00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the time.
00:04Senator Sheehy.
00:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:09I'll agree with Senator King's comments that, you know, we all care about the veterans here.
00:13We may not always agree.
00:15And, you know, in the last five years, our veteran VA budget has increased by 70 percent, over 70 percent.
00:25VA employee headcounts increased by 28 percent.
00:27Our veteran population in the country has gone down by over 9 percent.
00:32And, you know, as you pointed out, General Bartram, veteran suicide has gone up.
00:38Patient wait times have gone up.
00:40Call wait times have gone up.
00:42Our contract for the veteran health care electronic health records is, what, over a decade over schedule now and billions over budget.
00:49So all these contracts that are being canceled, I can very much believe that we're not seeing impact in medical care
00:55because it seems like the more contracts we issue, the more money we spend, the more people we're hiring,
00:59the quality of the care and our ability to deliver it is actually decreasing.
01:03And our ability to interface with community care and allow our veterans to interact with their community's health care that's already there
01:10is the best and fastest and cheapest way for us to make sure that if a veteran is in need,
01:15a mental health care crisis in rural Montana when they're hours from a VA hospital,
01:20the quickest, best, and cheapest, and most effective way for them to get the care they need is not to wait on a phone line for hours on end,
01:28not to wait three-plus weeks to get an appointment booked,
01:31but to be able to go that day, that minute, to a local care center where they can get what they need.
01:36And what we've seen is intentional obstruction for years of the ability for veterans to actually access community care.
01:42And that obstruction has come from within the VA.
01:45Not everybody, not every single person, but there's no question there's been organized,
01:49organizational obstruction to accessing private community care for veterans.
01:54And in a state like Montana, where we have almost 10% of our state are veterans,
02:01in a frontier health care market, not just rural health care, but frontier health care,
02:05to assume that we can build a clinic close enough to every veteran
02:09and make sure they have the access in a time of urgent emergency need is fantasy.
02:14It is fantasy.
02:15They have to be able to access community care.
02:17And there's been an intentional obstruction of that within the agency.
02:20And the more money we spend and the more contracts we spend, the more people we hire are not solving the problem.
02:26It's not.
02:27So are we going to solve the problem or are we going to create jobs?
02:30And for me, I'm about mission.
02:31Having served in combat like Jeremiah and yourself, I'm worried about what's good for the veterans.
02:36And I believe Senator King and everyone else is too, we may not agree.
02:39But the data does not lie.
02:40And the data shows that despite hiring tens of thousands of extra employees
02:45and spending billions and billions upon billions of more money on contracts and people and buildings
02:49and brick and mortar, it hasn't improved the situation.
02:53So I applaud the efforts of Secretary Collins.
02:56Have they been perfect?
02:57No.
02:57Changing a massive organization is never going to be easy or fast.
03:00We're going to make mistakes.
03:01But something has to change.
03:03The trajectory of how we're dealing with our veteran care model has to change.
03:08And this administration is changing that, and I support it.
03:11So I thank you for your efforts in doing so.
03:13It's hard to change something like this without making some mistakes, and you're going to make enemies.
03:17But you've taken a big risk in doing it, and I appreciate it.
03:20So that's most of my time.
03:23But I will, in the vein of my questions, ask a couple of things specifically to Mr. Workman,
03:30since you've been getting all the attention so far.
03:31I'll give you a break.
03:33Transition assistance, you talked about it.
03:35You've done it yourself.
03:36I've done it.
03:36It's a challenging thing to do.
03:38What are you going to do specifically with the TAP program, or I should say transition assistance program with TAP,
03:43to make sure that we are building a more sturdy bridge for our veterans as they transition,
03:47so they can have ready-made careers when they get out?
03:50Thank you for the question, Senator.
03:52I think it needs to start a little earlier in the transition process.
03:56As you know, a lot of junior folks, when they are making that transition,
04:02the last thing sometimes between them and a DD-214 is that check in the box that they went through TAP class.
04:09We need to put emphasis on it and make sure the commanders are holding their troops accountable
04:16and ensuring that they are attending TAP to begin with.
04:19But if confirmed, and I get to DOL vets, we need to take a look at it from the top to the bottom,
04:27and there's absolutely room to improve the process.
04:31Like I said, I think we need to make sure that we have a seat at the table with the DOD and the VA as we all administer TAP.
04:39And I look forward, like I said, if confirmed, to taking a look at it and seeing what we can do
04:44to ensure that we can give veterans and their family members good-paying jobs when they leave the military,
04:54jobs that when they wake up in the morning, they feel good about what they're doing
04:58and they can take care of their family.
05:00That's what we're going to do.
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