SEN. DANIEL K. AKAKA HOLDS A HEARING ON DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HEALTH CARE COLLABORATION.

Original Source: Political Transcript Wire

U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS HOLDS A HEARING ON DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HEALTH CARE COLLABORATION

OCTOBER 17, 2007

SPEAKERS: SEN. DANIEL K. AKAKA, D-HAWAII

CHAIRMAN SEN. JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, D-W.VA. SEN. PATTY MURRAY, D-WASH. SEN. BARACK OBAMA, D-ILL. SEN. SHERROD BROWN, D-OHIO

SEN. JON TESTER, D-MONT. SEN. JIM WEBB, D-VA.

SEN. BERNARD SANDERS, I-VT.

SEN. RICHARD M. BURR, R-N.C. RANKING MEMBER

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, R-PA. SEN. LARRY E. CRAIG, R-IDAHO SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, R-TEXAS

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C. SEN. JOHN ENSIGN, R-NEV. SEN. JOHNNY ISAKSON, R-GA.

WITNESSES: FORMER SEN. BOB DOLE, R-KAN., CO-CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON CARE FOR AMERICA'S RETURNING WOUNDED WARRIORS

FORMER SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DONNA SHALALA, CO-CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON CARE FOR AMERICA'S RETURNING WOUNDED WARRIORS

LIEUTENANT GENERAL JAMES TERRY SCOTT (USA, RET.), CHAIRMAN,

VETERANS' DISABILITY BENEFITS COMMISSION

PATRICK DUNNE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, POLICY AND PLANNING,

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS REPRESENTING THE TASK FORCE ON RETURNING GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR HEROES

TOGO WEST JR., CO-CHAIRMAN, THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW GROUP OF THE REPORT ON REHABILITATIVE CARE AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSES AT WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER AND NATIONAL NAVAL MEDICAL CENTER

ARIANA DEL NEGRO, WIFE OF OIF VETERAN COLONEL PETER DUFFY (USA, RET.), DEPUTY DIRECTOR, LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMS,

THE NATIONAL GUARD ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES

GERALD MANAR, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, THE NATIONAL VETERANS SERVICE, VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS, REPRESENTING SUPPORTERS OF THE INDEPENDENT BUDGET

JOHN MELIA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT

COLONEL STEVEN STROBRIDGE (USAF, RET.), DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, THE MILITARY OFFICER'S ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

[*] AKAKA: The oversight hearing on DOD/V.A. collaboration and cooperation will come to order.

With a big smile, I want to say aloha and welcome, welcome to all of you, to the committee's hearing on issues relating to the findings of the president's commission on care for America's returning wounded warriors, known as the Dole-Shalala commission, for its two distinguished co-chairs.

The Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission and other groups have recently examined matters regarding coordination and collaboration between the Department of Defense and Veterans' Affairs and the care and treatment of veterans from Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

Today's hearing is the latest in a series of hearings we have held this year that focus on the issue of coordination and collaboration between the two departments. Since our first hearing last January on this subject, the problems that gained public attention involving Walter Reed Army Medical Center brought more energy to this issue.

Our committee and the Armed Services Committee have worked together toward achieving the goal of wounded warriors receiving optimal care and experiencing a truly seamless transition from DOD to V.A., but there is much more that needs to be done.

The problems at Walter Reed led to the creation of the Dole- Shalala commission, the task force on returning global war on terror heroes and DOD's independent review group, each of which we will hear from today.

We will also hear from the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission, which has been in existence for some time. When the stories about Walter Reed first broke, I note that the commission earlier this month issued a comprehensive report on the overall disability compensation system.

The committee will hold a subsequent hearing to take testimony on that report.

General Scott, the chair of the commission, has been invited here today to provide the views of the commission on the recommendations of the Dole-Shalala commission and to discuss areas of overlap between the disability benefits commission and other entities which were created in response to the stories about Walter Reed.

It is important to recall that the problems identified at Walter Reed were not about the quality of health care provided by DOD, but more about a process that created confusion and inequities in the delivery of disability benefits to wounded warriors.

