'What's The Plan?': Angus King Presses VA Nominee On Planned 'Reorganization' Of 80,000 Department Staff

7 months ago

During a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing last week, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) spoke about the planned reorganization of 80,000 workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

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00:00bond is something that's a work in progress my time is expired thank you sir kate first i should

00:08say that you're having been an advisor before now i consider a qualification as opposed to the last

00:13witness uh the fact that you've been involved in the inner workings you know what the problems are

00:20um your record is really impressive and and i want to acknowledge that going back to your

00:26enlistment and anyone that was at fallujah deserves our respect and thanks um i intend to

00:34would you pull the microphone i'm sorry i can't believe i want to hear more i that's a first

00:42i hope that gets into the record um i'm going to support your nomination because you strike me as a

00:51straightforward guy who's going to do his best and i think you have your work cut out for you

00:56uh the the department thus far has not been forthcoming has not been responsive um and

01:04senator blumenthal sort of went down the list um and i i hope that the way you're going to approach this

01:10is uh hey this is our board of directors up there we better listen to them and we better give them the

01:15facts uh and i i that is that your approach that that your you view your job as conveying to us

01:27the factual information about the conduct of the department and the positions of the department

01:32and the intentions of the department is that a fair description of your job description it's a fair

01:37description and uh it's unfortunate that the chairman just stepped out but uh to the same point senator i

01:44i am very conscious of the fact that i'm will not make everyone in this room happy but the necessary part

01:52of this role in particular is that we have the discussions we convey the information and if where

01:59we disagree we have that disagreement and it's an open discussion well i i i have no problem with being

02:07unhappy with the content what makes me unhappy is when i'm not my questions aren't answered and i don't

02:13get the information we can differ over the policies but the important thing is that we have the

02:18that we have the information a perfect example is this reorganization i don't understand why this has

02:23to be treated as a national security matter with non-disclosure agreements and not informing the

02:29committee a major reorganization that involves the firing of 80 000 people is of concern to this committee

02:35and i think we ought to have an open dialogue with the department about how it's being approached

02:40what's the plan who's going to be making the decisions what's the timeline to me those it it undermines

02:47our confidence when we don't get the information another example is the contracts we started looking

02:54for those contracts when the secretary announced 585 contracts cancelled i think it was on march 4th

03:00we've been asking and asking and asking and the fact that we haven't gotten a straight answer to that

03:05question means we're suspicious what is what are we not being told what's in those contracts that

03:12the secretary doesn't want us to know about and so you can you can go a long way and i hope you'll

03:19really be strong and say look this is in the interest of you mr secretary and the department to rebuild the

03:26confidence of the committee this is a generally bipartisan committee all committed to veterans and and i think

03:32you're in an excellent position you have a great record uh to be a a really valuable interface between

03:39between us and and the department but you have your work cut out for you

03:45well senator thank you first of all thank you for your personal comments i i appreciate those

03:52i can tell you for for your questions in particular on contracts

03:56senator that the secretary did come back to me and he expressed frustration about the fact that we

04:01haven't provided you that information and he wanted to be able to have that open discussion because at the

04:07heart of it and i do believe this uh center and i i wouldn't be here if i didn't the secretary does

04:16want to get resources directly to veterans and the effort that he is leading which is a humongous challenge i

04:26think everyone here would acknowledge is a large undertaking with many challenges and part of

04:33those challenges particularly when it comes to personnel and when it comes to contracts are there's

04:41very extensive uh deliberations involved in that that make it very challenging when you're in the

04:46mail those deliberations to include court involvement as well sir so the challenge has been getting organized

04:55in a way where we can provide you that information it not be deliberative and it actually represent

05:01the policies of both the secretary and the administration there's a there's a tension between

05:07preliminary and pre-decisional and final and you don't get any input and there's some there's some space

05:13in between there where we should be engaged and it doesn't have to be the earliest part of the discussion

05:19but it may be before the final decisions are made and we're presented with a fait accompli my problem is

05:25that there's a wise old man once said what you do speak so loudly i can't hear what you say

05:32and the secretary comes before this committee and repeats over and over how he's all for veterans

05:38but what's being done both in terms of the proposed firing of 80 000 people and the lack of transparency to us

05:46about that program and about the contracts uh speaks loud speaks louder than those uh that that language

05:56about we're all in this for the veterans we all are in but for the veterans but i'm interested in what

06:01you're going to do not what you're going to say thank you mr chairman thank you sir

06:08thank you mr chairman welcome mr bergen i will start with the fitness to serve initial questions that

06:15i asked of mrs mason since you became a legal adult have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed

'What's The Plan?': Angus King Presses VA Nominee On Planned 'Reorganization' Of 80,000 Department Staff

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