Va to fill its ranks with qualified medical staff while attempting to confiscate compensate for income disparity. We take a moment to recognize the nonmonetary benefits. Set schedules, defined hours and protection from network claims. No one have the witness table is here because we were offered maximum earning potential. While money will be helpful, the best people to serve veterans are the ones motivated by an internal code and defense. We should not make that our primary recruitment tool. The attempt to clear the claims backlog has grown to aa fever pitch and the backlog has grown to unprecedented levels ensuring of the court remain fully staffed could not be more important than today the time to ensure veterans are not suffering needlessly is now. A little over one year from now the American Legion will host an inaugural ball honoring the 70th living recipients and the hundreds of euros no longer with us. One the highest award. It will be we will be an honor for us to let them know that this committee supported adjusting there monthly compensation to a more realistic value. While a hand fill currently live in california, they will mostly be interested to here an update about the West Los Angeles is. I was particularly interested in other facilities across the nation protesting the misuse since 1983, and we applaud the efforts to work with litigants to come to an agreement that benefits veterans about honoring the initial needs set forth. While he absolutely sport moving forward on legislation establishing limited future lease and that only benefits Los Angelesarea veterans, we remain anchored over the amount of revenue that was lost and remains on the four. Millions of dollars remain unaccounted for,for, and employees responsible continue to retire and move on before answering for the missing money that was supposed to support veterans in los angeles. They were repeatedly told family will get back to you. Finally the American Legion notices there is no Advisory Committee we ask you how the voice will be heard. I thank you in the committee for the opportunity to provide testimony this afternoon. Currently serving as a member of the va Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans and helping to build better communities. A range of issues come, work on Veterans Issues has been grounded in the areas of housing and community development, the lead partner and 800 leaders have accepted this challenge including 628 mayors, nine governors, and 165 county officials. Our program work supports National Technical efforts to end homelessness. Given our organizational focus my testimony will remain concentrated on s 1885 and s 1813 we welcome the opportunity for comment. Many needed amendments that will improve how va can and should serve Homeless Veterans and their families to mobile we believe there are several opportunities to further enhance these proposals. Two new programs that require them to issue reports. Intensive Case Management services to veterans they encourage the va to include costs, the collection of information regarding costs incurred by other entities including cities, counties, and states as well as costs not related to the provision of health care and benefits. For example, costs associated with the interactions veterans have while not incurred by the va should be measured to allow for a more robust costbenefit analysis of the intensive Case ManagementIntervention Services that the department would provide as part of this program. Documenting the cost incurred, they can support municipal leaders. Further report analyzing the success to incentivize the conversion of facilities and permanent housing. Helped develop and or further our understanding of the Impact Mental Health and says to have Substance Abuse place. In regard to legislation direction that had and va collaborate to improve outreach comeau we recommend they be required to separately but not independently provide a report to Veterans Affairs in this committee on how they would execute this within their respective organizational structures with key national partners. And the tremendous impact that the National Center has played in advancing local efforts. As cities across the country begin to see, they must be able to work with federal partners and ensure the proper resources rare, brief, and nonrecurring. As the committee is aware, the support has come from the la county board of supervisors and mayor eric garcetti. Councilmembers have written letters of support which we have passed. And filed in support of this bill. Attached with our testimony. Thank you very much. Ranking member Richard Blumenthal i would like to thank senator Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer for sponsoring this bill. I am here today along with our National Chaplain and he uses the la from facilities. Return the campus to where it belongs, veterans. This bill specifically addresses the property located in los angeles, but the larger issue is important to all veterans and i am also the chairman for the veterans of foreign wars in california. As i travel to the Different College campuses i here the same questions from young veterans as i have for years older veterans, what is va doing to help those who are really in need of help for the homeless and the veterans ptsd. I do not have the answer, but this is a start. California has one of the largest Homeless Veterans populations in the country and they are female veterans , some have problems with drug and alcohol addiction while others contemplate suicide. Able to increase housing for veterans and their families, we may be able to bring some back into becoming productive citizens of our great country. A search for us. Now lets help serve them. We have a new director, and now is the perfect time to put this property back on track. I am not here to throw anyone under the bus. We cannot change the path or the things that have happened in the past. The west la campus was dated through a we will