Veterans issues and how lawmakers are working to improve Veterans Affairs programs. The event was hosted by the American Enterprise institute. Lets try to get started here. Good morning. Welcome to aei and welcome to our program today. The value of our veterans, our conversation with representatives, mike levin and brad. Im gary smith, im a senior scholar here as strategic studies and im director of aeis program on american citizenship. I amng toi skip a set of am going to skip a set of introductions since we will be talking the next two hours. So those joining us here in joining online or watching on cspan, if you want lengthier bios go to the website and go to the link for the page and you will see everybodys biographies. Let me begin by giving a quick overview of the proceedings. We will first hear from representative mike levin, the recently a district that runs recently elected congressman from californias 49th district, a district that runs along san diego to southern Orange County and quite frankly i have a niece that lives out there, im not sure why the congress and decided to move to d. C. , but nevertheless, it is a patriotic act on his part. He is the chair of the subcommittee on Economic Opportunity with the house of Veterans Affairs committee. Following we will hear from former utterance Affair Committee and the congressman that represents ohio Second District which runs from the outskirts and parts of cincinnati and parties. And parts east. We are pleased that the congresswoman can join us again at aei. We appreciate his willingness to come out of our way. To come our way. After the opening remarks they will join the discussion by moderator and military times reporter, who will after the brief remarks, we will have a and answerion session with our guests aired after that discussion we will , switch to a Panel Discussion with Cynthia Gilman of the the Henry Jackson foundation of military foundation, and my colleague burgess, from aei. The focus of that discussion would be what do we need to do to change the narrative to the to change the narrative of the broken program to the more accurate narrative veterans of social office heads. The Panel Discussion will be followed by a q a session in the mornings event will and probably at 10 00 a. M. Just two housekeeping notes, after our discussion with the members if you would stay in your seat for a few minutes always transition the second panel we would appreciate it. Second for q a, if you would wait for a microphone and as always introduce yourself and as not always, please do ask the question. Let me conclude by noting Veterans Affairs and veteran policies is a subject which aei scholars, have been writing about for some time. But, writing about policy is one thing, and producing legislation lives is veterans quite another, which is why we are delighted to have chairman levin and congressman with us today. They are the bipartisan cosponsors of veterans Education Transition and Opportunity Organization plan. It is a measure that passed in house in late may. Please join me in welcoming congressman mike levin and brad. [applause] good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here. We are not voting today as you. As you know. I am grateful to have a somewhat free day before i get on the plane. No better way to begin than to talk about the most rewarding aspect of my service so far in washington, d. C. , which has been chair aity to chair a subcommittee on house veterans subcommittee dealing with housing homelessness, Workforce Development, transition assistance. It is an incredible opportunity, particularly for a freshman, one that i take seriously every day. I am honored to have that chance. Im grateful also to my colleagues across the aisle, the house of veterans Affair Committee, is perhaps the most bipartisan place in congress and theres a lot of interesting stories going around shaking going around washington this week. Its been a crazy week as everybody knows, the story that is not told often enough is a story of bipartisanship that still happens on a daily basis iswashington and our work the best representation of that. I often say that most of the time, if you were to turn off the video and listen to the in our hearings, in our subcommittee in particular, you would not know who the republicans were and you would not know who the democrats were. Were all there in the service of our veterans and service of our country. I hope that is how it always is. I tell you, i think both the chairman and the Ranking Member are doing a terrific job. Same in my subcommittee, im honored to have a guest to from florida and we have built a relationship of respect and appreciation for one another, built on our shared trust and the deep sire that we have two serve our veterans. Im the grandson of a world war ii veteran. My grandfather on my dad side i , think of him all the time. When thinking about how we treat caseswho in many sacrificed everything for andfreedom and our security he taught me a lot about what it means to be a patriot and what it means to serve your country. While i did not serve in the military, nonetheless i have the small opportunity as the chairman of the Economic Opportunity subcommittee to give back to those who have given so much. My grandpa would often talk inut the gaps in the v. A. Or Services Provided to veterans. I remember that well, and for me it is absolutely unconscionable that we would do everythg possible to treat her veterans as the heroes they are. That includes the best health opportunities, Workforce Development opportunities, the best Transition Program can possibly come up with and so much more. Is we areer good news actually passing bills. You dont often hear about that in the press. But in our committee, we have considered Something Like 40 bills. We have passed over half of them. I think about roughly 10 of them, and there are a couple of the staff here, roughly 10 of them in