Comply with new regulatory mandates than it is for a larger institution . A very small institution, we recognize there are burdens involved. We have often tried to tailor our regulations so that there is less burden and fewer rules applied to smaller institutions. There has been an increase in capital standards that apply to those institutions but most of the things we discussed today, stress test and other things, liquidity regulations apply to those institutions and tried to make many efforts. To simplify the Regulatory Regime and capital regime for those institutions. The number of changes negatively affect the community to offer products and services to consumers more than it has affected larger institutions . I dont know that it has affected smaller institutions more than larger institutions. I would submit that it has because to be honest i dont know how you started this. I dont know how you start business in this economic environment. Dont know how people could secure capital or able to remain profitable. Corporations can secure credit, capital, i am a main street person and i can tell you i dont see the opportunity to get capital started with main street. Let me close by saying this. The Federal Reserve is responsible for the Regulatory Oversight of 5000 bank holdings, 8000 deposit institutions that are members of the fed. I have heard from banks, disproportionate impact of Regulatory Burden is contributing to increased industry consolidation so my question would be can you explain negative consequences that result from consolidation and effect of consolidation on the global and National Economy . Community banks are very important in supplying services for communities that are not readily available in larger institutions and certainly it is important they remain healthy and vibrant and able to thrive and contribute to growth of their reducing regulations would do that . Please take a look, main st. America is hurting. There is a difference between main street and wall street. I yield my time back. The gentleman yields back. Wish to thank chair yellen for her testimony. Without objection all members will have 5 legislative days to submit additional written questions to the witness for which will be boarded to the witness for her response. I ask chair yellen to respond as promptly as you are able. Without objection, five legislative days within which to submit extraneous materials to the chair for inclusion in the record. This hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] today cable and Satellite Television executives testify about their industrys Customer Service and billing practices. We are live with the Senate GovernmentalAffairs Subcommittee on investigations at 10 00 am eastern on the span3. Today voters in the United Kingdom will decide of their country should stay or leave the european union. British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron and Labor Party LeaderJeremy Corban want the uk to remain a member of the e. U. But some members of the primary straps party and the Uk Independence Party are part of a push advocating for the uk to split from the european union. Watch the live simulcast beginning at 5 00 pm eastern on cspan2 and cspan. Org. Booktv has 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Here are some programs coming up this weekend, saturday at 1 00 eastern the annual roosevelt reading festival takes place at the fdr president ial library and museum in hyde park, new york. The festival includes author discussions about the 32nd president , roosevelt, politics and personality as well as history of the oval office. Featured authors include paul brandis discussing his book under this roof, the white house and the presidency, 21 president s, 21 inside stories. Macarthur at war, world war ii in the pacific. David priest, author of the president s book secrets, the untold story of Intelligence Briefings to americas president from kennedy to obama. Fair labor lawyer, the remarkable life of new deal attorney and Supreme Court advocate, mark workman, his book is 1941, fighting the shadow war, divided america in a world at war. And man of destiny, making of the american century. At 10 00 eastern afterwards, panama hague, examines when and how this could be part of american culture. The gunning of america, business in the making of american gun culture. Also looks at the business of manufacturing and selling arms, William Doyle author of american hunter, how legendary hunters shaped america. Strains credulity that element of gun culture that has the most to gain by selling and promoting their products, the very most invisible when we think about guns. Much political talk today is exclusively about interpreting the second amendment. The gun industry has become almost invisible. Sunday at 10 30 eastern time, the lead prosecutor in the o. J. Simpson trial weighs in on the legal system and discusses her second career as a novelist. She is author of plus events. We spoke there at the annual tradeshow book expo america in chicago. Go to booktv. Org for the complete weekend schedule. Next, Veterans Affairs secretary Robert Mcdonald on Veterans Health care, va disability claims processing and Agency Modernization efforts. The va secretary took part in a discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution on monday. This is an hour. Good afternoon, everyone. I am the director of the center