I wanted to start out on the accountability legislation, a big moment in the house touted by republicans in two press conferences yesterday. Why did you vote for this bill despite previous concerns . Are you satisfied with the legislation . What more needs to be done . Rep. Walz i am. Thank you all for being here. This is an important piece of legislation. I know my republican colleagues have pushed on this. No one is denying employees at the v. A. Need to be accountable. No one is saying that with a when something happens from a wait time scandal or malfeasance things should not be done. To me, the point was how to we make sure we are able to attract and retain good employees, honoring peoples Constitutional Rights to due process, and then making sure we have the tools to follow through on that accountability . I was opposed to the house version because it did not do the things. It did not necessarily protect those folks. The irony is no one we brought in front of congress was part of a union. It was all management. One of the concerns i had with the house version was it did not protect whistleblowers. You had an employee who was fired but incorrectly, wrongly for pointing out malfeasance at different levels. What we did, and i mentioned it yesterday on the house floor when we are in school and taught , legislation is written, it was how this was done. It left the house, we had concerns, i could not supported in that form. We continued to work on improvements, as did the senate. They brought it back to us, and one i think it is acceptable. I think republicans are right to say they got these reforms done. But i think they should look at the house vote. They did it with grand cooperation, making sure we kept our pledge of accountability and kept our pledge to those v. A. Employees, many who are veterans themselves that they will have due process. I am pleased with it. I think it strengthens the process. I will be honest here in secretary shelkan indicated this would help him. He has earned my trust. If he thinks this will work, i will help him with the opportunity. Greta a note for viewers as they watch on sunday morning, we are talking on wednesday afternoon. Go ahead. Connor congressman, you in your remarks just now expressed some concerns republicans would tout this as a victory, as a republican victory and indeed they did really talk this up when you had the vote earlier this week. I am wondering, are you concerned that that is going on . Is that going to affect the agenda that potentially some of these measures will be portrayed by the majority as a republican victory over democratic obstruction . Rep. Walz im glad you pointed that out because i invited myself the day before yesterday to their press conference. I said i was there to support them. I had nothing but kind words to say and would back them up where they were at. I was originally scheduled to be there and then got word the leadership did not want to. That was not a decision made by the Affairs Committee members. They know that vote turned out the way it did because many case to my democratic colleagues that this was the direction we needed to go. For a few minutes i had a chip on my shoulder and it was a little personal, but i cant let personal frustrations its a mistake they are making on not including us in this because i do believe my republican colleagues want to get this right, they want to improve the quality of the v. A. , deliver those benefits to veterans. We can do that together. I also think they are missing the mood of the country. If they want to do that for shortterm political win, the country would be more supportive and appreciative of them to say we brought democrats together in this, got their vote and listen to what they are saying. I will say it. They did nice work on this. They compromised. They respected the collective bargaining rights of the v. A. Employees and asked me to push the process a little bit to the edge. It did not necessarily make the unions happy, but i did protect their basic interests. All those things i think the American Public would say, wow, in this washington they are able to do that. But i think the agenda is right where you are at at saying he wanted it touted as a partisan w in. If they need to do that, so be it. My concern is if this action does improve the veteran experience. That is my biggest concern. Kellie turning more broadly to the legislative agenda, can you talk specifically about what you Hope Congress to pass through by the end of this year . I know secretary shelkan has lofty goals about what he wants congress to accomplish for the v. A. With the you think is feasible, especially the kind of environment you just discussed between democrats and republicans . Rep. Walz it is still very healthy in the v. A. Community. If i was the administration, they are talking about packing , passing the most bills and touting some of these naming bills, they actually have done three major pieces of legislation on the v. A. With appeals reform, choice extension, and now this accountability bill. That is major lift on big subjects in the secondlargest agency in the federal government. That is pretty big. What i said yesterday on the floor, i know the majority leader came down and said now things are going to get better. We passed legislation i thought back in 2008 with a growing Opioid Epidemic nine years ago. That they asked v. A. To have Pain Management in their prescriptions. It was never fully implement it. Implement. I think there are things we like to tackle. Modernization of the g. I. Bill and some of those types of things. But these three bills, coupled with the secretarys announcement of the integrated Electronic Health record with dod are major transformational, almost generational changes. I think the committee at this point in time would be better off focused on our oversight and our implementation. We certainly have a few things we would like to see move forward. Clay hunt 2. 