Because health care, it shouldnt be about politics. It isnt in connecticut. And it shouldnt be about blindly trying to fulfill a campaign promise, no matter how much real people get hurt. That secretr find room where the Health Care Bill is, the republicans, they know where to find me if they want to stop playing politics and start working together. ; cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1929, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Tonight on afterwards, Sophia Nelson on her latest book. Interviewed by michael steele, former chair of the rnc. Where does unity come into play and how does this book provide prescriptions for turning that important corner to recognize how important unity is . This book is a refresher of civics. But i wrote it in my sophia way of we need a little help, we are a little messed up. America is a great country, but we are confused about who we are and what we want. That is what i think we are wrestling with. This uniquely this unity peas, the breakdown of the last election is that half the country literally feels one way and the other half feels another. Tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on afterward after words. The American Legion recently held their conference in washington, d. C. Along their speakers were phil roe, john mccain, and david chilton. This is two hours. With our colors in place, hand salute. 1, 2 please remain standing and then cover. Harveyill called chaplin clay from the department of texas to meet us in prayer. In deuteronomy, it is written the strong and courageous to not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the lord, our god, who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Then shallns, what we say to these things if god is for us, who can be against us . With those scriptural passages in mind, let us go to the lord in prayer. Oh, my god, for whom nothing is too difficult, we call upon you lm our spirit. Focus our attention and energy on the task at hand, knowing that what we do is a part of your divine plan. And faithhe courage needed for the assignments we are about to undertake. Centered upon what he would have. S do all to your greater glory shower us with forthrightness, honesty and sincerity and all the concerns and proposals that we present. Fruitfulreparations be and touch the hearts of those who hear them. That those who have ears here and the those who have eyes see. You fed and watered millions in the desert. A feat only you could accomplish. So we are trusting in you to provide the practical means necessary in the meetings that we are about to attend. You called us to a task that provisionupernatural and now we are calling on you to provide the details. , we will don god our part and do it well by your grace and know you will do yours. Our strength will be renewed and we shall mount up with wings like angels in our service to god and country. Ofthis we pray in the name all that is sacred, precious and holy, amen. 288 requires the designation of a pow mia chair or flag at all official meetings of the American Legion. This is a symbol of the thousands of american pow mias still unaccounted for, for whom all wars and conflicts involved our nation. So with a pow mia flag posted and positioned to my left, let it serve as a reminder for all of us to spare no effort to secure the release of any american prisoners, the repatriation of the remains of those who have been killed in action, and a full accounting of those who are still missing. Let us rededicate ourselves for this vital endeavor. Thank you, chaplin. I call on the chairman of the National Legislative counsel from the department of georgia to lead our pledge of allegiance. Quarks with the flag of our nation in place, please join me in reciting the pledge and i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it ,tands, one nation under god indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Please recover and you may be seated. Welcome to the 57th annual commanders called. We hope you will be inspired, motivated and most importantly educated. Our goal this morning is to empower you with everything you to carry the American Legions message to capitol hill. And the passion, confidence knowledge you have with the over 2 million veterans, their , mostes and their votes importantly, behind you. We are the largest and most respected veterans is Veterans Organization and the nation. We are the American Legion. I would like to begin by introducing a first speaker. He has been asking us to carry the legacy forward. It is a proud legacy indeed. And he is contributing to that legacy by fearfully advocating for veterans and their families. And veteran ofer the vietnam war he is the first member of the Great Department of oregon to lead our organization. It is my pleasure to introduce the National Commander of the American Legion charles e smith. Oakland [applause] thank you. Thank you. Thank you chairman oxford and marital good morning American Legion family. Who raw. It is such an exciting time to be in washington. We have a new administration and a new congress. No matter what your political persuasion is, it is exciting for the American Legion. It is exciting because we are nonpartisan and, with a new leadership in washington, we look at all new possibilities. As i like to say during my acceptance speech as you elected mayor commander, accentuate the positive. We see a lot of positive signs coming from washington. The new v. A. Secretary, dr. David chilton, seems committed to making the v. A. Better than ever before. Isnt to say that there arent some Serious Problems to address. But he doesnt agree that it is a system worth saving. Let me be clear about our position regarding choice. We are not against the concept of Health Care Choices for veterans. Realistically, not all veterans would find it convenient to use