The stories about Walter Reed also highlighted existing problems in the organization of medical holdover detachments and then the handoff between the military services and V.A. for wounded or seriously injured or ill servicemembers.

The good news it that since this spring, much hard work has been done by DOD, V.A. and the military services in seeking to resolve these problems. However late DOD and V.A. may have been in recognizing the significant problems of adapting the departments to the stresses of the current conflicts, I am satisfied that real work is now underway.

I am particularly impressed by the work of the joint V.A. and DOD senior oversight committee, co-chaired by V.A.'s deputy secretary, Gordon Mansfield, and DOD's deputy secretary, Gordon England, that meets every Tuesday to work on a wide range of ongoing transition issues.

This, as you know, is an unprecedented level of attention to the issue of DOD/V.A. cooperation and collaboration.

Today's hearing gives us an important opportunity to review the recommendations of the Dole-Shalala commission, the disability benefits commission and other reports that impact the interaction between DOD and V.A., especially in those areas which still need improvement and where there is overlap or potential disagreement.

I hope to gain a better understanding of the relationship among all the various recommendations, with a particular focus on how the recommendations may relate to legislation developed by the White House in response to the Dole-Shalala commission.

Senator Burr and I, along with the chairman and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, were briefed on this draft legislation earlier this month and I have many questions and concerns about.

I thank Senator Dole and Secretary Shalala and our other distinguished witnesses for joining us today. Their testimony will allow us to better understand the many recommendations and help identify areas where congressional action is required.

At our first hearing in January, I spoke about the stress that a new veteran with a life-altering wound or injury endures when faced with a challenge of applying for benefits and transitioning from one health care system to another, while still in the process of recovery and rehabilitation.

With the input of the many recommendations that we will hear about today, I believe that we can continue to make progress toward achieving the goal of a truly smooth and seamless transition.

I have a longer statement that I will place in the record, which is available at the press table. In the interest of time and to allow others to speak, I will stop here and turn to the committee's ranking member, Senator Richard Burr, for his opening remarks.

BURR: Aloha, Mr. Chairman. I didn't know it would be quite as challenging linguistically on this committee as it is to serve with Senator Akaka when he is challenged me to learn even more than just what we need to do as it relates to changes in the disability system.

Mr. Chairman, thank you. I welcome all of our distinguished panelists and I appreciate you being here this morning. You've all spent many hours with one thought in mind and that's improving the lives of those who have served our country in the armed forces.

You've given us policy suggestions that I believe can help shape how we care for our servicemen and women for decades to come. For your commitment to them and for your advocacy on their behalf, I'm here this morning to say thank you to each and every one of you.

Let me begin by making two very broad points.

First, we are here today to review recommendations on how best to deliver health care, disability compensation, and rehabilitative benefits to those who have been injured in military service to our country.

As we look at our strengths and our inefficiencies in getting the job done right, we have to keep in mind that the opportunities for today's professional warrior are fundamentally different than in earlier generations.

Today, all volunteer forces know that injury, even serious injury, need not be an impediment to continuing on with a productive and fulfilling life.

I'm amazed when I hear over and over how some soldiers with very serious injuries are able to return to their units or how they plan to resume fully active lives, go to school and get a job. Modern technology and modern attitudes about disabilities not only give them that hope, they, appropriately, give them that expectation.

Our job then is to give these brave men and women the tools they need and to remove the stumbling blocks that are in their way. In fact, they demand that from their government.

Today's soldier chooses a military career and their expectation is the same as it would be for any professional working in any organization in America. If one is hurt on the job, one expects quick, effective and relatively hassle-free physical, vocational restoration and supportive services from the employer.

My second point is about our system of benefits and services for our veterans, servicemembers and their families. And rather than use my words, I'll read the Dole-Shalala commission report, where they said, "The commission learned that, on the whole, we are a generous and giving nation when it comes to providing for our servicemembers and veterans."

Benefits include health care for veterans through the V.A., for retirees through the military health system, and through civilian providers through TRICARE.