0 on veteran suicide. I think the real challenge is we have given basically, and the secretary for his executive ability, has put the four biggest priorities basically on the president s desk and now they are in the toolbox of the secretary. Now it is about enforcing. Kellie i have to followup with the elephant in the room, the v. A. Choice program. Which were our listeners is a private Care Access Program for veterans who are experiencing access hardship. There is a lot of confusion i think among veterans, as well as among Congress Members about what is going to happen with this program. I just actually ran from the Senate VeteransAffairs Hearing where they were talking about inserting about a lack of funding in the choice account, and also the difficulty of how to move funding between the seven different private care program accounts that exist. Can you talk a little bit about whether you think shelkins broadvision for consolidating this is possible this year . If not what will you tell , veterans about will happen with this private care program . Rep. Walz it goes to what im saying. We gave that authorization. The v. A. Telling us, and i cant confirm the numbers they saw a 35 increase. Im hoping thats because of fixed some of the barriers. They will run out of money early. I did support the Choice Program after what happened in phoenix. I also am someone who has known for years, and i think any americans dont know, that the v. A. Has always used fee for service in the community. It is now about 30 , 31 , which is an increase. I think its appropriate and i have always stated that. The core mission of the v. A. Must stay intact, research must stay intact. I simply cant justify to a veteran they need a blood test in minnesota why do have to drive six hours round trip to minneapolis or wait two weeks. We are trying to figure out how to best use that care. Many of the v. A. s own internal programs prechoice work very well, especially in my area. But they usually run out of funding. I think you are right. What i would tell your listeners is at the heart of this is a philosophical disputes that will come up. They was a belief that the secretary is given freedom to turn the spigots of money on and off in certain areas, funds will be diverted from the core v. A. Mission to private care, which i consider to be a false and pretty simplicity narrative. Privatization versus the government doing it. The fact of the matter is the v. A. Has always have partners in the private sector with partner institutions on learning. We always done fee for service in the community. The question i have always been asking in the last 11 years ive been in congress, how to best do we modernize the v. A. System for the 21st century . I think this choice debate, and you are right, has the potential to do that. It will probably consume much of the agenda heading towards the midterms. Im ok with that, as long as we are basing it on the best access and management of care for veterans, best use of taxpayer dollars, and we not are basing it on an ideological belief if you just send someone into the private sector, as a automatic guarantee they will be seen sooner and better. We know that is not the case but it is also we can be so ideologically rigid to say if people are using choice and they are being seen by good, competent private sector folks and its making improving their quality of care, quality of life, we should be using that. You are absolutely right. I do think the point you brought up is just starting to come the light. You are in the new breaking story area of this. Choice, as it stands right now, will run short of money before we budget again. That will be an interesting debate of do we give them more money, allow them the freedom to move things . Is the argument going to be made this is a backdoor to privatization. All those things are on the horizon for the summer. Greta remind our viewers how much money was given to the v. A. Under this choice act, and explain how it could be running out of money. Rep. Walz they were given 10 billion. If you recall the reason they , were given a number is after phoenix we had a conference committee. There were about 10 of us in the room. Senator mccain and senator sanders for the two leaders on the senate side. We were having this debate. It was originally said veterans, if they wait two weeks, should be allowed to go where they want. We did a cbo score. That came back in the hundreds of billions. Ok maybe they should go 50 , miles. That came back. We finally settled on the 40 miles that they had to go, they had to wait 30 days. That is where we came up with that. Total arbitrary number we came up with that had nothing to do with quality of care, for that number fit the 10 billion we wanted to spend on that. They are coming to the end of that money now. We just reauthorized them to use what little was left. It sounds like to me and again i cant confirm this but i can give you a candid assessment as i know it. It sounds like somewhere in august we will be done with the money. The question is, if we expand care into the community, we have to have an idea of how much that is going to cost. In mind v. A. Does do a lot of Cost Containment of purchasing a both for pitching bulk purchasing pharmaceuticals, doing some of their own inhouse things. I am a big believer we should not be doing our own eyeglasses when there is a lens crafter or whatever you will every mall that can give you two pairs for 99. This is focused on choice, focused on community care. It is getting at the heart of what the longterm transformation looks like at v. A. Health care, can how to we do it and remain inside the budget constraints. That 10 billion is gone pretty much. Now it is time to decide what is choice 2. 