David Roe

We want to be sure that we provide the resources to take care of our veterans. And I can tell you the America people want their veterans taken care of.

If you ask someone at the VA who they work for they would say the VA, and the right answer was I work for the veteran

Well I guess if you do not go to a funeral it is a favorable outcome.

This veteran just sort of got ignored for a while.

I mean, all you can say is you got lucky.

If this was your dad there and would you be happy with the explanation you just gave of his death? And secondly, would you accept that?

I mean, you would have lost both limbs where I was if you had tried to convince a staff a member where I am, or me when I was a staff member.

I think long term it is a great method to do.

But it is incumbent on us to serve the ones who did make it back.

And what I hear veterans tell me is that, doc, I think they are just hoping I will die.

That is the lamest excuse I have ever heard in my life.

My time is running out. But you think, this particular person got $21,000 in bonuses.

Maybe you should. And what you are dealing with there is a, and let me tell you what I hear at home.

Documentation from your office shows that the Chief Counsel of Operations in your office held a case for 397 days before finally signing it.

It is hard to make a politician speechless, but I am speechless with that.

What would be the reason for a veteran to, I mean here is a veteran, I see them all the time, sitting at home and I have got to go back and tell them that your chart just sat on somebody's desk for 200 days waiting for a signature.

Are you saying then it is leadership?

I just want a veteran whose claim is waiting on it, and this August break we went on, clearly I heard it over and over again.

And I heard you say, and we heard this through numbing hours of testimony this year with the VA, is that it is not a money issue.

There should be some accountability somewhere.

What we hear when we go home from veterans, they do not know about boxes and all, they do not know what that is.

Would there be some recommendations from you all for mechanisms to hold people accountable--some real teeth in what we do so that you know that it is going to be done or there are going to be consequences to that?

What are the penalties if you make these recommendations and then never carry it out?

Mr. Takano and I just spent way too many hours on the V.A. Committee in the last few months, and much of the work we were able to uncover was due to the--what your shop does, both the GAO and I.G.

I want to start by saying that just briefly to both GAO and to the I.G., I had no idea until I got to Congress about the oversight responsibility that Congress has and the role you all play in bringing this information forward to us.