The library of Congress National book festival Live Saturday beginning at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan two. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more including cox. This syndrome is extremely rare. Hi. But friends do not have to be. This is joe. When you are connected you are not alone. Cox supports cspan as a Public Service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Welcome back to the washington journal this morning, and we are talking about the Biden Administrations military and veterans policy enjoying this morning by the policy director for the concerned veterans for america and the Government Relations director for i will begin with you. What is your group and what are your goals . I will have you answer the same question, tyler. It is a progressive veterans organization, founded in 2006 by veterans of the iraq war. We have a network of over 1. 5 million veterans, military families and supporters. We work to advocate for progressive veterans policy and policies that benefit u. S. National security. We supported President Bidens decision to end the war in afghanistan, repeal the authorization for use of force in iraq, which has been used to authorize wars in far too many countries, strongly supported strong u. S. Support for ukraine and nato allies. Host the same question to you and how do you differ from this Progressive Group . Guest thanks for having me on. Concerned veterans for america is a National GrassrootsAdvocacy Organization of veterans in the military. Our mission is to advance policies that will promote the freedom and prosperity members of sacrifice and fought to defend while in uniform. We focus on three main issues, the first is reforming the Veterans Affairs department and expanding veterans choice in health care. Also confronting the growing national debt. We share some overlap when it comes to Foreign Policy issues, particularly around more restrained realist rooted policy. Host the president has been commander in chief years, what grade would you give him . Guest somewhere like a c, it has been a mixed record at best, but we shared support of his decision to exit the war in afghanistan. I think that strategic decision was the right one. However, the rollout was a disaster that will be remembered for decades and people involved in the planning need to be held accountable for the future. We are glad to see avoided actions that could escalate the war in ukraine and lead to direct u. S. Russia confrontation , however we have been disheartened about some of the mixed messages about the overarching u. S. Strategy and the endgame we would like to see in that conflict, the openended nature. More recently, were looking at talks to potentially give a security back to saudi arabia in exchange for them normalizing relationships with israel. The administration seems interested in getting the deal. Host same question to you, what grade would you give the president . Guest he gets a without a doubt, for two reasons. He has shown deep commitment to u. S. National security above party politics. He is never going to politicize or bring partisan issues interNational Security. He understands the sacrifice of members and their families and veterans have made, their commitment to our country, because of his son, who was an army veteran who died of cancer after serving in iraq. Joe biden understands that, he stands with veterans and military families and Service Members and his record shows that. Host the president has pointed to his sons death possibly caused by burn pits and his access to them when he was serving, that brings up the pact act. First explain burn pits, what are they and where does the pact act stand right now . Guest burn pits were places to dispose of toxic material, waste and other substances. They were widely used in iraq and afghanistan, enormous pits, the size of football fields. If you served in iraq and afghanistan, you are likely exposed to burn pits. There was no escaping them. The pact act is now a year old, the largest expansion of coverage for veterans exposed to toxic substances and other toxins like agent orange during your time of service. Now a year old, veterans can sign up to get covered for diseases they may have because they were exposed to those substances. Host the registration deadline for signing up for those benefits is when . What are we seeing . Are people registering in large numbers . Guest that is coming up august 9 to be able to have a claim that is backdated from when it was passed. They have been opaque as far as people being interested in the coverage, we certainly agree people who have been exposed to these burn pits should be able to get coverage. I think with the deeper issue is is how the v. A. Has rolled out. They did this with good intentions, but did this expedited rollout plan which i think will contribute significantly to the growing claims backlog at the v. A. , which is already about 270,000 people. The v. A. Itself estimates that could go up to 400,000, so we are thinking about adding all of this new coverage, that is great people are getting the help they need. The v. A. Needs to take advantage of programs like the Community Care program, which can allow veterans to use their benefits outside the v. A. As an additional option to make sure it is not increasing wait times and backlogs as a result. Host what additional coverage are they getting . Guest basically access to more benefits and treatment related to these exposures and the ability to have those better taken care of as a result. Host