Really need to adopt watch the rest of this event in the cspan Video Library at cspan. Org. Type center for American Progress in the search box. Going to leave and go live to remark some House Veterans AffairsCommittee Chair ted poe, some john mccain, james mattis and the mr. Secretary David Shulkin. All living at the American Legion conference here in washington. In deuteronomy it is written, a strong and courageous do 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. And in romans, what then shall we say to these things . If god is for us, who can be against us . With those passages in mind let us go to the lord in prayer. Almighty god, for whom nothing is too difficult, we call upon you to call our spirit calm focus our attention and energy on the tasks at hand, knowing that what we do is a part of your divine plan. Grant us the courage and faith needed for the assignments we are about to undertake, centered upon what you would have us do all to your greater glory. Shower us with forthright, honesty and sincerity. And all of the concerns and proposals that we present, may our preparations be fruitful, and touch the hearts of those who hear them. But those who have ears here, and those who have eyes see. Lord, you fed and watered millions in the desert, a feat only you could accomplish. And so we are trusting in you to provide a practical means necessary in the meetings where about to attend. You called us to a task that requires supernatural provision, and now w were calling on you o provide the details. With trust in our god we will do our part, and do it well by your grace, and no, 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. In this we pray in the name of all that is sacred, precious and holy, amen. Amen. Resolution to 88 adopted by by the 87th annual National Convention requires the designation of a pow in my a 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 involve our nation. So with a pow mia flag posted in position to my left him 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 to this vital endeavor. Thank you, chaplain. I now call upon the chairman of the National Legislative council from the department of georgia to lead our pledge of allegiance. With a flag of our nation in place please join in fighting the pledge. And to the republic for which it stands, 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 call. Before you leave today we hope youll be inspired, motivated and most importantly educated. Article this morning is to empower you with everything you need to know to carry the america legions message to capitol hill. With the passion, confidence and knowledge you have with the over 2 million veterans, their families and their votes most importantly behind you. We are the largest and most respected veteran Service Organization in the nation. We are the American Legion. Id like to begin by introducing our first speaker. Hes been asking us to carry the legacy forward. Its a proud legacy indeed and he is contributing to that legacy by fearfully advocating for veterans and their families. A retired air force officer and veteran of the vietnam war, hes the first member of the Great Department of oregon to leave our organization. It is my pleasure to edit is the National Command of the American Legion charles smith. [applause] thank you. Thank you. Thank you, chairman oxford. And good morning, American Legion family. Hoo rah. It is such an exciting time to be in washington. We have a new Administration Ad a new congress. And no matter what your political persuasion is, it is exciting for the American Legion. It is exciting because we are nonpartisan, and with the new leadership in washington, we look at all new possibilities. As i like to say during my acceptance speech after elected me as your National Commander, accentuate the positive. We see a lot of positive signs coming from washington, the new va secretary David Shulkin seems committed to making the va better than ever before. That isnt to say that they are not some Serious Problems to address. But he does 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 va. Veterans in my hometown in heinz, oregon, in eastern oregon, for instance, 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, no veteran should have to experience a long wait time to be seen by a va doctor. And we are eager to work with dr. Shulkin in fixing this problem. The American Legion shares his goal to make va so great that veterans would overwhelmingly choose va over the private sector. We think the va is already moving in the right direction. But as the president would say, lets make it great again. Im excited because 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, will result in veterans having to wait an average of 10 years, by 2027, to their decision on their appeals. This is more than twice the time that took for the United States to fight and win world war ii. According to bas on 2016 numbers, nearly half a million appeals claims were waiting to be finally adjudicated. More than 80,000 claims were waiting for greater than 125 days. The American Legion finds this completely unacceptable. We believe the appeals modernization legislation, h. R. 457, introduced by dana 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 representative and your senators and tell them that we need to pass this important legislation now. The American Legion welcomes president trumps promised to rebuild our military. More than half of all marine corps aircraft were not liable this past december. Only three of the us army 58th h brigade combat teams are considered ready for combat. The air force, the branch where i made a career, had a total of about 5500 aircraft. The average aircraft is 27 years old, older than many of the pilots that are flying them. In the early 1990s the air force had 8600 aircraft, and much larger force and a much safer world. What can i say about the navy . I was just at joint base hickam to observe the 75th anniversary of pearl harbor. Talk to survivors. I put my hand in the pock marks scrape into the building by japanese aircraft fire that if we learn anything from pearl harbor, it is that we must always be prepared. Military cats have really had a major impact on babies ability to protect our seas. A strong navy is needed now, especially in chinese construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea, and increased provocations by governments of iran and north korea. This is why we are asking congress to fully fund the department of defense with the real and robust budget and not an unsustainable continuing resolution. Does anybody really 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 that it is the president who has the ultimate and constitutionally mandated responsibility to keep us safe. The bottom line is that we need to take a very hard look at our immigration and entry policies. While we have been very effective at stopping terrorist attacks, look at what has been happening in france, germany, belgium and turkey. And as weve seen in boston, San Bernardino and orlando, we wont be able to stop all of these horrendous attacks, but every attack that our authorities can stop is a valuable victory that saves an incalculable amount of lives. Finally, i would like to say a few words about the deniers. These are the people, summon immediate, some in congress, and some protesting on College Campuses and in our streets, who denies that our flag has any special significance. Its just a piece of cloth, they say. It is a piece of cloth, all right. Its also the 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 just 