Republican of North Carolina is stepping down from his seat in january to become the president of the Heritage Foundation. Next, senator Lindsey Grahm payr tribute to the outgoing senator. Madam president , i met with jim demint this morning, and i, to say i was stunned is an understatement. Jim indicated retiring from the senate next yearco taking over the presideny of h the Heritage Foundation, ah great conservative think tanks here in washington has. South carolina. At times playing the good cop, the bad cop, but always always trying to Work Together. And what differences weve had have been sincere, and thats the word i would use about senator demint. He sincerely believes in his cause. Hes a he sincerely believes in his causes. Hes a sincere voice that people in our party look to for leadership and guidance. What hes done over the last four years to build a conservative movement, to get people involved in politics, like marco rubio, who jim helped early on in his primary i just think is going to be a great legacy. From a state point of view, we have lost one of our great champions. But he and debbie, jim and debbie have raised four wonderful children. They got great grandkids, and i know jim is looking forward to staying involved in pushing the conservative cause outside the body. He was an effective voice in the senate, whether you agreed with jim or not. He really did strongly and passionately advocate for his positions and did it very effectively. Jim made the republican party, quite frankly, look inward and do some selfevaluation. Conservatism is an asset, not a liability, as we try to govern this country in the 21st century. And i look forward to staying in touch with jim and to working with him at the Heritage Foundation to see what we can do to improve the fate of our country so we will not become greece. No one is more worried about this nations unsustainable debt situation than senator demint. Ive seen him deinvolve over time to someone who could just not sit quietly, who had to take up the cause. In the 2010 election cycle, he was one of the strongest voices this he had would a lost our way that wed lost our way in washington. Jim is a kind, sincere man, an individual who is a joy to be around. When it comes to whats going on in america, jim understands that if we dont make some changes were going to lose our way of life. Thats whats driven him above all else, to try to keep our country a place to be place where you can be anything. I look forward to working with jim in the private sector. From a personal point of view, weve had a great ride together. It has been fun. It has been challenging, and i think we put South Carolina on the map in different ways at different times, and to people back in South Carolina, i hope if you get to see jim anytime soon, just say thank you. Because whether you agree with him or not, he was doing what he thought was best for South Carolina and the United States. At the end of the day, thats as good as it gets. Because if youre doing what you really believe in and youre not worried about being the most popular and people getting mad ought, then you can really do a good job in washington. To the people back in South Carolina, everything jim has tried to do has been motivated about the changing the country. If you get a chance to run into him anytime soon in the coming day, please just say thank you because he did his job as he saw fit. He did what he thought was best and he didnt worry about being the most popular or taking on people when he thought he was right. I can tell you this, when it comes to me, he has always been a friend, somebody i could count on. Personally weve really enjoyed our time together, and i just i was stunned this morning. But jim has an unlimited, Bright Future in the private sector, and i will say more next year when his time comes to an end. But on behalf of all of us in South Carolina, i want to say to jim and debby, thank you very much for taking time away from your family, fighting the good fight, pressing issues that you passionately believe in, and i want to thank jim and debby both for being my friend. Yall both mean a great deal to me, and i am just confident the best is yet to come for both of you. On behalf of the people of south on behalf of the people of south broke the news of jim deminute the South Carolina, and dame, why did senator demanipulate decide to resign now . Well, i think the senator felt he probably accomplished as much as he could in the senate, at least from his perspective as, you know, frankly, an activist in the conservative movement. He made his name years ago challenging, some of the candidates the Senate Leadership picked to run for the . Afort, did not do that in 201, and when the opportunity opened up to run the Heritage Foundation, i think it was competitive. They did interview him, but ed fulner, running heritage since 1977, was, indeed, planning to step down, and it was a matter of either take this job now or pass it up. I think senator demint, heritage, a big operation, its built into a force in conservative politics and thinking, especially, that senator demint saw an opportunity here to carry the cause forward in a broader way than he could as the junior senator from South Carolina. You wrote in the article today that the heritage is not just another grues roots organization, thats what senator demint told you, any ideas hed like to see implemented in heritage . Yes, he gave me suggestions of where hes going. Heritage, as founded, developed by ed, their brilling a literally in the shadow of capital hill in washington. It is always. Their intention to accept policy ideas up to the capitol open fight for them among members of congress. Now, heritage, over