Bans. And i havent made any decisions yet. I managed overdub past month to have some conversations about what my future might look like and i am excited by some of the possibilities. I am sure you guys will be among first to know. Let me i will it is not my last briefing and i will probably have a few more polished things to say at some point before i go, but off the cuff i wanted to thank the president , the Vice President , first lady, joe biden, chief staff i had the privilege to work with including Dennis Mcdonald and everyone here. There will be another time for more of that. Found it has been an amazing experience. So fulfilling and i said as we surprise some folks in here in the minutes before i came out, that probably the best part of its is in mid flight you dont often make a whole new set of friends, not just friends but people you would fight by and for under any circumstance and that is certainly what i have been lucky enough to get over the past 51 2 years so it has been a privilege and continues to be a privilege and every day, it has been a privilege. More often than not, people say to me you have the hardest job or one of the hardest jobs and i am not saying it is easy everyday but i loved it. It is an important interactions that takes place here. Is not always pretty. It could certainly be better but to be a part of it is an honor and a joy for me and no matter how tough the briefing is i walk out of here having been glad to stand here so with that like i said i will take more questions and talk about me that i, also take questions on other subjects if you so desire. I can assure you that my family, having won me back april . Yes, maam . What you said what have you learned through your sense that here in d. C. You could look another way and over it there and over here in the administrative profession what have you learned and what could you tell us to better work with you as we continue our job . I dont think i want to have everybody sit here and hear me of time on this subject but i am sure we will be seeing each other over its next couple weeks and beyond and i will have a few things to say about how i view this job and the interaction that takes place in here and around this building and hopefully some of the things i say will resonate somewhere. I dont think today is the day. I think today i want to just focus on how pleased i am that josh is going to succeed me and how honored i feel still to have this job. Congratulations. Can i ask you about something secretary shinseki said in his speech this morning . He said he was too trusting of some and accurate reports that i now know were misleading with regard to patients wait times. Doesnt that suggest the president needs to do more than just accept the resignation of the secretary . Perhaps there are other toplevel officials in the department who need to go . People inside various facilities around the country, cleaning house might be in order . I think that secretary babbitt and announce today a process he was initiating, going to be dealing with directly, specific individuals, will be held accountable specific individuals. I think what you heard the president say was pretty clear, where there is misconduct there ought to be consequences and punishment and he feels strongly about that. There is an active Investigation Underway by the independent ig, an independent review that is not yet complete that secretary babbitt and initiated and the broader review the rob neighbors is conducting. I know the president believes Holding People accountable is important and he expects that to take place. It is taking place. He also believes the first and most Important Mission those that vote the a and that he has as president is to ensure that the primary focus remains on providing benefits and services to our veterans and for the sake of that, to fix problems that have delayed the provision of those benefits to our veterans so again, what secretary shinseki said included actions he is initiating when it comes to personal. I wouldnt suggest that activity is over. I wouldnt know there are active investigations going on so the focus still has to be primarily on making sure we are getting the services we need and longerterm the reforms we need to make the system work better. The president believes that there needs to be a cleaning of the house . It is a cliche but i am saying i think specifically that relates to specific individuals and actions they may omega have taken and his conduct the mayor may not taken place was a the Terry Shinseki believes action at a personal level has been warranted, he is taking it, he himself because he did not want to serve as a distraction from the important work that need to be done submitted his resignation, the president accepted is and under the acting director or acting secretary the president expects the ig investigation to continue, the review to continue and for any misconduct to be met with consequences. As the va focuses on its core mission which is providing services and benefits to our veterans. At the meeting at the white house this morning in the oval office was the just the president and a secretary in that room . Robb was in the meeting as well. Was he in there as well . See if we can get a manifest. I know the president i am not holding back. It is not my last briefing but i confess i am not sure. Robb was in the room. We will find out for you. I know the president said today to you that he met after that with the new acting director who is currently the deputy director. I keep saying director, deputy secretary and the active secretary. I dont know if it was all at the same time. Only because i dont believe we have actually an cameras this week about what happened in Santa Barbara last weekend. I am sure you have seen the comments of richard martinez, one of the fathers of the victims, the