In addition, we pay retirement and disability benefits and provide for education, adaptive equipment, employment hiring preferences and more. The total cost of these benefits was well over $127 billion in 2006.

So as of last year, we had a budget of over $127 billion to assist veterans and servicemembers, more than double what it was just a decade ago.

I highlight this information to suggest that the challenges facing many veterans today have as much to do with confusing bureaucratic programs operated by many different offices of the government as they do with the lack of benefit programs or the lack of resources.

I'll never shy away from providing our military men and women and our veterans with the resources they need, but I expect and these citizens expect that these resources will be used effectively to deliver needed benefits and services.

There is a saying that goes, "If you aren't part of the solution, you must be part of the problem." So let us commit to talking today about meeting the challenges ahead of us.

Secretary Shalala and Senator Dole, when you briefed us two weeks ago, I was pleased to hear that officials and staff at the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Department of Defense were beginning to implement 90 percent of your commission's recommendations.

Mr. Chairman, I'm committed to you and I look forward to working with you to conduct oversight of the Department of Veterans' Affairs to ensure that the best of these recommendations to improve veterans' care are implemented without delay.

Senator Dole and Secretary Shalala, you also said in our recent briefing that ten percent of your commission's recommendations require legislative action. You called this the hard part. Of course, I'm speaking about the recommendations to reform the disability compensation system.

As you know, the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission has also spent the better part of three years looking at the hard part. I expect everyone calls it the hard part for very good reason and I think this committee will soon find that out.

I'm fully aware that reforming the disability system will require large upfront costs. But if done properly, it would also be an investment.

Chairman Akaka, once again, I pledge to you as the committee works to better the lives and wellbeing of those wounded in defense of the country, knowing that the character of men and women of our armed forces is an investment that comes with little risk and great reward.

One final thought before I conclude my statement. Almost every member of Congress has had the opportunity to visit soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen who are fighting in the war on terror.

In my own conversations with them, I can't help but be inspired by their love of country, their commitment to duty, their extraordinary optimism in the face of adversity.

We've all referred to men and women who served with Senator Dole in the second World War as the greatest generation and my encounters with today's heroes remind me, the greatness, when we talk about risking one's life for the freedom of others, is of every generation. Greatness belongs to the few whose deeds merit that title.

To all who have served in combat, to the families who have sacrificed so that their loved ones could serve the rest of us, and to all who have been injured or who have died for our freedoms, you have my enduring respect and gratitude.

No matter when you served or on what continent you fall, you have made the most supreme sacrifice. For that, and I know I speak

for everyone in this room, we are eternally grateful.

Again, I thank our distinguished guests this morning for their willingness to share their knowledge with this committee and I think I speak for the chairman when I say that we are anxious to go forward and to begin this process.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

AKAKA: Thank you very much, Senator Burr.

Using what we call the early bird system, I am going to call, next, Senator Craig and he will be followed by Senator Murray.

BURR: Mr. Chairman, could I ask my colleagues to indulge me for one additional minute?

We've been joined by a very special person and I just want to highlight that for our audience today.

Sarah Wade, are you in the back? Sarah, would you stand up for a second?

I just want you to meet a very special person. Sarah Wade is the wife of retired Army Sergeant Edward Ted Wade. Following Ted's serious injury in Iraq on February 4, 2004, Sarah suspended her studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to serve as an advocate for her husband and has recently become a public policy intern for the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting military personnel injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

She was born and raised in Washington, D.C. Sarah currently resides in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a constituent of mine and the wife of a very brave U.S. soldier.

Thank you for being here, Sarah. (APPLAUSE)

AKAKA: Thank you, Senator Burr.

Senator Craig?

CRAIG: Mr. Chairman, Richard, I'll be brief, but I do want to welcome both Secretary Shalala and Senator Dole before this committee.

And to reminisce only briefly, if Bob hadn't said, "Larry, there's work to be done on the Veterans' Affairs Committee," a good number of years ago, "and you ought to go do it," I might not be here, and that work has continued.