0 or communitybased care look like. Connor i think choice was supposed to run out in august anyway under the deadline that was removed by Congress Earlier this year. Connor i think choice was the idea of being it would have several months left to go. We heard in secretary shelkins testimony that there will be a shortage of money. Its a little reminiscent of a couple of years ago when the opposite was true, when the v. A. Sought to take money out of choice to put it into cover numbers shortfalls in the normal v. A. Numbers. How concerned are you are you have robbing of v. A. To pay and into choice . Have you and phil rowe, the chairman, have any sort of conversations about where can we actually find this money for going to go ahead and do this . Rep. Walz we have not had indepth conversations on that. To your first question, very concerned. I think it goes again to the heart of this. Until we can come up with a unified vision of what v. A. Health care is going to look like, and im not just talking congress on talking to Veterans Service organizations, those medical schools who are partners. This is a big operation. Those who know as you do on this panel that v. A. Underpins the entire Healthcare System in terms of general medical education and all that. I am very concerned we are doing a haphazard switching of money back and forth. You are absolutely right. We were on the opposite side of this. We extended it because we thought we had more money. Now more money is going out and we dont yet know why more money is going out. They could be that finally got efficient enough to deliver as we originally thought it would be. It could be more people are using it now. It could be that sicker people are using it and we had more cancer treatments going on. My concern is you cannot make a wise decision and a visionary decision if it is haphazard without that data. I am still continuing to ask that is what we have to get to. In response to your question, very concerned. Has the conversation started to take on any real substance . No is the answer. And i think because i will be candid with this. I am a little irritated that its been over the last couple of days and our template to make it is official but the secretary said it. We did not know they were running short until recently. My question i have to be candid , with you when we reauthorized , choice a short time ago, im questioning if they knew that or not at the time, which they probably should have told me if that was happening. The developments over the last couple of days have been a little concerning, but not anything im still optimistic that the v. A. Committee is tackling and getting good stuff done still. But this is back to the original question, this is truly the elephant in the room. It is going to shape a generation of v. A. Health care. I have been saying since ive been in congress, this is our once in a Generation Opportunity to create a v. A. Looking forward instead of being reactionary. The Silver Lining is it looks like we will be forced to do that sooner rather than later. Connor i guess that brings up the broader question of the v. A. Budget. I know a lot of people were drawn to a 6 increase in the v. A. a discretionary budget that President Trump requested last month. But it has drawn some criticism from your counterpart in the senate. Some vsos who have criticized some of the more community increases, while not increasing some more foundational v. A. Programs. Called by some a backdoor privatization. I am curious what is your take on the budget and what do you think v. A. s resource enough, the annual argument, is there enough money . Are they not doing the right things with the money . I am curious for your take on that. Rep. Walz again, i am a data guy and looking for that data. I expressed my concern on the budget. I know the president touted the two agencies in the federal government not cut work defense and v. A. That makes a good talking point, that he was specific in cutting v. A. Research money. I read an article the other day where apparently one of the undersecretaries came at us on agent orange. Because im still pushing that because i think the hypertension piece on agent orange will be there. There is a lot of money in that. I dont think we have the data necessarily to be able to give good answers. My republican colleagues have made the point. It is more expensive to see a patient in the v. A. Than in the private sector . Can we compare apples to apples and then compare outcomes . I think the thing i would make note of in the budget, that veterans do not live in a vacuum. Veterans who rely on Health Vouchers for Homeless Veterans we have made Great Strides in, that department has been cut thirtysomething percent. We have veterans that use the nutrition programs and senior feeding programs. I think it is a bit simplistic to say veterans will be well in do well in this. Veterans span that budget. V. A. Budget i think , there was a concern the bulk of the money goes to the