v. A. The a some must travel more than 200 miles to find the nearest va hospital. Although there needs to be a wellmanaged partnership with private providers to serve veterans in remote areas, we are against the current mess that is called Choice Program. Delays, nonreimbursement for services and bureaucratic entanglements are constant experiences for many who have attempted to use this program. Additionally, the no veteran should have two experience a long wait time to be seen by ava v. A. Doctor. We think the v. A. Is already moving in the right direction. But as the president would say, lets make it great again. Im excited because come in the last congress, the house of representatives agreed with us that the antiquated appeals process for veterans disability claims needed to be modernized. The current process, if left alone would result in veterans having to wait an average of 10 years by 2027 to hear a decision on their appeals. Timeis more than twice the that it took for the United States to fight and win world war ii. s on 2016tov. A. Numbers, more than a million appeals claims were waiting to be finally adjudicated. More than 80,000 claims were waiting for greater than 100 when he five days. The American Legion finds this completely unacceptable. We believe the appeals , hrrnization legislation 457, introduced by dinner titus, will simplify and speed up the process as well as make it more transparent. The house did its job in the last congress. But the senate refused to move on it. I am hopeful that today you will talk to your representatives and your senators and tell them that we need to pass this important legislation now. The American Legion welcomes president trumps promise to rebuild our military. More than half of all marine corps aircraft are on flyable this past december. Only three of the u. S. Armys 58 brigade combat teams are considered ready for combat. , the branch where i made a career, had a total of about 5500 and left. The average aircraft is 27 years old. Older than many of the pilots plying them. In the early 1990s, air force had 8,600 aircraft, what can i say about the navy, i was at joint base to or 75th anniversary. If we learned anything from party harbor it is that we must always be prepared. Temple have had major impact on navys ability to protect our seas. A strong navy is needed now. Increase pro vocation by governments of iran and north korea. This is why we are asking congress to fully fund the department of defense with a real and robust budget and not unstainable continuing resolution. Does anybody believe that the world is safer now than it was during the cold war . The conclusion of the bipartisan 9 11 commission is that our enemy was at war with us. But we were not at war with them. The courts need to recognize it is the president who has the ultimate and constitutional man mandated responsibility to keep us safe. We need to take a hard look at our immigration and entry policy. While we have been effective at stopping terrorists attacks, look at what happened in france, germany, turkey, as we have seen in boston, san bernardino, we will not be able to stop every attack but every one we stop saves an incalculable amount of lives. I would like to say a few words about the deniers. These are people protesting on College Campus and in our streets who deny our flag has significance. Its just a piece of cloth they say. It is a piece of cloth all right, its fabric of our nation. These people deny that flag desecration is a problem. It hardly ever occurs they say. Yet a quick Google Search you will reveal thousands of images of people doing that. Some in congress are denying a hearing on the flag amendment by doing so they are denying the rest of congress the chance to vote on it and denying the American People to right to pass this measure through the state legislature and trying protection into constitution. Thats our constitution. The constitution of the American People. These deniers say congress has more important issues to address that the flag protection amendment is a waste of time. I say pass the amendment and we wont bo tlerther you with it and we wont bother you with it again. [applause] otherwise, you will keep hearing from us. We never quit our mission in the military when we are not going to quit now. Because thats who we are. We love peace but we will foigtight for what it right. But we will always fight for what is right. Thank you all. God bless you and god bless the United States of america. [applause] thank you, commander. Thank you. I notice theres lots of folks standing in the back. If youre interesting there are plenty of seats up front. The American Legion is one of the most powerful voices in washington. It is because of you, and our strong grass roots presence, veterans across this nation depend upon you to make sure the nation does right by them. Just remember, the most important meeting members of congress will have that relate to the American Legion will be the one they have with you, their constituents. Ladies and gentlemen, our next guest is chairman of the u. S. Veterans affairs committee. He was elected in 2008 to serve the first Congressional District of tennessee. As a physician, he ran successful medical practice for 31 years. Delivered close to 5,000 babies. Hes an army veteran and member of post 24 in johnson city tennessee. Give a warm welcome to honorable representative from tennessee, phil row. [applause] thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. As you know, congress has a less than 12 approval rating. Im glad to get invited anywhere. Thank you for having employee. [laughter] i told the speaker, mr. Speaker, its not as bad you you think. The bar is low. I want to thank you all for being here. Taking your time to come to washington to talk to us about the important issues that you face. Once again, my name