Thank you, Bob, for appointing me to this committee a good number of years ago, and we've continued to work according to your wishes.

I want to thank all of the panelists and the commissions who are before us today. The work you do is critically important to veterans, to soldiers who will become veterans soon across this nation, and we thank you for it.

Earlier this year, Mr. Chairman, I asked a member of the staff here on the Veterans' Affairs Committee to submit testimony before Secretary Shalala and Senator Dole's commission regarding the DOD/V.A. collaboration, especially as it relates to the overlapping health benefit systems.

I've been very involved over the past few years in examining ways that DOD and V.A. can work together closely. We, early on, began to use the word "seamless," but it became pretty obvious to me that it was a word, it was not a reality, not in the way we want it to be.

And I would hope, Mr. Chairman, Richard, that as we work through this, seamless becomes a system and simply not a phrase, because that is exactly what is doable today if we can cause DOD and V.A. to come together in a way that recognizes what we want to achieve for American's veterans.

I've used testimony from General Omar Bradley's commission in 1956. I know Senator Dole has referred to it on occasion. I would hope that 51 years after today, that this committee has not convened in a way that it is referring to the Dole-Shalala commission as goals that should have been achieved, but were not accomplished.

I know government is a daunting system and sometimes very, very difficult to change, Mr. Chairman. We can and we must change it and for the sake of America's veterans, I hope we can.

So to meet that challenge, Mr. Chairman and Senator Burr, I accept your challenge to do just that, to look back a few years from now and say that we've accomplished what we set out to do.

It is now a seamless system. When one transfers from active to veteran, it is simply the push of a button and the movement of a system. We've watched the failure too long. We've watched the bureaucracy be too daunting.

It shouldn't require the wife of a soldier to become an advocate simply to work their way through a system that is impossible or nearly impossible to penetrate.

We're moving in those directions. Now our challenge from the commissions is to revisit it and revisit it on an annual basis, to challenge it, to oversee it and to force it to change.

Thank you for being with us.

AKAKA: Thank you very much, Senator Craig.

Now we'll hear from Senator Murray.

MURRAY: Thank you very much, Chairman Akaka, Ranking Member Burr, for holding this really important hearing.

Secretary Shalala, Senator Dole, welcome to our committee. Thank you for the work you've done and for being here today to present the recommendations of your commission, as well as the other three reports that we're going to hear about today about how we can improve the care for our servicemembers and veterans as they transition from the military to the V.A..

It has been eight months now since the "Washington Post" exposed the scandalous conditions that all of us read about and were shocked by, mice running in walls and moldy walls and holes in ceilings, and the bureaucratic maze that our men and women who have fought so bravely for us faced when they got home.

Obviously, no one should have to endure those kinds of conditions, but most of all, the men and women who have fought to so courageously for all of us.

I think it's important to remember that it wasn't just Walter Reed. I think, as you well know, it was many of our facilities that were facing very bad conditions. This was symptomatic of the entire system and it wasn't just infrastructure, it was long waiting times to see a doctor, it was bureaucratic ineptitude, it was V.A. claims backlogs that were taking months and years, that were really harming our men and women's ability to be able to take care of their families when they'd come home.

And I think all of us know that, without hesitation, these men and women take on the task that this nation has given them, answer the call to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever we send them.

They've left their loved ones for years. They've put their careers on hold. They've put their lives on the line and the least we can do is make sure, when they come home, they get prompt, respective, comprehensive support for the work that they've done.

I have said, Mr. Chairman, many times, that no matter how divided this country may be over this current war in Iraq, this country is extremely united behind making sure that the men and women who have fought for us get the care that they deserve.

We have taken that and used it this year, in the first time in the Iraq supplemental war bill, putting in funding for veterans, $1.8 billion in emergency funding; for the first time, counting the care of veterans as part of the cost of war, which I think is extremely important to do. And, of course, this year's V.A. MILCON bill increased funding, $3.6 billion over the president's request, as a recognition of the costs that we are responsible for.

