Is making to better serve veterans. This is two hours two 20 minutes. Good among. Good morning. My name is bill, as chairman i call this call to order. With our colors in place, hand salute, 1, 2. Please remain standing and ill call on harvey clay from the Department Texas to lead us in prayer. In duty rot me its written be strong and courageous. Do not fear. For it is the lord our god who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. In romans what then shall we say to these things if god is for us, who can be against us. With those scripttural passage, go to prayer. We call upon you to calm our spirit. Focus our attention and energy on the task at hand knowing that what we do is part of your divine plan. Grant us the courage and faith needed for the assignments we are going to under take. Centered upon what you would have us do all to your grater glory. Shower us with forthright, hones honesty and sincerity. My our preparations be fruitful and touch the hearts of those who hear them. That those who have ears hear, and those who have eyes see. You have fed and watered millions in its dessert. A feet only you could accomplish so we have trusting in you to provide the practical means necessary in the meetings that were about to attend. You called us to a task that requires super natural pro vision and now we are calling on to you provide details with trust in our god. We will do our part and do it well by your grace and know you will do yours. Our strength will be renewed and we shall mount up with wings like angels with our service to god in country. In this we pray in the name of all sacred, precious and holy. Amen. This requires a designation of a pownia chair or flag at American Legion. This is for those unaccounted for for whom all wars involved our nation. So with the pow sb mia position to my left, release any american prisoners the repateuation of those killed in action and full accounting of those still missing. Let us rededicate ourselves for this vital endeavor. Thank you. I call upon the chairman of the National Council from the department of georgia to lead the pledge of allegiance. With the flag of our nation. Our pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of the america to the republic for which it stands, one station under god, indi visible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, mr. Chairman. You may be seated. Welcome to the 57th annual commander call, before you leave, we hope you will be inspired, motivated and educated. Our goal is to empower you with everything you need to carry the American Legion message to capitol hill. With the knowledge you have with 2 million veterans their familiar and their votes behind you. We are most respected in the nation. We are the American Legion. Like to begin by introducing first speaker. He has been asking us to carry the legacy forward. He contributing to that legacy by fiercely advocating for veterans and their families. Our retired veteran of the war, he first member to lead our organization it is my pleasure to introduce the National Commander charles e. Smith. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you chairman oxford. Good morning American Legion family. Hoo raw. We have an new administration and new congress no matter what your political persuasion is, it is exciting for the American Legion. We are nonbarn bipartisan and with a new leadership in washington we look at all new possibilities, as i like to say in my speech, accent wait the positive. We see a lot of positive signs coming from washington. The new va secretary dr. Shulkin, seems committed to making va better than before. That isnt to say there arent 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. Not all find it convenient to use va. Veterans for instance, must travel more than 200 miles to find the nearest va hospital. Although their needs to be a l well managed partnership with private priors to serve veterans in remote area, we are against the current mess called Choice Programs. Delays, nonreimbursement for services and bureaucracyic entanglement who have attempted to use the program. No veteran should have to experience a long wait time to be seen by a doctor. We have eager to work with dr. Shulkin to fix this problem. Veterans will overwhelmingly choose va over private sectorful. 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 the disability claims needed to be modernize. The current process will result in veterans having to wait an average ten years to hear decision on their appeals this is more than twice the time for the United States to fight and win world war ii. According to va 2016 numbers, nearly half a million appeals claim are waiting to be adjudicated. 80,000 claims are waiting for 125 days. The American Legion finds this completely unacceptable. We believe the appeals modernization legislation hr 457 introduced by representative will simplify were feed up the process as well as make it more transparent. The house did its job but the senate refuse to move on it. Im hopeful today youll talk to your representative and your senators and tell them we need to pass this important legislation now. The American Legion welcomes President Trumps promise to are build our military. More than half of all marine core aircraft from unflyable this past december. Only three brigade combat teams are considered ready for combat. The air force, had a total of 5,500 aircraft. The average aircraft is 27 years old. Older than many of the pilots plying them. In the early 1990s, air force had 8,600 aircraft, what can i say about the navy, i was at joint base to or 75th anniversary. If we learned anything from party harbor it is that we pearl harbor is