of something or other. I am elaine jamarck. The center for effective government management here at brookings and senior fellow. It is my great privilege to open this session on can the department of Veterans Affairs be modernized . With the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert Mcdonald. Let me introduce the secretary and then im going to introduce norman eisen, one of my colleagues here. The secretary will speak and norm will come up and join him here, moderate questions he is getting from twitter and other places and take your questions and we will have a hard stop at 3 00. Robert mcdonald is a west point graduate, graduated in the top 2 of his class in 1975, served as adjutant and was recognized by the Royal Society for the encouragement of arts, manufacturing and commerce as the most distinguished graduate in academic leadership, that is quite something. He served with the 82nd airborne division, completed jungle training, and earn the ranger tab at the infantry badge and senior parachutists, and leaving military service captain mcdonald was awarded the distinguished service medal. He spent most of his career as proctor and gamble where he ended up as chairman, president and chief executive officer. Under his leadership proctor and gamble significantly recalibrated his portfolio, expanding manufacturing footprint adding 1 Million People to its Global Customer base and grew organic sales by 3 a year. Two years ago two years ago, president obama selected Robert Mcdonald to be secretary of Veterans Affairs. Over the course of his tenure, va has expanded veterans access by focusing on productivity and va community care, continued to drive down the disability claims backlog, progress towards end to homelessness and thanks in part to large unprecedented partnerships and Vital Networks across the federal government, with profit and nonprofit organizations has focused on prevention and treatment for veterans. He will be interrogated briefly by norman eisen. Norm served in the Obama Administration for the president for government reform and went to the public where i first met him to serve as United States ambassador there. He is with us at brookings, we are pleased to have him and he will be talking with you afterwords. With that please give Robert Mcdonald a round of applause. [applause] thank you for that kind introduction and the opportunity to have this conversation. Thanks to ambassador norman eisen for participating. I want to start by answering a question asked today, can the department of Veterans Affairs be modernized . The answer is absolutely yes. Not only can it be modernized but it is already being modernized and we are seeing the results. What veterans are telling us, we have seen improvements and the care they are receiving from the va. Fast fiscal year we completed 5 million more appointments than the previous fiscal year, 57 million appointments inside the va, 21 million appointments in the community. This past march we set a new record for completed appointments, 5. 3 million inside the va, 730,000 more appointments than in march 2014, issued 370,000 authorizations for care in the community in march, twice as many in march 2014. These authorizations will result in 2 million appointments in the month ahead. Clinical workload is up 11 in the past two years, nearly 9 inside the va and 27 with va community care. A system the size of va, 7 million additional hours of care for veterans. The result . 97 of appointments completed within 30 days of the veterans, 86 have been 7 days, 22 are same day appointments. Average wait time last month 5 days for primary care, 6 days for Specialty Care and two days for Mental Health care but none of those numbers tell the whole story. They are important but what really matters is whether veterans are satisfied with their experience at the va. Asking veterans what they think using automated kiosks at our facilities, half 1 million have responded in recent weeks. One of the questions we ask is how satisfied are you that you got todays appointment when you wanted it . Nearly 90 say they are satisfied or completely satisfied. 3 say they are dissatisfied or completely dissatisfied. I dont know how patients in the private sector would answer but i suspect results would compare favorably. As we improve access to care more and more veterans are choosing va care for the quality, convenience and cost savings. I am sure you have heard it said if you build it, they will come. We are building a better va. Veterans know that and i coming to us with more care. Even though we are providing more appointments than ever, some veterans are waiting longer than they should have to wait. That is not a measure of our failure. It is a measure of our success. We are providing more care, veterans are waiting less time for care and are coming for more care and telling us they are satisfied or completely satisfied with the timeliness of their care. How does that not spell success . Until all veterans are satisfied with their care i wont be satisfied with va. Nobody at va will be satisfied with va. I am satisfied we are on the right track and making progress. Were a leader in many fields of research. Posttraumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, prosthetics, genetics to name a few. Were a leader in medical innovation. First implantable cardiac pacemaker. First successful liver transplant. First