for my subcommittee and i am honored that six of the bills that i helped to introduce, each with a republican has passed the house , representatives. I am also encouraged, i just had a great meeting with a senator a couple days of go. I think a lot of these can get through the senate line as well, especially when we doubt much legislation will get for time and pass the senate get floor time, and pass the senate, i think a lot of these will become law. If you will entertain me, i would very briefly like to explain these six bills. One is with representative and a and i am very grateful with you leading the way with the act and what it would do is create a Fourth Administration in the ea. Its a somewhat controversial plan with the va, everybody else wants it. All the veterans i talked to wanted. What would happen is, you would be able to separate the core work for Economic Opportunity from the benefits administration. The vast majority of staffing and resources at the benefits administration are erected towards disability compensation and claims and there has been a lack of oversight and accountability, such as the g. I. Bill, and the v. A. s portion of the treasures in transition assistance program. Its outdated, its undermining the benefits that our veterans have rightly earned. What we have to do is restructure existing resources. It would actually eliminate redtape rather than create more tape. Again, everybody that i speak with him the actual veterans who will be impacted very much want this to happen. Hopefully, the v. A. Will come around. It might make things a little more difficult for certain in shortterm, in the longterm, our veterans will have a lot of gains from this restructuring, it will be welcoming over time. I wanted to mention some of these other bills. We have one to support disabled veterans housing. Thats one i think have a great shot of getting it through because there is a Senate Companion bill. We want to improve the tap program. My friend, jodey arrington, has been a champion of this and he had a friend who passed a way after service in iraq. He is confident that his friend assistancetransition , or of a wraparound support system that his friend may have had the opportunity to go on and have a more successful postservice career. We have another on Mental Health access. There is a bill we are doing to expand the access to the v. A. Vet centers to others, such as those who served in the National Guard and reserves but who sought a significant amount of clearly the v. A. Vet centers ought to be available to them as well. Then we are trying to also protect our veterans when they go to take out a va loan. I have a bill with andy barr that would help fix that. Scholarshipsem that would make the requirements under the forever g. I. Bill for a stem scholarship commensurate with what most programs are offering. A lot of these are hopefully noncontroversial. Even in todays washington, you never know for sure. You all might know better than i, i have only been here for seven months. Thewhat i have seen as all bipartisanship and rhetoric seems to be set aside in service of our veterans. It should be that way. I hope it is always that way. I can tell you that i have no greater honor than being on the committee. I am an environmental attorney and interested in environmental policy. I have dug deep into those areas. That i didnt expect was that my service on the house Veterans Affairs committee would be as rewarding as it is. And at the early accomplishments i would be able to achieve in washington would be in the Veterans Affairs committee would be six bipartisan bills that we passed in the last seven months. In the spirit of bipartisanship, you will hear from representative wenstrup. I look forward to your ideas on how we can best our veterans. [applause] thank you very much. Thank you all for being here this morning. It is a pleasure to be with you, especially to talk about this particular topic. Mike, you are right when you talk about the v. A. Committee. I would also share this the va committee is probably the Top Committee when it comes to bipartisanship. A lot exists on the other committees as well, just not always at the end of the day. I had a reporter at home one time Say Something about that and i said, how many members of congress and you name . There were only about 10. Its pretty much those see every evening on cable tv. I said what do you think the rest of us are doing all day . The va committee is a place where you get a lot of things done. I look back on the forever g. I. Bill and the mission act that was was cosponsored by every member. I dont think theres too many times you can say that in any other committee. That was a big bill that got a lot done. It was always a pleasure to walk into the v. A. Committee room because you know you are going thatve good conversation is very serious and professional in every way as you are taking care of the veterans. In particular, this particular me inas very important to so many ways for a lot of it does is,use what it focuses on the transition, if you will to civilian life. The opportunities that exist economically. For six years i served on Armed Services and i am also a veteran. I served a year in iraq, 2005 in 2006 as a surgeon there. , in i came back from the war hadnt been home for 15 months. Said, youvist, they dont have to said, you dont have to go back to work for 90 days. I said, im going next week. I am not going to sit around my house. I think that is the important factor. That is easy for me because i had a medical practice to go back to. Not everybody has that luxury. At the time, i was 47 years old. For some people, they are 21 or 22 and havent had something established over a long. Period of time. You start to think about what you went through during that time. It is odd. You come back and the rest of the country is just going about their business. For others, there is gas at the pump, food at the