But I do think this environment that the country's in today, where we are all so supportive of these men and women, gives us a chance today to do these fundamental reforms to the V.A. and DOD that are so badly needed and we need to really strike while the iron is hot.

The Senate has already done that. We passed the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, which deals with the seamless transition process. That bill is now being worked out with the House and hopefully will be enacted soon, so we can begin to provide some real solutions.

I'm interested today in how the commission report ties in with that and how we can make sure we're doing that correctly together.

But I am especially pleased that we're now actually looking at all of this and we are seeing studies and commission reports and recommendations by a number of different groups who are going to be in front of us today.

And I look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses and having a chance for us to really do the best with the best information we have.

Senator Dole, Secretary Shalala, I'm especially looking forward to your thoughts on the administration's proposed legislation to carry out your recommendations and I'm very glad to see the president come to the table on this issue and to work with us, I hope, with part of moving forward the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, as well.

So, Mr. Chairman, this is a very important hearing. The country is waiting. They want to know what we're doing and how we're moving forward and it is incumbent upon all of us to act well.

So thank you very much.

AKAKA: Thank you very much.

Senator Tester?

TESTER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Burr. I really, really appreciate the fact that you're having this hearing, I think it's long overdue, to really take a look at what families and veterans have gone through to navigate through the bureaucracy of the DOD and the V.A..

I also want to thank everybody who's on these panels here today. It truly is an all-star cast of expert witnesses and I want to tell you I appreciate Senator Dole and Secretary Shalala coming today and I look forward to your testimony, as I'm sure we all do.

I would ask, Mr. Chairman, that my entire statement be put in the record, but I do want to talk about a few things.

Over the last ten months, I've held ten listening sessions with veterans throughout the state of Montana. The last one was last weekend in Mile City, Montana.

At this listening sessions, I've heard about good things that have happened with the V.A. and I've heard about some things that have been, quite honestly, unacceptable with the V.A..

And as we go forth in what we're doing here in this committee, I think it's critically important that we take the necessary steps. I think, you know, I've heard just this morning issues like -- or words like "complex" and "penetrable, bureaucratic, ineptitude." I think we all know that there's room for improvement and I think that the people who fought for this country and put their lives on the line and protected us in times of war and even not deserve it and we owe it to them.

Just yesterday, a fellow by the name of Dan Gallagher from Missoula, head of the VFW in Missoula, in fact, he's here in the audience today, stepped into my office and said, "It's just a matter of course that when people first apply for benefits, they get turned down right out of the chute. It's just the way things are done."

That's a bad way to do business and we cannot accept that kind of work ethic, quite honestly. It's almost like the V.A. is working against the veterans instead of working for the veterans.

And so we need to make sure that that good health care that happens and those good benefits that happen for some of our veterans occurs for all of our veterans.

So with that, I very much look forward to your testimonies, Senator Dole, Secretary Shalala. And thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Burr.

AKAKA: Without objection, your statement will be included in the record.

Senator Brown?

BROWN: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Burr.

Senator Dole, thank you for your service to our country, both in wartime and in the Senate. And fellow Clevelander, Madam Secretary, nice to see you today. Thank you for your service.

Everyone always says the right things about veterans at hearings like this and then as elected officials and at all the right veterans' halls and all the right celebrations and all the patriotic gatherings. Yet, this institution has made some terrible mistakes and some terrible choices when it comes to veterans' health care, I think.

We've always had plenty of money for war. We've always had plenty of money for tax cuts for especially the top one or two or five percent in this country. Yet, the sacrifice in this war that we're in now has hardly been spread evenly in the population and so many of the people that have gained the most have sacrificed the least.

There's been not enough money for body armor, not enough money for MRAP, not enough resources, as Senator Murray's comments point out, not enough resources for V.A. health care.

We have a lot of work to do. By passing the veterans' organizations independent budget, the MILCON bill that Senator Murray played such a major role in is very much an important first step. Coordination, as several have said, including Senator Craig, coordination and making it really seamless, more than just a word of DOD and V.A., is so very, very important.

