David Roe

I remember sitting here... when the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the VA... spent a billion dollars.

How much money so far, to date, have we spent on an IT system that doesn't work?

One of the things that the VA has gotten right is they named this long-term solution right. That's appropriate. It's going to take a long time to get the solution, it looks like.

At the end of the day, I want to know how much this overtime and how much this payment, that we're not going to claw back, has cost the taxpayers.

And today with all this technology and millions and millions and millions of dollars spent, Amazon has, by June of this year--by August of this year, I know, because a company in my district makes them, they sent out a billion articles to…

We are not going to hear the same thing again. Am I -- I want that on record, we are correct in hearing that?

I know they don't have the capacity to see all those patients in addition.

I agree with Ms. Devlin, if you miss checking a box, that is not really an issue about the quality exam that you gave.

I think that person's nomination is sitting over in the Senate now.

I want to applaud you and the Ranking Member for having this. And I would encourage us to do this every 90 days.

Well, it isn't happening right now. And I wonder--again, I hear that, but will that health information exchange--will I be able to, when I see a patient out in--like, in Spokane, Washington, that's going to go--you're beginning to get that…

There's a technology failure at VA that really is creating real problems when the taxpayer dollars are there.

The other reason that I think all of us have some angst--we're going to have a hearing later today on the disability exams by contract physicians that the VA can't account for.

What you have to have to make this implement and work correctly is that when a provider is sitting there at a computer screen--and I've been there--and you hit the blind canyon, you don't know where to go, you're stuck, you can't call…

Well, I've been warning VA groups when I go to see them that this is going to happen.

These treatments should be accessible to all veterans; if alternative treatments and therapies are deemed to be effective they need to be made available and integrated into veterans' current models of care.

The American Legion recommends and supports any government efforts to create incentives to encourage volunteerism.

To ensure that all veterans are being properly cared for at Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs medical facilities, The American Legion has established a Suicide Prevention Program.

The American Legion remains deeply concerned by the high suicide rate among servicemembers and veterans and is committed to finding a way to help end this crisis.

The American Legion thanks this Committee for holding this important hearing and for the opportunity to explain the views of the nearly 2 million members of this organization.

These numbers leave me with a lot of questions, ones which I hope we can find the answers to today.

We also know that over the past several years VA has invested significant resources toward addressing that number, which stubbornly has not changed.

Most of us have heard VA's staggering and heartbreaking statistic that every day 20 veterans end their lives, 20.

The IPO, or the Interagency Program Office, is one of the few aspects of her modernization that is mandated by law.

I am willing to give them additional time to do that, but I will not wait forever.