the years, has developed about 600,000 Members Around the country and organizations around the country. Way senator demint told me is he wants to takes base of the analysis many washington and hook that up with the con sievetive think tanks, about 55 60 of them, he wants to identify work they are doing, plus, good things that elected officials at the local and state level do out in the states, including the possibility of democrats, who were doing things based on conservative ideas in the area of education, welfare, medicaid and so forth, and take all of that and elevate it and publicize it. His background, really, is in marketing. He ran a Marketing Company before politics, and he admits quite frankly that in the last election the conservative Movement Really didnt do an adequate job of explaning its ideas contributing to the losses nay took in the last election. Senator demint had a great relationship with the tea party groups. Whats that mean for the groups with the senator moving to ahead heritage . I think it means, bill, that he may try to take them to the next level. No one would dispute, i dont think, that the tea party has, schal we say, communication problems, and if their basic idea was to reduce the level of public spend k and in the states, i think that using the force of the analysis that senator demint and analysts at harming have at their di poe sal is there is the pos protect of the conservative movement becoming more understanding to the largely public. What can you talk about the decision, might shoos for the replacement for senator demanipulate, and who lo he like. He has not gone there, and theres a number of people South Carolina he could make. Know, whenever to be t, has to stoned in a special election in 2014. At that teem, the soon yore senator and this person willing standpointing loon election anyway. What ub interesting is in she rab for the senate in 2014 with a place holder in that job for the next two years. I think weve got the prospect of South Carolina becoming awfullying over the next two years. Read his column at wsjonline. Com. Thank you for joining us. Great to be with you, bill. Extend Unemployment Benefits for workers job less for 26 weeks expire in january. On tomorrow mornings washington journal, well look at the expiring benefittings. A round table with michael of the Cato Institute and josh bibbins of the Economic Policy institute. Washington journal live every day on cspan at 7 a. M. Eastern. Why a Writers Institute . I think a Writers Institute is something thats very important within the culture. We are a culture of words, of voices. Words are key to our imagination and capacity to envision things. We ourselves are not tied to print on the page sense of writing. I think that theres no other art form so ready acceptable other than film, which we work with too, but it is something theres something . Literature that just captures the human spirit. This weekend, join book tv, American History tv, and cspans local content vehicle as we look behind the scenes of the literary life of new yorks capital city, albany, saturday on booktv and sunday at 5 p. M. On American History tv on cspan3. Leon panetta reiterated thursday that the serian government would face serious consequences if they used weapons of mass destruction against rebels. That came at a briefing, and the two discussed the impact that automatic spending cuts would have on veterans if no agreement is reached on the socalled fiscal cliff. This is 30 minutes. Thank you, tommy, and, first, let me thank secretary panetta for the up waiverring support to us here at va, but the men and whim who wear and have worn the uniforms of our nation. Our close partnership, this meeting that we had today on their plaf has never been more important than it is today. Entering the holiday season, i thank the men and women who spend holidays away from our families deafing the nation, were all great. For the service and sacrifice. As we discussed little of what we do and what originates here, what we work on originates in dod, and thats why achieving our priorities at va requires this close and collaborative working relationship. We have more work to do, but with president obamas strong support and guidance, we applaud the two departments closer together than ever before. We underwritten joint va dod medical facilities where they make sense, harmonizing acquisition decisions, committed both departments to a single common, joint, integrated Health Department record, iehr, which will be open in architecture and nonproprietary and design. Veterans wait too long to see benefits earned, and, together, we streamline processes, sharing more information between departments. At av, we supports dods implementation of the president s initiative to redesign the transmission Assistance Program so its mandatory, seamless, and productive. Theres a handoff from member status to ensure all who served are prepared to transition into civilian life and that they have access to va benefits and services earned. With his executive order to improve access to Mental Health services, president obama continues to prove his commitment to veterans a genuine and runs deep. We are ensuring Service Members and veterans receive the care earned, and secretary panetta, once again, thank you for your leadership and your partnership, and i say it all the time, but veterans could not have a stronger ally in their corner. Over to you. Thank you very much, appreciate that, thank you for your friendship, and for your cooperation in this effort to do everything we can do bring departments together to make sure we serve those that serve this country. Pleased to be here again. This is part of the effort at regular