is phil row. Im country doctor from tennessee. Eight or nine years ago decided i didnt like the direction the country was going, i felt i would serve my country, so i went off my medication and reason for congress and looked what happened. [laughter] so i be careful to stay on your medicine. I was a young physician in memphis. I tell people that i won a free trip to southeast asia. Many of you did the same thing i went to the mailbox and got draft notice and had six week old child when i went into the military, went through basic training, stations in korea. I spent a few months in seoul. Grew up in tennessee. I felt i have like i was part of the military. I know when the congress today, less than 20 of us have served in the military. Back in the early 70s many you back in the 1970s, more than 80 had served in the military. Many you of are world war ii, korea vietnam, a lot smaller percentage have served than previous generation. It is on honor to do what i do and have time it do this or the opportunity to do this. I want to thank you all and jury families for coming up here. I know a lieutenantot of times times we a lot of forget theres a family that loves and cares for us and gives us an opportunity and privilege of serving. I want to thank dr. Shulkin, i have to be careful what i say because he is backstage. He going to be a great secretary. I have had opportunity to work with him on the Veterans Affairs committee. I think he going to do a great job for our veterans country. I have been on the committee since 2009. We were spending 97 billion ayear on veterans. Today its south of 80 billion. We have added almost a hundred thousand employees. The va has more than employees than the u. S. Navy does. I dont know that the va is doing that much better job. We have resources to take care of what we are doing today, i think we need to do a better job of man managing and i intend to hold the va accountable. I know many of you have aware of the scandal that occurred in phoenix, it turned out this was per viive than we thought. It gives him the ability to fire or hold people accountable for what they do. And there are many egregious have occurred that took months and years to make right. I come from the private sector. That doesnt happen in the private sector. Some of the events occurred the door would not hit you the backside that day, dr. Shulkin needs these tools. He is going to get these tools. We are going to mark this bill up next week. One of the things i want to work about physician who solves veteran patients in my office and saw them active military doctor, i want to be sure we put veterans in charge of health care decision. What i mean by that, my practice, the person i work for is the patient. Not the hospital, the insurance company, the patient. I want to do, i want the veterans and the doctors to be making those health care decision. If it you feel youre not getting the care you need, you should have a choice to go where you want to, but i travel to texas and valley in washington, to visit rural areas where va are. Veterans are spread out across there country. In my district, 10 of my district are veterans. We have 70,000 in first Congressional District and i know we have bob hencely who is a veteran from mountain city, tennessee. I want to thank him for being here. There would not be a texas if it were not for tennessee. I want to point that out. What i want to see happen whether the va in health care, i want you to have the absolute best health care that can be provided by anybody in the world. You should have that as a veteran. You have aevearned it. You deserve to have it. I think accountability and two access to care is a huge item for he. Theres a huge opioid i bus opioid abuse. We have had Prescription Drug deaths killed as many people in this countries. Its scary epidemic thats preventable. Its something we should not have. Theres an appropriate use for opioid and theres inappropriate use. We protect people from the deaths occurring. I know theres another thing im concerned about also about tim walsh, cochair co cause in congress that takes care of folks with posttraumatic stress disorder. I will give them a big shoutout. The va has been a leader in posttraumatic stress disorder treatment. We passed a bill that we acknowledge we need to do more for veterans and can other patients in this country suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. One of the biggest thing we have to do is i know dr. Shulkin is concerned and worried about this, is to transform vas it system. We spent 4. 5 billion, thats 4500 million on technology. And its right now the Va Health Care system is a good one. Its not easy to do. I say this sort of a joke, Electronic Health system that made me a congressman. It drove me crazy learning how to do it. Technology is good if it works and the va system needs to be reformed. We are sending people on the Choice Program which is not working. We have get that working better. Technology is the key to it so you can bill, to pay your bills and do other things with with technology, that is big time were going to take at the apple. One of the things i want to assure you is im not sitting up here talking about privatizing va. Time im talking about making va better [applause] thats something i think extremely important for people to know thats not whats were doing. The va today will not look like the va of 20 years ago. We have va that needs hackaccess in a different way. I dont know from i know that most of you have a smartphone, theres going to be tremendous amount of Health Care Provided through smartphone. I keep getting unsolis ited email from walk in tub. We have the most Bipartisan Committee in the congress. Its one of the reasons i enjoy working on the committee. Its about how we take care of veterans. That is exactly why im on that committee. [applause] i