Extending, as the commission recommends, extending family medical leave, establishing a caseworker that will work with families and soldiers to coordinate care and services is so very important, and a timely and accurate disability rating is so very important.

Particularly, we need to improve the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD and all that we have seen coming from this war and I know that Senator Dole's feelings and Secretary Shalala's feelings are so strong about that.

I've spent, as so many of us have, much of the last four years meeting with soldiers, welcoming the troops home, encouraging them to get the treatment they need when they resist that for good reasons, as they want to integrate themselves back into their workplace, their families, their communities, and it's so, so important that this transition be done right and this commission's recommendations will help there.

One last point. Ohio has one of the lowest average payments for disability compensation, well below the national average. We're a large state with a huge veteran population and we need to do better.

That's partly the V.A.'s -- that's partly an issue we can hope to fix with the V.A.. It's partly an Ohio issue. We need to work together to do all of that and I'm so appreciative of the service of not just Senator Dole and Secretary Shalala, but our other panelists, too.

I thank the chairman.

AKAKA: Thank you very much, Senator Brown.

Now we'll hear from Senator Hutchison.

HUTCHISON: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I want to say to Secretary Shalala and Bob Dole, there has not been a better, more committed advocate for veterans in this nation in our history than you, Bob Dole, and thank you so much for continuing from your great service in World War II to helping those who have followed you. Thank you.

And, Madam Secretary, you had another full-time job. You didn't need to take this on, but you did, and we all so appreciate it that you would once again suit up for your service outside of your regular duties, which we all know are huge.

So thank you both very much.

Let me say a couple of things. I'm the ranking member on the Veterans' Affairs and Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee. So I have been dealing with the issues of funding, of course, for veterans, but also trying to make sure that we have the seamless transition.

Now, you did, in your report, address this issue, suggesting that we have the rapid transfer of patient information between DOD and V.A.. But I do want to say that this is something where the V.A. is really leading. We have the state-of-the-art electronic medical records in the V.A. system. It was never brought home better than after Katrina in New Orleans, when the whole veterans' hospital had to be vacated and not one record was lost, not one.

So our veterans in New Orleans got superb treatment wherever they were, wherever they evacuated, and that is a testament to the system.

Of the 155 V.A. hospitals, every one is set with the electronic records. So we know there is a system that works.

However, as has been said here, it's the transition to DOD and the anecdotal information that we get is phenomenal. In Houston, for instance, I was called because our veterans who were injured and, therefore, retired with disabilities, were waiting months and even almost a year for their disability benefits in Houston.

So we immediately went to the V.A. and they tasked people to go down to try to fix that hiatus, because we just didn't have enough people processing.

I know that because the V.A. system is so good, if we put our minds to it and we take your direction, which you also saw, and bring DOD up to the same standards so that people can have a seamless transition, that everyone will be ahead.

It is inexcusable for someone injured in Iraq or Afghanistan to go on medical disability and not get their benefits for three to nine or ten months. It's just inexcusable.

So that's the issue that I think we have to address immediately and I really think it's in DOD and matching those up.

So thank you for your service. Thank you for being here to report to us and we will follow-up, I assure you, on your recommendations.

Thank you.

AKAKA: Thank you very much, Senator Hutchison.

Now we'll hear from Senator Isakson.

ISAKSON: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you and Ranking Member Burr doing this.

Senator Dole, it's a pleasure to see you again. Secretary Shalala, thank you for your service to the country.

My remarks will be limited to the seamless transition issue. I want to commend you on your recommendations and the focus on that and point out what I have in a couple of previous hearings that we have had.

General Schoomaker did a great job in Augusta, where the Augusta V.A., called the Uptown V.A. Hospital, and the DOD facility, Eisenhower Medical Center, created a seamless transition of treatment and rehabilitation for wounded warriors coming back that is really second to none.

In fact, I told a story previously and I'll tell it one more time, at the sense of being repetitive, because I think it's so important.

I met a Sergeant Harris when I was at the Augusta V.A.. She had gone to Iraq and, on the second day of her deployment, had a traumatic brain injury from an exploding IED.…