communitybased care. The question i would ask them is they dont even know how much they are spending. Now the secretary has to tell us i am sorry, we are running out of money early. That was a different story just two months ago. I question their accounting principles. Just like the dod, im the biggest supporter. When my friend ron paul was still in congress auditing, im a big fan of auditing things. I think the v. A. Needs to conduct that audit so we can answer the fundamental question and a very conservative question if you ask me. Is the v. A. Funded enough . And if not, where is the best place to do that and account for that . If they are funded or overfunded, we should know that too. I have to be honest. As the Ranking Member it is very difficult to get an answer on that. I am not certain if its anything malicious or v. A. Knows. I think thats part of the modernization of the 21st century v. A. I am asking for. Kellie just a drill done a down a little bit more focus on the political aspect of the v. A. Budget, i wonder if given that this is one of the only increases on the discretionary side that it could provide something of a moment of agreement between democrats and republicans. If so, good that affect the rest of the spending process in some way . Maybe it is a ledge. Do you think it is possible . Rep. Walz i love your thinking. I actually fall into that camp. The way we conduct business in the v. A. Could be a model for the broader topic. Obviously we have an advantage that we have an active constituency in the Veterans Service organizations that i would say keep us honest and keep us moving forward. I would say there is a very real unifying factor amongst our constituencies that they want to get this right for veterans. Im being a little careful criticizing that budget too much. I have those concerns that connor expressed with the budget, but i do recognize and thank the president for a recognition of focusing on veterans. I just think it is a little bit too narrow, but again i would come back and find it interesting. We were just having in the political realm of yesterday i think fairly and rightfully praising the work we did together, praising the accountability bill, only to find myself on social media somewhat hit from the left side for being too willing to work with the president. This is a real challenge right now that this idea that everything has to be resisted. I pushed back on that, especially in the v. A. We need these budgets and get the v. A. Budget on time. It was the only one on time last year. I am proud i authored that piece did advance appropriations to keep us out of that fight. Now would be one of those opportunities. Yes, would be my answer to your question. I think there could be a Silver Lining in here to possibly use this as a catalyst for how we reach a compromise on a budget. Greta we have time for a few more questions. Connor congressman, you are talking about President Trump made veterans a central part of his campaign. Cleaning up the v. A. Doing things like putting guaranteeing choice and putting a v. A. Hotline in the white house. I am curious, how would you grade the Trump Administration . Particularly the president in the early days and keeping his pledges, making veterans a focus and veterans policy in general . Rep. Walz i think he has done pretty well on that. To be honest with you. There has been to medication. We have talked with them. I think he overstated where the v. A. Did many things right before. It was not the most corrupt, and at agency in the federal innept agency in the federal government. I think there are a lot of things. Get hurt the employees that were there. We continue to have communications with them. He certainly made the focus and the leadership did on moving some v. A. Bills. They are politically possible test popular but they needed to be done. Some political posturing 50 million for a white house phone. I did not want to be facetious but last week i asked what the telephone number was. If you recall it was supposed to , be operational on day one, which all of us know is you cannot do that. We already have a hotline that was in a bill that i authored that gets millions of calls. Some of it is a little bit hyperbole, some of it a little bit show. I cant deny they continues to focus on it. They continue to talk about it. Even if i disagree with them, ive always said my biggest fear was that we would repair some of the issues after phoenix and people would lose interest in focusing on the v. A. I wish every story was not negative but i understand that it is the plane that crashes, not the plane that lands theory. They have remained focused. I will not be critical about. My questioned some of the moves. I think there is a concern of where they are going with communitybased care without funds to they have not ignored it, they have focused on it. Kellie can you talk a little bit about the White House Office of innovations primary focus on the v. A. . Have you gotten any information about this at all . Shelkin has testified that Jared Kushners office is focusing on v. A. , but there is very Little Details about what that is all about. Rep. Walz i have heard nothing from them. That is much like the hotline. That when i hope is just bluster because i think there are other things. I do think it should be noted and should be noted positively that having the white house talk about it more, ive got to be honest, i think there was a. I think president obama cared deeply. He made a massive investment in the v. A. To be honest we do not hear about it as much as