do you disagree with tyler . Should these be in the pact act, or could they be used in legislation laws that already exist . Guest pact act benefits are absolutely essential. They expanded the list of presumptive conditions. Instead of veterans needing to prove their diseases were linked to time of service, we should be expanding them. They should not have to prove where their diseases came from. They serve, they sacrifice, they deserve access to that Health Care Coverage in that is what the pact act is doing. Host the president is expected to talk about the oneyear anniversary around 1 15 today, look for our coverage. Tyler, you talked earlier about reform to the veterans administration, what sort of reforms would your group like to see . Guest i think with the main issue with Veterans Affairs department has been is they are increasingly trapped in a broken system with long wait times. The v. A. Is often improperly calculating the wait times so they do not know how long it will take to receive care and the v. A. Has been hostile on a few alternatives like the Community Care program that would enable veterans to get timely and quality care if the wait time is too long at the v. A. Or they have to drive far for an appointment. Particularly with the passage of the act, i think the v. A. Should view Community Care as a tool that could be a partner for directly v. A. Run facilities to help ensure we can keep those promises to victims of toxic exposure. The v. A. Has been reluctant to educate veterans about Community Care options or refer them to those providers in the first place. Host your response . Guest there is an issue with backlog at the v. A. , their underfunded services and things like that. The v. A. Is underfunded, plain and simple. Any of issues any issues at the v. A. Could be solved if they had adequate funding. The challenge has been extreme republicans who are blocking and even trying to cut the v. A. Budget. We saw that earlier this year when they tried to cut the budget by 22 . Host the president requested 300 25 billion for Veterans Affairs. Disagree or agree . Guest there are a couple of issues. I do not think it is realistic to say the v. A. Has been underfunded. The budget has increased over fivefold in the past 20 years. Even though we have a declining veteran population over that time. Theres been more and more resources per veteran and we see an explosion of administrative staff. It is unfortunate we are talking about the budget request that the v. A. Is its own office of Public Affairs to claim a proposal to limit the growth of Discretionary Spending would result in cuts to the v. A. The v. A. Was fully funded this year and the most recent appropriation. Host we are talking with two veterans groups, votevet with Mary Kaszynski and concerned veterans for america, Tyler Koteskey is the policy director. We want to join the conversation about veterans policy. Republicans 202 7488001, democrats 202 7488000 an independents 202 7488002. Active and former military, we have a line for you this morning. It is 202 7488003. All of you, any of you, can text on the last line, include your first name, city and state. What would your group like to see the administration do in the coming months, years of this remaining term for the president . Guest when it comes specifically to veterans, get the word out. Veterans need more information. To their credit, the administration has been largely responsive to some of those concerns. The deadline has been extended, the deadline to apply for retroactive benefits, because of the overwhelming response, desire and need from the veterans community. The administration is listening, taking the concerns on board and they are acting. So more outreach. On Veterans Affairs specifically, passing the act that would allow disabled veterans who retire prior to 20 years or had to leave the service due to a disability to allow them to become eligible for retirement benefits. It is a bill currently in congress, unclear if it will gain bipartisan support. It has strong support from democrats. It seems Senate Republicans may want to block the bill because they are reluctant to give a win to joe biden. Host for the remaining part of this president s term, what do you want to see him focus on . Guest when it comes to veterans, the Biden Administration should do a better job of giving them choices. They chose to serve our country and they should choose where to see a doctor, whether at the v. A. Or a private care provider that meets their needs. I would like to see the v. A. Secretary be less hostile to the Community Care program and do a better job of following the mission act that established that in 2019. On Foreign Policy, we would like to see him articulate a clear and safe when it comes to what we want to achieve in ukraine and how our aid is tied to the longterm strategy and conflict resolution in that war. I think the president needs to work with congress to make sure spending stays within the limits set by the Discretionary Spending caps most recently so we can work to control the ever mounting national debt, which is about 32 trillion right now. Host william in georgia, democratic caller. Caller good morning. I wanted to make a comment about what tyler mentioned under biden and the withdrawal from afghanistan. I hear conservatives or rightwing individuals constantly make reference to how it was a disaster, but they never put the context of the withdrawal in plain detail. We were there for 20 years, we spent trillions of dollars and lost thousands of lives. Donald