accountability with the Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs,
01:27and set the stage for better working relationship between the VA and this committee?
01:32How would you measure that success?
01:37Thank you for that question, Mr. Chairman.
01:39First of all, I'd like to start with one of the central tenets I learned in the Marine Corps
01:44was the qualities of leadership aren't taking on roles and missions because they're easy.
01:51You take them on because they're worthwhile.
01:54That's why I'm here.
01:56As was pointed out, and I'm sure will not come up in future questions,
02:02I have been working as a senior advisor to the Secretary since April.
02:07And in that role, and the reason why Secretary brought me on is because he realized a lot of the issues
02:15that have been raised here, a lot of the challenges, a lot of the feedback,
02:18and he even experienced that as a congressman over in the House.
02:22And I will say to that end as well, as a staffer who's worked,
02:28I'm looking at the back row over there, but I've spent some time over there,
02:31and Senator Blumenthal, I'd like to compliment you for hiring a fellow Tar Heel.
02:35I've spent time back there, and I know the frustrations of the challenges of actually getting responses back
02:45from nearly every agency in government.
02:48I can't commit to you that it will be perfect, but I can sincerely commit to you
02:52that I will use experience that I have both in leadership and in working in Congress to get that done.
02:58And to that effect, in my current role, I've spent time making recommendations
03:04on the way the office should be organized as far as actual personnel roles and then also on processes.
03:15I had the good fortune of working in the Marine Corps Office of Legislative Affairs,
03:19and I sincerely appreciate the leadership of the Marines that I served with over there.
03:24I think they built a good model, and I'm trying to take away from that model the experiences that I have
03:30that I thought were valuable and then add on top of that the other experiences that I've had while working in Congress.
03:36So to that end, first of all, what was most striking to me when I started was the dearth
03:46of what we call Congressional Relation Officers here, both in the Senate and in the House.
03:53We're pretty short-staffed on that end, and I find it very challenging to be able to accomplish this role
03:59without having those assets out there, the people that are knowledgeable,
04:05both of your offices and your issues, being able to provide that candid feedback
04:10to the Office of OCLA and to the Secretary.
04:13So I've made recommendations that we staff up in those positions,
04:19and I've also made recommendations internal to processes as far as trying to respond to the committee
04:27in a timely and useful manner, like providing you relevant information
04:33that's actually substantive to your requests, because my experience has been
04:39when you don't answer questions, you tend to get more questions.
04:43You also tend to get more hearings, and I don't know that that's what anyone wants here on the committee,
04:49and I certainly respect your time.
04:52So if confirmed, sir, I will continue to work on that
04:56and implement some of the recommendations that I've already made.
05:01Mr. Bergen, thank you for your answer,
05:03and I appreciate that it's a difficult task getting timely answers from any department
05:08or any agency, almost without exception, and I don't know what the exception is,
05:14but I want to give somebody the benefit of the doubt in case there is one.
05:17But I do want to highlight that this is not an ego kind of thing,
05:22because when the Department of Veterans Affairs fails to respond to us,
05:27this committee, the members of this committee, the members of the Senate,
05:30it further jeopardizes the life and well-being of veterans across the country.
05:35And I've said this so many times, mostly what I know about what veterans are encountering
05:41is because they'll stop me on the street, they'll send me an email,
05:45they'll tell me the story, and that begins the process by which we try to solve problems,
05:50sometimes individually, and sometimes those individual problems then lend itself
05:56to us figuring out how do we solve problems for more than just a veteran,
06:01but veterans across the country.
06:02And so your job, if confirmed, is hugely important.
06:07I mean, you indicate, and I believe you, that you're doing this by motivation
06:11of wanting to care for your fellow veterans.
06:15This is a task that needs the attention,
06:18not because you want to make members of this committee happy,
06:21but because if you provide the information, perhaps we, along with many others,
06:28can serve those veterans and make their life longer, healthier,
06:33and the benefits they need to care for themselves, their education, their family.
06:38It's different than just the usual complaint that I suppose members of Congress might have
06:43about an agency that doesn't respond and doesn't function well.
06:48The functioning of what you do can be a life-or-death circumstance
06:52for those we all serve and all care about.
06:55Senator Blumenthal.
06:57Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:58Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:59Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:59Thank you, Mr. Chairman.