that we must always be prepared. Temple have had major impact on navys ability to protect our seas. A strong navy is needed now. Increase pro vocation by governments of iran and north korea. This is why we are asking congress to fully fund the department of defense with a real and robust budget and not unstainable continuing resolution. Does anybody 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 it is the president who has the ultimate and constitutional m mandated responsibility to keep us save. We need to take a hard look at our immigration and entry policy. Wloo while we have been effective at stopping terrorists attacks. Look at what happened in france, germany, turkey, as we have seen in boston, san bernardino, we will not be able to stop every attack but every one we stop saves an inkal youble amount of lives. I would like to say a few words about the deniers. These are people protesting on College Campus and in our streets who deny our flag has significance. Its just a piece of cloth they say. It is a piece of cloth all right, its fabric of our nation. The 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 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 to right to pass this measure through the state legislature and trying protection into constitution. Thats our constitution. The constitution of the American People. These deniers say congress has more important issues to address that the flag protection amendment is a waste of time. I say pass the amendment and we wont bo tlther you with it aga. [ applause ] otherwise, you will keep hearing from us. We never quit our mission in the military when we are not going to quit now. Because thats who we are. We love peace but we will foiig for what it right. Thank you all. God bless you and god bless the United States of america. [ applause ] thank you, commander. Thank you. I notice theres lots of folks standing in the back. If youre interesting there are plenty of seats up front. The American Legion is one of the most powerful voices in washington. It is because of you, and our strong grass roots presence, veterans across this nation depend upon you to 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 constituents. Ladies and gentlemen, our next guest is chairman of the u. S. Veterans affairs committee. He was elected in 2008 to serve the first Congressional District of tennessee. As a physician, he ran successful medical practice for 31 years. Delivered close to 5,000 babies. He army veteran and member of post 24 in johnson city tennessee. Give a warm welcome to honorable representative from tennessee, phil row. [ applause ] thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. As you know, congress has a less than 12 approval rating. Im glad to get invited anywhere. Thank you for having employee. I told the speaker, mr. Speaker, its not as bad you you think. Theres the bar is low. I want to thank you all for being here. Taking your time to come to washington to talk to us about the important issues that you face. Once again, my name is phil row. Im country doctor from tennessee. Eight or nine years ago decided i didnt like the direction the country was going, i felt i would serve my country, so i went off my medication and reason for congress and looked what happened. [ laughter ] so i be careful to stay on your medicine. I was a young physician in memphis, i tell people that i won a free trip to southeast asia. Many of you did the same thing i went to the mailbox and got draft notice and had six week old child when i went into the military, went through basic training, stations in korea. I spent a few months in seoul. Grew up in tennessee. I felt i have like i was part of the military. I know when the congress today, less than 20 of us have served in the military. Back in the early 70s many you of are world war ii, korea vietnam, a lot smaller percentage have served than previous generation. It is on honor to do what i do and have time it do this or the opportunity to do this. I want to thank you all and jury families for coming up here. I know a lieutenaot of times we theres a family that loves and cares for us and gives us an opportunity and privilege of serving. I want to thank dr. Shulkin, i have to be careful what i say because he is backstage, he going to be a great secretary. I have had opportunity to work with him on the Veterans Affairs committee. I think he going to do a great job for our veterans country. I have been on the committee since 2009. We were spending 97 billion ayear on veterans. Today its south of 80 billion. We have added 360,000. The va has more than employees than the u. S. Navy does. I dont know that the va is doing that much better job. We have resources to take care of what we are doing today, i think we need to do a better job of man managing and i intend to hold the va accountable. I know many of you have aware of the scandal that occurred in phoenix, it turned out this was per viive than we thought. It gives him the ability to fire or hold people accountable for what they do. And there are many egregious have occurred that took months and years to make right. I come from the private sector. That doesnt happen in the private sector. Some of the events occurred the door would not hit you the backside that day, dr. Shulkin needs these tools. He is going to get these tools. We are going to mark this bill up next week. One of the things i want to work about physician who solves veteran patients in my office and saw them active military doctor, i want to be sure we put veterans in charge of health care decision. What i mean by that, my practice, the person i work for is the patient. Not the hospital, the insurance