trump comes along and tries to invite the taliban into the white house. He had an Unconditional Surrender to the taliban, told them we would leave with no conditions. That is called surrender. If the United States renders to the taliban, of course the Afghan Government is going to collapse. If the u. S. Is going to leave, how can they stand up . Given all of that, how could we possibly have an organized and orderly withdrawal from a war zone in which we surrender to the enemy with no conditions . Guest that is a great question. I would go back to the fact this was the withdrawal President Trump originally set the groundwork and motion four. I think the fact President Trump set out the agreement that enabled us to not have ongoing fighting while we were trying to plan the withdrawal and President Bidens willingness to carry that out when he was in office is a good example of bipartisan cooperation, pursuing the right overall strategy for the United States. You are right to point out we were there for 20 years. After the death of Osama Bin Laden in 2011, it should have been clear all of our main strategic objectives were accomplished and we should not have been focused on a devolving mission that was unwinnable for the troops. We have to focus on the underlying Strategic Decisions of the conflict and we can do that while also criticizing the specific planning failures that went into the withdrawal itself. That is why reese supported efforts to greet the Afghanistan War commission in recent years to ensure we have accountability and Lessons LearnedGoing Forward. Host in North Carolina, hello. Caller i want to clarify some things for tyler. Im on v. A. Health care for four years, two years in a call center in greenville North Carolina and two years managing a providers panel in jacksonville. V. A. Health care works. The problem is with a veteran, we would call them a month, two weeks, three days before the appointment and they would not show up. Do you know any veteran assigned to a clinic or facility, if he is sick today, he can walk in and be seen . You and others in congress think the veteran awaits months to be seen. Let me clarify this thing so people understand. Donald trump did not sign veterans choice. That was done by barack obama during the appointment storm. Right now, a veteran can get great care, but he has got to work within the system. I like the idea of that veteran being seen outside on referral, because that veteran more than likely is not in a big facility town, for example, like raleigh, North Carolina. They have a huge v. A. Health care system, so does fayetteville. This misnomer that veterans are not taking care of i fully agree with the lady. They need to be funded so the v. A. Has enough medical support systems, doctors, nurses to provide the best care for that veteran. You needs to be clarified. Host tyler, you go first. Guest we will thank the caller for helper veterans at the v. A. , but respectfully disagree. I work with staff who use the v. A. As their primary provider who tell me stories about how schedulers will sometimes argue with them about whether they are eligible for Community Care and point to the access standard for access to these nonv. A. Providers. What has been said about same day care is just not wornout, if you google it, look up local wait times in your area. I was at an event the other day where the nearest appointment for Mental Health care was more than 72 days. We are talking next month is Suicide Prevention month. When you have wait times like this for care, that is not an acceptable state of affairs. There is nothing wrong with giving veterans the choice to either go to the v. A. If they like that, which is great, and go somewhere else fit is not meeting their needs. Host Mary Kaszynski . Guest thank you for your call and support and advocacy for the veterans community. I cannot agree more. It is 2023, there are some new tools the v. A. Could be utilizing to provide Greater Services to veterans. Telehealth appointments, more facilities. It is difficult for veterans enroll communities to reach their local v. A. Rural broadband, greater communication with veterans wherever they live, more facilities, modernizing facilities. But all requires funding and Congress Needs to come together over the objection of extreme republicans to get that funding to the v. A. And v. A. Clinicians. Host dean in kentucky, republican. Caller i thought for my country in vietnam and Todays Health Care is very bad. Itll be a and a half months before i have a colonoscopy. I have cataracts, i have one removed that took six months. 12 weeks then called back, 12 more weeks. That is how they take care of veterans. There are some out here on obamacare, they got private health care from the government. Id be dead right now because i could never get nothing done. They said he would die if you waited for your appointment with the v. A. Guest i think there are a lot of problems here that are even deeper than the lack of funding at the v. A. s, because they should be able to provide Excellent Service to each and every veteran. Republicans earlier this year threatened to shut down the government. That would have impacted social security, disability benefits for veterans, survivors benefits for gold star. Congressional republicans, extreme republicans in the house and some in the senate, are threatening to tank the economy, causing a global recession. That is what those kinds of actions cause. That will have an acrosstheboard impact. Those are issues we need to address on top of the spe