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 the right to pass this measure through their state legislature and enshrine this protection into the constitution. Thats our constitution, the constitution of the American People. And these deniers say congress has more important issues to address and that the flag protection and in the is a waste of time. Amendment. I say pass the amendment and we wont bother you with it again. [applause] otherwise, you will keep hearing from us. We never quit our missions in military and we are not going to quit now because thats who we are in the American Legion. We love peace, but we will always fight for what is right. Thank you all, and god bless you and god bless the United States of america. [applause] thank you, commander. Thank you. I noticed there are lots of folks stand in the back. If you are interested there are plenty of seats up front. We invite you to come on debt and take a seat if you are so inclined. The American Legion is one of the most powerful voices in washington and its because of you and our strong grassroots presence. Veterans across this nation depend upon you to help 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 constituent. Ladies and gentlemen, our next guest is the chairman of the u. S. House Veterans Affairs committee. He was first elected in 2008 to serve the first Congressional District of tennessee. As a physician, he ran a successful medical practice for 31 years and delivered close to 5000 babies. Hes an army veteran and a member of American Legion post 24 in johnson city, tennessee. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm American Legion welcome to the honorable representative from tennessee, phil roe. [applause] thanks very much for having me, and i appreciate the opportunity to be here. And as you all know, congress has a less than 12 approval rating, im glad to get invited anywhere, so thank you for having me. [laughter] i told the speaker the other day i said you know, after speaker, et cetera as bad as you think it actually three things that poll worse that we do. He said was that come look at a possibly be . I said Lindsay Lohan one, meth labs in north korea. So the bar is pretty low. I want to thank you all for being here, take your time to come to washington to talk to us about the important issues that you face. And once again my name is phil roe. Im just a country doctor from northeast tennessee, a lifelong tennessean that about eight, nine years ago decided that it didnt like the direction the country was going. I felt like i could serve my country get after over 30 years in private medical practice comments i went off my medication and ran for congress, and look what happened. [laughter] so be careful to stay, be sure to stay on your medicine. I was a young physician in memphis. I tell people that actually won a free trip to south east asia. Many of you did the same thing. I went to the mailbox and had this draft notice and i had a six week old child when i went in the military. As many of you probably did. Went through basic training, was stationed in korea 13 months cant casey, camp bradley has been a few months without insole at the 121 feedback hospital. Go up in a military town where the 101st airborne is. I felt, ive always been the like i was part of the military. I know in Congress Today less than 20 that serve in the military. Back in the 70s it was over 80 serve in the military. Theres a different, i know many of you, maybe our world war ii, korea, vietnam, a lot smaller percentage of us have served now than did in previous generations. I think its a real honor, it is an honor to do what i do, and have the time to do this, the opportunity to do this i should say. I do want to again thank you all and your families for coming up here. I know a lot of times we forget when we were in the military that there is a family at home that loves us and cares for us and waits for us when we come out and gives us the opportunity and privilege to serve. I also want to thank dr. Shulkin is our new secretary, got to be careful what i say because hes backstage. He is going to be a great secretary. I fed opportunity for the last 18 months to work with them on the Veterans Affairs committee. I believe he is going to do a great job for our veterans in this country. I know that you all know, and back in 2014, ive been on the Veterans Affairs committee since 200 2009 when i was sworno congress and at that point in time were spinning about 97 billion a year on veterans care. Today its just a little south of 180 billion with added almost 100,000 employees during that time from 260,000 employees to over 360,000. The va has more employees now and then that u. S. Navy does. I dont know the va is doing that much better job. I know that my concern is, i do think we have the resources to take care of what were doing today. I think when you do a better job of managing. And thank you to make sure till the va accountable. Theres a dob of coming up next week that we are going to markup, and accountability bill. Many of you are aware of the scandal that occurred in phoenix. Phoenix. It turned out that these wait list or more pervasive than we had thought. One of the things this accountability bill is going to do is to give dr. Shulkin who has asked for these things the ability to fire or to hold people accountable for what they do. There are many egregious, i could go over them, im not going to this morning, have occurred, actually occurred that took months and months and sometimes even years to make right. I come from the private sector. That doesnt happen in a private sector. I can tell you some of these events that occurred, the door we need you in the backside on the that they. I think dr. Shulkin need to these tools. [applause] key is going to get these tools. Were going to mark this bill up just next week. One of the primary things i want to work about is as a physician who saw that in patients in my office and who saw veterans as an activeduty military doctor, i want to be sure that we put the veteran in charge of Health Care Decisions. What i mean by that come in my practice, the person i worked for was the patient. Now the Insurance Company and not the hospital and not anybody else. The patient. [applause] i want to do is i want the veterans and the doctors to be making those decisions, Health Care Decisions if you feel like that youre not getting the care you need at than the hospital, then you should have a choice to go wher what you want. Many veterans, maybe i was presumption in my reelection in october, but i traveled to lubbock, texas, and to the haskell valley in yakima in washington to visit rural areas where bas are. The veterans are spread all across this country. My district, for existence for instance, almost 10 are veterans. I know we have bob hensley who is i think bob is sitting right up front here who is a veteran from Mountain City tennessee and want to thank him for being here. I know there some texans out there and want to remind you that it would not be texans who were not for tennessee. Just want to point that out. [laughter] the opportunity, what i want to see happen with the va in health care is i want you to have the absolute best health care that can provided by anybody in the world. You should have that as a veteran. If you earned it, you deserve to have it. [applause] i think accountability and access to care is a huge item for me. We have another, i coach or the doctors caucus in congress, and theres a huge issue not just among veterans certainly among our country, opioid abuse. Weve had now, this is unbelievable, that weve h