| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
I wonder if Democratic leaders continue to make that sort of a central part of their campaign in the shutdown, the erratic behavior of the president, the videos he's posting online. | |
| So keep an eye on Democratic leaders and what they choose the message and how clear and the clarity of that message in getting it across. | ||
| And viewers should keep an eye on Axios, some of the best source reporters on Capitol Hill. | ||
| It's axius.com. | ||
| Stephen Newcomb is the co-author of the Hill Leaders newsletter. | ||
| We'll let you get to your first day of the government shutdown and check in with you down the road. | ||
| Stephen Newcomb. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, John. | |
| We're joined by the Secretary of the VA, Doug Collins. | ||
| Secretary Collins, good morning to you, sir. | ||
| Thanks for the time. | ||
| Can you just tell us what's happening at the VA this morning under a shutdown? | ||
| There's a whole lot of people who work at the VA. | ||
| How many are furloughed and what is and isn't happening for veterans today? | ||
| Well, there's good news and bad news, John. | ||
| I think from our perspective, the funding for the VA for our hospitals, our benefits and disabilities are all continuing to function. | ||
| We're on in a multi-year appropriation. | ||
| So if you're a veteran out there and you have especially medical needs or you need to get to our hospital or clinics, they're open, they're running. | ||
| Where it's going to be affecting us, especially in the short run, is our regional offices for disability claims. | ||
| New claims are getting questions answered. | ||
| They're going to be closed. | ||
| Our counseling, our VRE issues for people getting their vote rehab, how they get into new careers, those are going to be limited. | ||
| Our outreach is going to be limited. | ||
| As it goes further, there could be other things shut down, especially when it comes to getting questions on GI Bill, loan guarantees, those kind of things. | ||
| But right now, we're sitting here watching a very sad situation in which our veterans across the country, not just at the VA, but are going to be affected this. | ||
| Many who work in the federal government, many who are affiliated with businesses who do business with the federal government. | ||
| So I think that's the bigger issue we have with our veterans right now. | ||
| The New York Times on their chart about who's working and who's not. | ||
| The VA, the largest agency outside of the DOD, some 450 or 60,000 employees, they have it about 15,000 employees being furloughed. | ||
| Does that sound about right to you? | ||
| That's probably about right, yes. | ||
| And I mean, there's different ways we look at it. | ||
| So yes. | ||
| So what's the message to veterans watching this morning and a little nervous about what that means? | ||
| Call their congressman, tell them to pass the CR. | ||
| I mean, this is an issue that, I mean, very bluntly, this is a shutdown in the making caused by really right now about five more Democrats in the Senate who would vote for a continuing CR, which they voted for in March, to continue it for seven weeks to continue the policy discussions that we have. | ||
| This is a truly self-made problem in Congress, and especially right now in the Senate, that is keeping us from that. | ||
| I think the veterans, though, as we have just said, especially with their health care, especially with their mental health care, our call lines, our 401, our 1-800, my VA 411 lines are going to be open. | ||
| The vet crisis line is going to be open. | ||
| Our vet centers are going to be open. | ||
| So we're going to continue to minister and work for our veterans to make sure they have what they need. | ||
| But there are many veterans who work in the federal government. | ||
| It is sort of surprising to me that the same folks on Capitol Hill who were so upset with veterans and veterans working in Capitol Hill when they were discussing how we were reorganizing our department seem to be very silent now that those same veterans are going to have to be furloughed because they won't continue the government funding. | ||
| Are you expecting the Office of Management and Budget to step in and let go more people in the VA during the shutdown? | ||
| Is that something that could impact VA employees? | ||
| Not at this point. | ||
| I think we're working with OMB to make sure that we're focused on our employees and we've been working with them all along. | ||
| I think the great thing that we have had is we've been able to reshape our force through folks who took early retirement in that process. | ||
| And we've reshaped that has been publicly reported about 30,000 over the past nine months. | ||
| And at the same time, 30,000 fewer employees? | ||
| Yes, fewer employees since the first of the year. | ||
| Now, I have to say that, and also caveat at this before anybody starts saying that it's affected veteran service. | ||
| Our wait times at our hospitals, our C-Box, all have gone down. | ||
| And we've also shaved off almost 50% off of a backlog of disability claims that were over 125 days old. | ||
| And I have to report also that yesterday, as of yesterday, we did 3 million disability claims. | ||
| The previous record was 2.4 million. | ||
| The VA is working efficiently right now, and we're working it through with some great employees. | ||
| I'm very proud of them. | ||
| You have the unique perspective of having seen these funding fights on the congressional side when you're in Congress and now as the head of an agency. | ||
| What sticks out to you? | ||
| What would you tell the folks who are on Capitol Hill going through the politics of this as you go through the day-to-day impacts? | ||
| Yeah, John, it's a great question. | ||
| And I've thought about this a lot over the last little bit. | ||
| I look back on it a little bit differently and also been involved in that. | ||
| When you make demands, especially at times like this, it's going to be very difficult to get those. | ||
| Those policy discussions should have happened earlier in what is, frankly, a broken appropriation system. | ||
| But I mean, really, the one thing that people need to alert themselves to now is that we're at a time in which, again, you're in a CR. | ||
| We've been in the CR for a Canoon resolution for a while. | ||
| This is simply extending that for seven more weeks. | ||
| The discussions that I've seen many of my former colleagues on the Democratic side wanting to talk about health care and the Obamacare issue does not expire until the end of December. | ||
| And they're using that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Live now to Tennessee, where U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is going to meet with members. | |
| This is live coverage on C-SPAN. | ||
| Thank you for what you do and thank your families. | ||
| You are out here night and day. | ||
| God bless you. | ||
| We are here for you and we will always be here for you. | ||
| We are going to, this is long term. |