comments he has made publicly he has said he does not care about members of Congress Calling in to offer condolences, he doesnt care for their sympathies, get to work and do something, i will tell the president this same thing, im getting a call from a politician doesnt impress me. Does the president have a message to the families out there . Does he plan on visiting with those families . A horrific, heartbreaking, and another in a series of horrific, are breaking incidents and thoughts and prayers of the president and first lady and everyone here are with the families of those who were killed and wounded. Obviously what happened in Santa Barbara work outside Santa Barbara is under investigation and all of the elements of it remained under investigation. As a broader matter you know the president s you. There are things we can and should do as a nation to reduce gun violence. There are Things Congress can and should do, fully consistent with Second Amendment rights the president supports that can reduce gun violence. He was explicitly disappointed in the failure of congress to take action on a measure that was entirely consistent with Second Amendment rights that he supports that would have simply extended background checks and made the system more comprehensive and effective. He has acted on every item, the administration has, contained within the brief provided on measures that can be taken administratively to help address this challenge can understand the reason i pointed out we need to set aside the specifics of this incident, we all acknowledge and accept the actions we can take administratively, Actions Congress can take will not eliminate all violence, war all gun violence or any necessarily specific incident that occurred but they are the right thing to do and they get are fully consistent with our Second Amendment rights. Congratulations. When did the white house find out he was going to did white house officials put any direct pressure on in . And wont get into internal backandforth. Obviously this is something we have been paying close attention to. The president asked for and received the preliminary report from the secretary this morning and that is when the secretary offered his resignation. Did he know coming in that that was going to happen . I will leave it at that. It is obviously something the president feels very strongly about and that is the unique goodness of secretary shinseki, not just his resume but his quality as a person and i think it shows, the president feels the action he took today reflects that he once again, as he has for years and decades put others ahead of himself, put the mission ahead of his personal situation end the president has accused reservoir of admiration for shinseki. One other topic, on monday that epa will announce new limits for existing power plants, we in this and the president will not be involved in the announcement of that. This is the biggest part of his Climate Action plan, why would he not be involved . Kind of knucklehead. The president talked about this a lot. He will give a weekly address on it. He will be talking about it in a Conference Call that reporters will come on. This is an epa rules that the epa chief will announce that i dont think on monday. On monday my trusty advisers tell me. Gene mccarthy . I think we on this and he is proud to own it because he believes Carbon Pollution is essential for the health and welfare of our children and the future of our nation. He believes that we can make ourselves more Energy Independent as well as address the issue of Climate Change in a way that enhances economic progress and quality of the lives of all americans, so again he is giving a weekly address on it and he will be discussing it in a Conference Call monday. Broderick. Congratulations. Nancy pelosi on the table this morning said she hoped the white house would get a replacement in a speedy fashion. Can you talk about list that you got presumably . And wont do that now. Violating all those principles. What kind of person i you looking for . Watch dog . Investigator tight . As the president said it is very very important that we move quickly to identify, nominate and get confirmed a new secretary. I wouldnt want to restrict the search by laying out parameters of what the qualification for the right person might look like. There are a variety of ways to go and hopefully a number of truly qualified individuals who will be interested in being considered but beyond that i certainly dont have a list together, we just want to move expeditiously. You have one, dont you . We do not characterize the personnel process. It certainly i have to say, small pleasure that we are able to come out here today having run a process and surprised a few people, doesnt happen all the time, chuck. The president in explaining the problems of the va sounded a familiar theme he did during hhs and the gao which is that it is a systemic bureaucratic issues, helping technology in one place. In another case, there wasnt enough manpower over here and another case middle management not getting the issue to the top and my question is when ig reports or stuff gets percolated out we find out that is the reason as far as the president is concerned. That essentially if there was any department that we spent 10 days scrutinizing to find out is just as mismanaged, this technology each identified at hhs that he identified to the va is systemic around government and if that is the case is it time to do something about the management of government . I will say a couple things. One, as you know the president does have a reorganization of Management Initiative that he has urged congress to work with him on and i wonder if you to talk to some folks in congress to see how eager they are to take up reforms but lets go back. Mark inflating a couple things. The challenges