consultations to make sure that our efforts to create a seem lase seamless approach with regards to our veterans is working. We are trying to build as the president asked us to build an integrated military and veteran support system. Make no mistake, this is a real challenge. This is not something that comes easy to two very large departments, two bureaucracies with rules and regulations, but it is important to get them it Work Together. If Service Members, veterans, and their families are to get the kind of seamless experience they deserve, then our job, secretary of veterans apairs and secretary of defense, we have to make it clear theres got to be good cooperation at all levels. This effort can want be about surf. Its got to be about serving our veterans. Im very encouraged that the level of collaboration between the two departments, i believe, better than its ever been in the past, yet, we have to reach much deeper into a level of collaboration that will meet needs of our veterans. We owe it to them to give them the tools they need to put their lives back together and pursue their goals whether its getting a good education, best health care, or axeling in a new government, serving in government, or starting a business. As i said before, this is, in many ways, a National Security issue. It goes to the heart of taking care of the people that fight for us, and ensuring that we can then recruit the very best force thats possible. Part of that is making sure we maintain faith with our troops and with our families. We have to give them confidence that they have world class support systems that they earned when they came into the military. Today, rick and i discussed a number of steps to try to get our departments to Work Together to further enhance collaboration, and in particular, the discussion focused on a redesign transition Assistance Program or the tap program. The vow to higher heros agent mandating all Service Members participate in the tap program in order to pram them for life after the military. We have a large number of individuals in the military as we transition over these next few years in terms of infrastructure, theres a lot of people going into the system, and im delighted to report we are satisfied that the requirements of the act having been fully tested in terms of thiveness had all 206 instalinglations ready to go on track to implement tracks for Service Members, interested in education, Technical Training and entrepreneurship by october 2013. Working together, dod and va doing everything we can to streamline the disability claims process. This is one of the priorities for the president and us. One of the challenges the department of veterans awares they have to face is handling claims filed well after verett raps departed from service. To address it, dod agreed, in principle, to conduct more details exit physicals for departing members not immediately filing a va disability claim. They need dod at their fingertips and can work quickly to process that claim. We also discussed something that is it tough challenge for both departments which is an Electronic Health care record integration. The ability to bring that information together across our two departments is extremely important for our medical professionals in order to provide the best care possible. This is obviously a challenging effort. This is really a tough effort, but were continuing to work at it and confronting a dod plan for accelerating the program to try to integrate our Health Care Systems happen and weaponment to beat the schedules we established as targets here. We ask the plan be established by early january. In november, i had a positive meeting with military and ngo members, and i promised them i would work with the secretary to discuss diagnosis, access to Mental Health, outcomes for the hidden wounds of war, and thats what weve been doing. We did it again today. Im pleased were ready to join the president , joint recommendations in the area within the next three months by the end of february 2013. We are dealing with suicide monk family and veterans. Its a terrible, terrible challenge that to ensure systems are equipped to give our people the help they need whenever they need to deal with unique circumstances they are confronting. Let me close by confronting the professionals that care for the troops, veterans, and for the families. They work hard every day. They are part of one family. We support one another, and i think weve strengthened our bond between the two departments. Im grateful for ricks vision and leadership in supporting those that, as i said, served this country. Americas men and women in uniform, as i said, put their lives on the line every day in order to keep this country safe. We owe it to those that fight for us to fight for them. Programs to help warriors were developed out of the best intentions. Too often, they fall vick time democratic victim to red tape, fall victim to bureaucracy, and the secretary of Veterans Affairs, the secretary of defense deeply believe that we can and we will do better . Well do nothing less than the best services we can provide for those who serve this country. Thank you. [inaudible] on the da side secretary, as you mentioned, the long term detailed extra physicals, and what to do to address the backlog benefit, but there are plans to deal with the current problems, immediate problems seen over the last year with increased weight times and backlog or all the solutions . I would say we would have actions in progress now. I think you may be familiar with our Veterans BenefitsManagement System automation of what has to this point been a paper bound process. Why, in this department, where we have one the countrys best