to the federal government with the explicit intent of the property to be used to help veterans. Over time the va lost sight of that intent to private entities and has made little to no repairs or improvements for the veterans it was intended for returning the property to his veterans, this bill, and congress will work quickly to pass this bill into law now. Along with us thank you. Thank you. I want to commend all of you he talked about being angry. We dont know how they have been handled, to tell you the truth. If you do not have a plan to execute and they gold to execute an understanding of what you have got you can never maximize your return. This is a valuable piece of real estate that has been used here or theyre. I commend you for your testimony. I hope when they put out there master plan the both of your organizations will comment because we do, indeed, need to get it right. Denver hospital that kicked down the road for 13 years, cost overruns. We finally got a plan together. It is costing veterans benefits. Also, i agree on the question on homelessness. Homelessness. It is an unbelievable opportunity to have land that can be used to help veteran homeless, and i support that entirely. The senator has done a great job. We want your input and support so that when the va publishes their master plan each and every one of you will get your organizations to quickly give us your feedback, and i am hoping as chairman of this committee command this will be a template, were sitting on a ham sandwich by having a vacant property that could be benefiting us that we are not as we do not have a plan let me find my notes. On the court going to nine judges, i understand we have a judge is now. The 9th would be a president ial appointee. That is why the legislation proposed. My question, i happened to understand the backlog and think it is an important need. If that is not the necessary number, should that be a floating or permanent . Mr. Chairman, there is a great need to address the significant backlog. It is smartit is smart to make that a permanent increase in reevaluate that need. There will be a significant backlog for the foreseeable future which should be our focus. I want to thank you for your testimony regarding senator grahams proposal. I must associate myself with the comments that you made. We do not anything really cannot pay for. Talking about millions of dollars. This is a 16 million price tag to see to it that the medal of honor winners get enhanced compensation. But if you would give input we would appreciate that very much. With that said, we get to the Ranking Member. Thank you,you, mr. Chairman. All of this testimony has been enormously valuable time and i appreciate your mention of homelessness and posttraumatic stress. The two are linked, either not . Somebody suffering from ptsd is more likely to suffer from addiction and homelessness and lack of employment and a combination of factors that affect result from the medical condition often invisible, obviously, that is the source of it. And so i appreciate your comments on that issue. I thank you for your support of those measures. The five or six that you mentioned, and on the numbers of veterans well, the number of judges claims you rightly mentioned the likelihood of a continuing large caseload which has been rising. To my knowledge, yes. In part the result of the va doing better on disability claims at the 1st level because the more cases that are processed more likely they are to be appeals and higher numbers. That is also what i va has supported in the past iava has supported in the past. Is always possible to contract the court, but that number should not be a temporary one in my view. The Community Recognition act would recognize providers in the community. There is such a desperate shortage. I have some questions about possibly endorsing the use of certain communities, Mental Health providers you may not have the same training as va providers. Do you have a suggestion as as to how it can possibly address that shortcoming . The best thing to do here is to utilize the success of the program and replicate those in the va. It has been a successful area. Great answer. With respect to the veteran housing stability act of 2015, i can see some people saying we have done so much on homelessness and housing. Do you have a response . As i understand it, this bill is looking at the next stage, not necessarily chronic homelessness but the next step. We applaud the longterm planning. It is the correct thinking and thinking about what needs to come next. In fact, the goal here is to go beyond meeting the immediate, the urgent, parents need on the streets right now but to provide a more permanent solution which is the goal, and equally difficult goal but one that we have an obligation to solve. I thinki think every one of you for your testimony today itit has been enormously valuable. Thank you for your service to our country. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The va voiced opposition. Concerns to legal credentialing and privacy issues. Tell me, have your organizations looked into this as far as what it would take as far as credentialing and this and that . We have not specifically looked into the credentialing issue because the va does have a good credentialing program in place. And this bill is comprehensive. The American Legion knows that the current need is not being met command we support any legislation that seeks to support that need. A template to see where the va needed Additional Resources covering these types of legislation that are starting to address that i would reiterate that and include utilizing the success as a model to implement this for veterans, veterans, and i think we can replicate them easily for veterans. Tell me about in your testimony you mention the progress we have made and that they have been working hard to do that. The west la plan. Having a Strong Community for veterans needs which seems to be something that