During a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about the Trump Administration's layoffs at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Senator Sanders.
00:01Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:02Thank you all for being here today.
00:05Mr. Chairman, my understanding is that in the fourth quarter of 24,
00:11there were over 30,000 vacancies at the VA,
00:17including 3,400 schedulers, 1,200 custodians, 1,800 social workers,
00:252,400 doctors, 6,300 registered nurses.
00:31I heard Mr. Engelbaum say appropriately enough that he wants to do a detailed
00:36and thoughtful review of the whole process.
00:40Do you think arbitrarily laying off 2,500 workers
00:44and planning to lay off another 83,000 is a detailed and thoughtful review?
00:52Senator, thank you.
00:53As mentioned, the initial thing that hit the news about the planning factor
00:59is to lead and to force people to make hard decisions and recommendations.
01:03We are in the process.
01:04I will come and brief the committee, sir,
01:06at your disposal on how we are doing that over the next three to four months
01:09and what we're going to review to make sure that we tailor the mission.
01:13But if we already have, and I should tell you,
01:16and I think Mr. Montoya knows that he's completely without water in the world.
01:19Yes, sir.
01:20As a matter of adjunction, we have a very well-functioning VA.
01:24I go around the state a lot.
01:25I talk to veterans.
01:26They're very proud of what is going on there.
01:29I don't think any veteran in this country thinks that it makes sense at a time
01:33when we already have a significant shortage of workers
01:37to arbitrarily lay off 2,500 and threaten to lay off another 83,000.
01:43Mr. Chairman, as I think you are aware, the VFW Veterans of Foreign Wars
02:00just stated the other day, and I quote part of what their statement was.
02:04We now call upon VA to reconsider its planned reduction of 83,000 employees
02:10and thoroughly review any proposed cuts prior to rolling out further announcement like this.
02:16End quote.
02:17Mr. Chairman, I'm going to introduce a resolution supporting the VFW.
02:21I would hope that you can support that.
02:23All that they are saying, which makes common sense to me.
02:26You want to make the VA more efficient?
02:28Let's do it.
02:29You're right.
02:30Is there a bureaucracy?
02:31Yep.
02:32Let's deal with that.
02:33But do it in an intelligent planned way with the cooperation of the veterans organizations
02:39who are on the ground.
02:41Who better can come to tell you that you have people who are not working well?
02:45All right?
02:46But to arbitrarily say, hey, we're going to lay off 83,000 people, that makes sense to nobody.
02:54On a more provincial point of view, so Mr. Chairman, I'm going to work.
03:00I would hope that we could have bipartisan support here.
03:04We're simply saying, to quote Mr. Engelbaum, let's go forward in a detailed and thoughtful process.
03:11Work with us.
03:12All right?
03:15Do you believe that health care is a right for every veteran in this country?
03:24Absolutely.
03:25Good.
03:26Good.
03:27Let me just say that.
03:28I appreciate that.
03:29Okay.
03:30That's fine.
03:31I agree with you.
03:32I think that a better job in reaching out one of the problems, which I've been working on for years, some success,
03:38is letting veterans know about the benefits to which they are legally entitled.
03:44I'm not sure that we do as good a job on that as we should.
03:48Do you think we should do a better job in that area?
03:50I'll turn that over.
03:51I know it's very, very important to do so.
03:53I know we've made strides.
03:54I'm not sure if there's anybody here that can really address that.
03:58But I always think we could always do better, Senator.
04:00I would recall, excuse me, I don't have a lot of time, I apologize,
04:04but doing a town meeting in Bennington, Vermont, a number of years ago,
04:09about the prescription drug benefits that veterans are entitled to.
04:13A lot of veterans didn't even know that.
04:15But my point is, if you believe that every veteran, I'm hearing you say that,
04:20is entitled to the health care that we have provided them,
04:24if you're going to do aggressive outreach, am I hearing you say that?
04:27Okay.
04:28You're going to need more staff, not less, to take care of our veterans.
04:32All right.
04:33On a provincial note, we are on the list, whatever that may mean,
04:39in Vermont to get two new state-of-the-art CBOCs.
04:44One is in Chittenden County.
04:46I don't know if anybody is familiar with that.
04:48Ms. Cohen, are you familiar with that?
04:50No. Okay.
04:53Mr. Montoya, are you familiar with that?
04:56Very much so, sir.
04:57Okay.
04:58Can you help me out here?
05:00We have two on the list, one in Chittenden County,
05:02one probably in the Keene area in New Hampshire,
05:06which Vermonters in the southern part of the state can utilize.
05:10Can you give me a status report on that, sir?
05:12Yes.
05:13So I know, sir, I don't have it, but I'll get it for the record for you
05:15and talk with your staff members as well.
05:18But I think this is one that's very important to our veterans in Vermont
05:21and New Hampshire to make sure that they get the care.
05:23Last I had on that is that they were going through the acquisition process,
05:27but I want to be very detailed in my response.
05:29Will you get back to me on that?
05:31Absolutely.
05:32I'll give you a ring.
05:33100%.
05:34All right.
05:35Look, the bottom line is it's not complicated.
05:37I don't think there's anybody who doesn't think there's too much bureaucracy
05:40at the VA.
05:42I presume everybody wants to make it more efficient.
05:44I presume everybody wants to do its best for veterans.
05:47I presume we all want veterans to be able to take advantage of the programs
05:51that Congress has passed to help them.
05:54All right?
05:55You don't do it by arbitrarily laying off tens of thousands.
05:59You do it by working with the veterans' organizations,
06:02by working with this committee.
06:04Mr. Engelbaum, is there anything I said that you disagree with?
06:07No, Senator.
06:08Looking forward to working with the committee,
06:09and I met some of the representatives behind me right before the meeting
06:12and invited them for some conversations,
06:14and I look forward to discussions and working together to better support our veterans.