store, and no one knows we just went through very if you dont have somewhere to go and something to do its , very different. There was a book called the face of the american soldier, and it was mostly about how troops would get together and pray before their missions and there was one passage that caught me. It was about a soldier who was getting ready to came home who had been in iraq for a year. A ratty Baghdad Airport and he begins to cry. They said, why are you crying, we are going home . He said, i dont think we will be able to do as much for other people as we did here and that i will be bored and it will seem mundane when i get home. I think that is very true in so many ways. Why is this important . My colleague friend mentioned the transition assistance program. , heyoint it was like youre getting out and here are your benefits and i want you to know what you deserve and we will see you later. Me, it is much more important to go further back. Think about what the v. A. Has had to do. They have had to be reactive to any conditions or problems that you may have i think a lot of those come from the fact that you were part of something big. Part of something you were you are part of something that was needed every day. You were essential. If you come back and you do not have somewhere to go in somewhere to drive forward, it is very challenging. Posttraumatic stress is very real. If youve been in the environment and see what youve seen and that hasnt affected you in some way, shape, or form, then there is probably something wrong with you. But if youve been there and it does have an effect on you to some degree, i consider that normal and should be addressed. To the level that you need. As is what i like to term post essential stress. You went from being so essential and so needed and then you may come back and have nothing. So it is important that you have a plan. V. A. , there is a great opportunity to make sure we are really focusing on opportunity for veterans, not only when they first get out but beyond that that they continue to have opportunities. That to me is important. For transition assistance, i want to go back even further. I would love to see war and more that when you get recruited, you are a young man or woman thinking about joining the military and you get with the recruiter and the recruiter says what you want to do in the military . I want to be a marine. I want to be in the army, i want to do infantry. Ok, here is what that path looks like. Imagine the recruiter saying, what you want to do after . Its talk about that right now, too. Lets prepare that path. Whether you will be in for four years or 24 years lets talk , about that. When you are two years out from reenlistment and you are having a conversation with a professional and they say here is your path if you want to stay in and here is the path otherwise. Are you going to use the g. I. Employment,u into take everything you learn in the military and parlay that into a job if you graduate college and you get your degree and you dont have a job lined up and you dont know where you are going, that is not that great of a day. If you take that uniform off and you know where you are going next and what the opportunities are, that is much better. You look at what happens as i talk about the v. A. Being reactive. Most of the suicides we hear so much about dont happen in uniform, they happen later. I think they happen later because of that particular situation if you have nowhere to go and no one around to understand what you have been through and to wake up every day with a purpose. That makes a difference and that is what you have when you are in uniform. So i think all of these things are so very important as we move forward and try to pass legislation that helps our veterans. In the army, we say soldier for life. Lets mean it. Soldier for life, but we will be with you and we will help you and we will guide out a path and a career for you. Imagine a parent who is sitting there who hears a recruiter say, what you want to do after . We want to get you there, too. That is huge. This bill is a strep step in that direction. As was mentioned, the t ap program is where we are going. When i was in Armed Services, this is a conversation started having. Jodey arrington has picked up that ball and run with it as well with you. I am sure mike and i appreciate that so much. I think it is important. Lets break the stigma that so many have that was mentioned earlier. I was at an event with Major League Baseball owners and george bush showed up unexpectedly. The owner got up and he said, what are you doing in town . He said, i am here to work with veterans and help the veterans ing and are transition help them together a resume and apply for a job. When they ask what the qualifications and skills are, you cant just put sniper. Pay attentiony, i to detail, i show up for work on time, and you can count on me. Those are the types of things we have got to do. There are so many people trying to help with this transition and we need to do our job here in congress to do everything we can to do that. I also, in the line of that stigma, i also met a veteran one time who had lost both legs and he was in a band, laying guitar. I began talking to him, and this was at a military event. Know, i am not a wounded warrior, i am still a warrior. I think we should look at all of those who served and i think that most dont want your pity, they want you to appreciate what theyve done and what you and let you know they are still in the game. Thank you all for being here. Thank you all for being this morning. I guess we will start our conversation. [applause] congressman, thank you both so much for the remarks. Standingam the last between you guys and getting back to constituents. You and traffic. Let me build off of what you were just talking about, not just with the act, with the overall thought of how benefits are delivered and how progra