the creation of a New Enterprise around the base the a and healthcare. Gov word technology and procurement issues and Management Issues that went around that. Issues related to the va are not related to the development of a new initiative or web site, they are more about a problem with capacity and management. The capacity problem, there isnt enough capacity to serve efficiently the veterans who are seeking benefits and certain medical facilities and a management problem and potentially management misconduct when the truce about that challenge is not being accurately reported. As it should be. So at least that is those of the findings of the ig and the secretary. So what is true is when these kinds of things are identified and they are as severe as we have learned they are at the va Decisive Action needs to be taken and that is what secretary shinseki initiated a you seen the president insisted upon. We had ig reports going on in this issue, specific issue going back to 2004, something brought up in the transition in 2008, something that was brought up that wasnt working in 2011 and in 2012 so the question is this is not a new problem, this was not a surprise. The irs was a surprise, this is not a surprise. Is there anyone in the white house that is able to find out what is going on at these agencies, double check particularly on Veterans Affairs that is sort of on top of this going we had a series of ig reports, can you give us a status update . How does that work . Those are good questions. Specifically the issue around what was known and where did that information go and that is what secretary shinseki was talking about today and this morning and what sounded particularly troubling, that individuals below him in management who he depended on to give an Accurate Information with disappointing to him and that is certainly not tenable when you are trying to run a significant organization like the va that has such an Important Mission which is providing services and benefits to americans who have earned them, in most cases are many cases under the most difficult circumstances. Fighting the lot of this remains under investigation or subject of inquiry. But the fact is we have to stay focused on taking steps to ensure those veterans who have been identified, on waiting lists for too long and not on the official waiting lists are taken care of and we have to identify similar challenges and remedys in medical Centers Across the country where they exist. The process of finding out where the management problems werent any misconduct was is on going in the review conducted by the secretary. You brought up the review of the technology aegis and reorganizing government, tell us where does it stand . That you did unveil way back in 2009. So i dont think it is a surprise you, youre a veteran here, trying to change and consolidate and change the way business is done in washington and consolidate agencies for example or reorganize structures in the executive branch is not always a popular thing in congress when congress has institutional prerogatives at stake so is the challenge, an effort we continue to engage in and look for partners who believe when you look back at this the question is how do you know you dont have systemic technological problems before get a call on bills side . To point it is that is the pattern i feel like you see here and the president seems to explain to the American Public which is everything is a bureaucratic problem more technology problem. The president s appear and he is chief executive, he is president , he takes responsibility for things that happen in the administration. And the United States government is a substantial size and things happen on your watch a newly find out about the after they happen or as they are uncovered you take responsibility for the. That is what the president did and what secretary shinseki did. I am sure, some will view problems like this as an indictment of more than just one entity or institution. The Service Oriented systems at the heart of what the va does are pretty specific to that institution and are different from what other departments and agencies do and what h h s was creating and cms was reading was implementation of healthcare. Gov where the challenges were, were quite unique but there are broader issues and you know them around procurement and technology and i think that is something this administration and future administrations will continue to grapple with because we need to have effective systems that provide smooth communication between systems when it comes to Electronic Health records and other information that needs to be effected and the efficiency of government can be more effective and efficient. Thanks for coming on here and congratulations on getting your life back. Just one question, the resignation is Effective Immediately . [laughter] dr. Oz believes the answer is yes but we will get back to you. On this issue of not knowing and being surprised what was going on, how do you explain the letter that the chairman of the Veterans Affairs committee and the house sent the president over year ago dated may 21st, 2013, and he sent this letter, did not get a response. There wasnt one of these and was ordered to the president of United States from the chairman of the committee with oversight over Veterans Affairs saying of pattern of heartbreaking veteran death, suicide and other Patient Safety issues have happened cast and a dark shadow of medical Centers Across the country. For months we have tried to to get leaders to make meaningful steps to prevent future adverse incidents by Holding Accountable va employees and goes on to note that a lot of the people with oversight, with responsibility of this stuff for getting bonuses. Now the action has been taken but did this letter never get to the president . I will get y