is beneficial. Are there other areas of the country where you feel like the same ability of locations would be effective . I am happy to provide your office with specific locations. I do not have them in front of me today. Thank you. The rest of you guys. Specifically south dakota , looking at great land. It is being downsized, and there is an opportunity to have a center of excellence, specifically for ptsd. Very good. Well, thank good. Well, thank you for being here. We appreciate your advocacy and hard work. Thank you. You. Thank you. Thank you all for what you do. First off, i should have mentioned, the Ranking Member for 1885, it is a great opportunity and idea to work on making sure we have the partnerships with the right ngos. I wanted to go back to the judges and the backlog. I may have found a way to waive the toxic substance subject into the hearing after all. I promised you. A part of what i think that we need to do, as long as we have the backlog at we do, we need the judicial capacity, but it raises a question of what kind of work has been done to try to reduce, get to the root causes of some of these appeals. About 87 percent decline rate. I doi do not know the root causes of all of the appeals , do you know of any particular area where the experience rate. I think that secretary mcdonald has done a considerable amount of work. Continuing on this front and to train va employees who will begin to see a decrease in the number of appeals, but until that time the increase in claims will have an increase in appeals. Claims are complicated business. When the appeals if the claim is remanded and the work is not done that the law judge says needs to be done it goes back to the board. There must be a healthier relationship, and i know this from legislation right now. With regard to making those permanent, when we see there are nine law judges maybe we can consider reducing it then. That has not been an issue area we focused on. A representative hear from our Washington Office who can maybe get with your staff. Not trying to find fault. It is not necessarily faulting they are doing what they are doing within their parameters. Come up with an acceptable definition or find other circumstances where maybe they should have been granted the request to begin with. It is more a matter of looking at the process. I also wanted to talk briefly. A couplea couple of Committee Hearings ago we had a discussion about homelessness. In your opinion, and it is a very aggressive goal to end homelessness. Do you think current course and speed programs already in place that we actually have the ability to make the goal that the va has set forth on preventing homelessness. I may have to go off script. What is the date . There is aa specific date with a goal for being able to provide that capacity. Senator, i cant help you with that. They have identified the end of this year. I find that unimaginable. We were fortunate to secure another homeless vet facility north of raleigh, but it is great to set goals. And so it makes me wonder whether or not we are using those resources widely. Situations not in my state. He spends most of his days helping other vets. He called the crisis line. Came get back to them in four days. These situations are critically important to the veteran safety is something we have to really look at. I dont know if we are using the wonderful resources we have to the fullest extent of their capabilities. Can i add one thing . Absolutely. Not only what is being called now functional homelessness but a category of homeless veteran that is not being recognized at all, those who do not qualify for va services. The percentage is increasing as we lower the backlog or lower the homeless rate. Wewe are looking at better than 10 percent veterans that fall through a crack. On that subject i want to commend the committee. We took nominee miss you, mark up to an improvement today. Other than opioids and drawings and pharmaceutical problems that our veterans have unemployment is a huge contributor to homelessness. I want to talk to secretary perez. We have been a short the focus will be like a laser beam in the media. We appreciate your comments, the members comments. Mr. Chair, i am sorry to interrupt. I would like to follow up on the comment you made about a veterans with bad paper. You may know that there was a lawsuit brought by Va Law School legal clinic on behalf of a connecticut veteran who suffered from pts, received a less than honorable discharge, and for two decades suffered that black mark, became addicted unemployed, and homeless. His name is commonly monk and brought a lawsuit against the department of defense. I supported the lawsuit and they reached out to then secretary of defense hagel who after some consideration responded positively and provides the internal procedures to enable more veterans with less honorable discharges. Or dishonorable discharges. The procedure is complicated, needlessly fraught with red tape, but it is part of that cycle that often afflicts veterans. We are talking about veterans of past wars, vietnam. When he was in vietnam and more than a decade later, posttraumatic stress was not a term in our vocabulary, not a diagnosis. Only in the 1980s did it become really recognized. Long after monk was denied the very medical services he needed to overcome that pts. He was doubly a victim in the discharge that resulted from pts acting up and then from the denial of Healthcare Services that would have helped to overcome that pts. I wanti want to thank you for recognizing this very, very important topic. Ms. Augustine has correctly recognized the need for us to conduct some oversight. I think there is a need for us to conduct oversight of the change in policy that i believe with the best of intentions the secretary implemented and his successors have committed to follow, but i suggest 255 respectfully suggest to the chairman that both of these oversight hearings and inquiries are very much appro