company, the patient. I want to do, i want the veterans and the doctors to be making those health care decision. If it you feel youre not getting the care you need, you should have a choice to go where you want to, but i travel to texas and valley in washington, to visit rural areas where va are. Veterans are spread out across there country. In my district, 10 of my district are veterans. We have 70,000 in first Congressional District and i know we have bob hencely who is a veteran from mountain city, tennessee. I want to thank him for being here. There would not be a texas if it were not for tennessee. I want to point that out. What i want to see happen whether the va in health care, i want you to have the absolute best health care that can be provided by anybody in the world. You should have that as a veteran. You have aearned it. You deserve to have it. I think accountability and two access to care is a huge item for he. I co chair theres a huge opioid i b opioid abuse. We have had Prescription Drug deaths killed as many people in this countries. Its scary epidemic thats preventable. Its something we should not have. Theres an appropriate use for opioid and theres inappropriate use. We protect people from the deaths occurring. I know theres another thing im concerned about also about tim walsh, cochair co cause in congress that takes care of folks with posttraumatic stress disorder. I will give them a big shoutout. The va has been a leader in posttraumatic stress disorder treatment. We passed a bill that we acknowledge we need to do more for veterans and can other patients in this country suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. One of the biggest thing we have to do is i know dr. Shulkin is concerned and worried about this, is to transform vas it system. We spend 4. 5 billion, thats 4500 million on technology. And its right now the Va Health Care system is a good one. Its not easy to do. I say this sort of a joke, Electronic Health system that made me a congressman. It drove me crazy learning how to do it. Technology is good if it works the va fleeds needs to be reformed. We are sending people on the Choice Program which is not working. We have get that working better. Technology is the key to it so you can bill, to pay your bills and do other things with with technology, that is big time were going to take at the apple. One of the things i want to assure you is im not sitting up here talking about privatizing va. Ti im talking about making va better [ applause ] thats something i think extremely important for people to know thats not whats were doing. The va today will not look like the va of 20 years ago. We have va that needs haaccess a different way. I dont know from i know that most of you have a smartphone, theres going to be tremendous amount of health care provided through smartphone. I keep getting unsolis ited email from walk in tub. We have the most Bipartisan Committee in the congress. Its one of the reasons i enjoy working on the committee. Its about how we take care of veterans. That is exactly why im on that committee. [ applause ] i want to thank you you again for having me. Im going to finish my remarks to tell you why im passionate about being chairman. 1943, a guy in johnson city tennessee, walked into arm recruiters and tried to sign up for the United States marine corps, he was turned down. His name hoer petes. The reason he was turned down he was 13 years old. Think did not allow him to go in. Not to be deterred. He cleaned up local derelict. Put a suit on him, had him sign as his father that he was 17 years old and go into arm. He got in. Not just the army but 101st Airborne Division at age 13. He para chuted in age 15. He was wounded and sent back to england to recover from his injury. He rejoin and fault in the battle of the bulge. His mother didnt know he was in the war. He was wounded and sent back. In his recover. They finally caught up with homer and ethey straighted him from the army. He came back to johnson tennessee tn. He tried to sign up again. He said son, you have been in the battle of the bulge. You have been in the norm di evasion go home and be a kid. He went and finished. Went through rotc and was commissioned and he was a Police Officer and did a lot of other things. But he decided that was not good enough so we went into the army rangers in 1950s. They volunteered for vietnam, homer was killed in 1965 when the silver star in vietnam. Those ladies and gentlemen, are the shoulders that we stand on. Unbelievable story. [ applause ] wouldnt you have liked to have met homer and gotten to know him and tipped one with imhad. I would have. I want to thank you. There are stories right out here in this room, that are just at compelling. I want to thank you. You have my solemn promise to do everything i can to make sure this va works for you and give you back the service you have earned. Thank you, and may god bless each and every one of you. [ applause ] i just made a comment to the chairman, im in awe of the 5,000 babies. At this point i would like to recognize commander smith for introduction. It is customary to refer to members of congress as honorable. It was title earned by our next guest. I hope you dont consider my rude for saying it dank and impressive. It was a prison known as hanoi hilton and it is not a nice hotel like this. The son of an admiral, our guest was offered early relief from pow camp but he turned it down. After operation homecoming, he continued navy career and retired in 1981. He represented arizona and u. S. Senate since 1987. Best known as 20,008 republican nominee for of the United States. He embraces pillar of the national defense. A graduate of the u