we should. I think you can overtalk about it and use veterans as a prop, which does not surprise many of you the politicians do. I dont think its a bad thing if the white house is continuing to focus on how we do this as long as they are being fair and a knowledge and when things are working well, acknowledging they dont have all the answers. I was concerned how they would enter into this. I have seen nothing on them. I kind of wondered how you could have an entire portfolio that big. This is a job bigger than one person if you are going to do that. So nothing there. , greta one last quick question. Connor congressman, you decided to put your name out there for governor of minnesota. I am curious. Why is now the right time for you to run . You spent the last couple of years really trying hard to get on top of veterans Affairs Committee and that Ranking Member spot. You are there and that is your m. O. Since you got a congress. Why seek other office now . Rep. Walz i am proud to do it. We had a gathering right after i was elected. We talked about our goals and members of congress can set different goals and how they run their office. Mine can become a leading voice on veterans issues. Not just a democratic voice but a leading voice on veterans issues. I think we have done that. I recognize there is work that needs to be done. I have to be honest. I think we are in a period where there is the best opportunity for transportation that we have seen in some time. I intend to do the most i can in the timeline here. It has a lot to do with my love for the state of minnesota. We have an open governors race. To be honest, the dynamics in minnesota are such that my style and my Coalition Building is a exactly what is needed. I think it is a way to impact both veterans in minnesota, but on a broader level. And i think what my goals was to and reform how the democratic side of the veterans Affairs Committee the scene. As serious legislators with a professional staff that will live on long beyond me and continue to move. I dont think it is contingent on me being there, but i do think we are changing the trajectory of where it is going. It is the timing. My belief that now is the time to go back home. And to be honest, i think most of the big fights over the next few years will be statelevel fights and i want to be there. Greta we thank you for being this weeks newsmaker. Rep. Walz thank you all. Greta let me turn to the both of you. What is next year . We talked about the v. A. Accountability bill passed in the house and senate. When it comes to this developing story that they have run out of the money, what is next for them . Kellie i think it will bring to the fore the central conflict within the veteran authorization community in congress, which is are going to privatize most v. A. Services, or is the v. A. Kind of a brickandmortar operation that has many Different Centers across the country . not just as a medical access facility, but also as a place to train doctors. Also as a place to provide community for veterans. I think the answer to that question is very much in flux in congress. It is starting to not even really clearly divide across party lines as it used to. Would you agree . Greta what are they talking about it there for a price tag if they continue choice . Are they talking about another 10 billion in for how long . Connor congressman walz made that point. I guess it depends on the utilization that they see the first couple of years of the program. There was not a lot of utilization. In fact it took several billion , dollars out of that fund to fund other parts of the v. A. Mostly Hospital Services that were running short because of demand for the brickandmortar v. A. He also made that point that when they were negotiating the choice bill originally, i remember seeing the cbo score and it said 50 billion a year. If you let any veteran anywhere go to the private sector. So, you know it is a very , popular thing on the republican side to on the stump say any veterans should be allowed to see any doctor. There are some big fiscal realities if the government is going to pick up the tab for that. Greta the president once an increase for the Veterans Affair agency. With that cover extending the Choice Program . Kellie that is the big question. The house military construction v. A. Subcommittee just marked the fiscal 2018 spending bill for the v. A. And they did not include that money for choice. And Pennsylvania Republican chairman charlie dent said explicitly he was not including that choice money because he wanted authorizers to tackle the problem. A lot of that goes back to the kind of strange budgetary treatment of this program. It is not a program that is overseen annually by the appropriators in congress. Because of that, when they run out of money it becomes kind of a little bit of a tap dance of the Authorization Committee working with appropriators. In the 20 14th legislation that started this whole thing they , ended up just using emergency money straight out of the treasury. That is because there is not really a lot of good pay fors or ways to pay for this measure besides just saying that the National Priority and we will take it out of the general fund. The problem is that there are a lot of top political budgetary well we have seen over the past few years is as patching above the problem. Connor obrien with politico thank you so much. Thank you both. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspan, where history unfolds daily. As a publicreated service by americas cable and television companies