nicotine patch, three nobel prizes, seven lasker awards. Look what weve done with the backlog of disability claims. Not long ago we had a backlog of over 600,000 claims, more than 125 days old. That was all you heard about in va in those days. What did we do . We added staff, we adjusted some policies and we designed and implemented an automated claims processing system. And today the backlog is just a fraction of what it was. It is down almost 90 . So the idea that va cant be fixed or that were not fixing it is just nonsense. We are fixing it. Were just not finished yet. We still have work to do. Our vision, the goal we set for va and were now working towards, is being the number one Customer Service organization in the federal government. Were building a High Performance organization, an integrated customer centric enterprise, leveraging vas vast scope and scale on behalf of every veteran we serve. To achieve that goal were applying best practice and standards of Customer Services businesses. 12 of our top 17 executives are new since i became secretary. And all 12 have top level leadership experience in business, health care, or in government. Together we have conceived and organize ad Transformation Initiative which we call, my va, because that is exactly how we want veterans to see us, a va theyre proud of and customized for them. Were committed to five longterm strategies. First, improving the veteran experience. Second, improving the employee experience. Not a surprise that the best Customer Service organizations in the world are also the bless places to work. Third, achieving support service excellence. Fourth, establishing a culture of continuous performance improvement. And fifth, enhancing Strategic Partnerships. For the near term were focused on quick wins for veterans, 12 break through priorities for 2016 that support our longterm my va strategies. Eight of the 12 are about directly improving service to veterans. First, improve the veteran experience. Second, increase access to health care. Third, improve Community Health care. Fourth, deliver unified veterans experience. Fifth, modernize contact centers. Sixth, improve the compensation and pension exam. Seven, develop a simplified appeals process. Eight, and continue to reduce veterans homelessness. Four of the 12 priorities are critical enablers designed to help the previous eight. Those four are, first, improve the employee experience. Number two, staff critical positions that are vacant. Three, transform our office of information and technology. Four, transform our supply chain to increase responsiveness, and reduce operating costs. Those four critical enablers are about reforming internal system, giving employees the tools and resources they need to provide Great Service and consistently delivering an exceptional veteran experience. For employees serving veterans, growing a High Performing Organization means intellectually equiping more and more teams to dramatically improve care and Service Delivery to veterans. That is what our leaders developing leaders program, or ldl, as we call it is all about. Ldl is an example of continuous enterprisewide growth spreading best practices across the va. We launched ldl last november and have already trained over 19,000 employees. Were also training employees on advanced business techniques lake lane six sigma and human center design. Were tying executive performance ratings and bonuses to veteran outcomes, employee surveys, and 360degree feedback. Growing a High Performing Organization also takes world class collaboration and Strategic Partnerships, vast networks, working together to serve veterans. Thats why weve enabled the National Network of 57 Community Veteran engagement boards. These boards are designed to Leverage Community assets, not just va assets, to meet local veteran needs. Our goal is to have 100 of these by the end of the year. Thats why were capitalizing on Strategic Partnerships with external organizations the goodwill, resource, and expertise of partners such as ibm, johnson johnson, amazon, bristolmyers squibb, university of Michigan Health system, and many more. Thats why were working collaboratively with world class institutions like usaa, the cleveland clinic, wegmans starbucks, kaiser permanente, Hospital Corporation of america and many others. And it is why we brought together the Diverse Group of business leaders, medical professionals, government executives and veteran advocates who serve on our my Va Advisory Committee or mvac for short. Growing the Organization Take as clear purpose, strong values and enduring principles supportings sound strategies. We already have a clear purpose. Our mission . Caring for veterans and their families. We have the strong admirable values. I care values of commitment, advocacy, respect and excellence. Theyre foundational to everything we do. Growing a High PerformanceOrganization Also takes strong, passionate leadership and we have that, a growing team of talent making innovative changes and creating opportunities for even greater progress. It takes the kind of responsive systems and processes were building. Veteran send tricks, by design. We believe that veterans should have sameday access to primary care and that new patients should receive a sameday Mental Health assessment and Immediate Care if needed. This could mean a same day appointment with primary care do