During a House Appropriations Committee hearing Thursday, Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) spoke about automated services at VA call centers.
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00:00No problem, Mr. Chairman. I want to congratulate you, Mr. Secretary. It's great to be with you,
00:05and I want to associate myself with Chairman Cole's comments about the work that we do in a bipartisan manner for our veterans.
00:12I'm a new appropriator. I was on the Veterans Affairs Committee for six years prior to joining the Appropriations Committee,
00:18and I was both chair and ranking member of the Economic Opportunities Subcommittee,
00:22so I had an opportunity to work with lots of different great Republicans and Democrats alike,
00:27and we got scores of bills through and signed into law both by President Trump and then by President Biden,
00:34and I'm hopeful we can continue in that spirit of bipartisan collaboration to find areas of common ground
00:38in the second Trump administration, just as we did with Secretary Wilkie in the first Trump administration.
00:46I think, like everybody else, we're excited to see the detailed budget request,
00:51and I wanted to just bring to your attention the bipartisan veterans package that we passed last year
00:58had a number of really important programs for veteran homelessness, long-term care, veteran caregivers,
01:03included three of my bipartisan bills, and I have a parochial interest in making sure those are fully funded,
01:09one in particular, the CVSO Act.
01:11That's with Kathy McMorris-Rogers, Brad Finstead, and Chris Pappas,
01:16which authorized $10 million in funding for grants to states to improve outreach to veterans
01:21and increase the number of county veteran service officers, very important for regions like mine in San Diego.
01:27So, Mr. Secretary, as you develop the final budget request,
01:30can you commit to working with your team to fully fund this important grant program?
01:35Yes, and Congressman, I appreciate your words and comments, I think,
01:39because most on this committee know that that was my hallmark here,
01:43working bipartisanly to get stuff done, and we've done that before.
01:46Yes, I mean, you've also brought up something that's very important to me,
01:50and I've actually went to our county veterans, our state veterans.
01:52We've not done a good job, I think, at the VA over a long-term period of actually utilizing those state benefits
01:59or state partnerships and our county partnerships, because they're so important,
02:02because especially in the county side, this is where most people go,
02:05because they know each other.
02:06It's that veteran knowing veterans.
02:08So, for me, yes, this is something that's a priority for me going forward.
02:11It's going to be something we can definitely work across, y'all,
02:13and Ms. McMorris-Rogers and I did a lot of things together as well,
02:16so it's good to see y'all do that, but we will, yes.
02:18That's great, I appreciate that very much.
02:20I also wanted to thank you, I wrote you back on April 2nd,
02:24about call centers and specifically the potential move to automation.
02:29We receive, I mean, you were a member for a long time,
02:32you get all kinds of calls from disabled veterans, elderly veterans,
02:36who don't know how to schedule appointments.
02:38They don't know how to navigate VA websites.
02:41They don't necessarily know how to reach out to their primary care providers in some cases,
02:46and they rely on those employees at your call centers,
02:49and they're worried that they won't be able to talk to an actual human being
02:53when they call VA to schedule an appointment.
02:56So, Mr. Secretary, can you promise my constituents that when they call VA,
03:00they will be able to talk to an actual human being?
03:04Yeah, that's our intention.
03:05One of the things that I want to, I appreciate you asking this,
03:07because it's important to me, because as someone who deals a lot in my district,
03:11most of you did as well with older veterans who are just, you know,
03:14looking for answers, especially trying to.
03:15But what became surprising to me is we have over, it's approximately,
03:20and I have to get this number, over 200 and possibly 250 call centers associated with the VA.
03:26What concerns me about those is they don't talk to each other.
03:29We have 250 almost, you know, different call centers across the country that have no connection,
03:35unlike if you were to call your insurance agent or another company, they would know,
03:40okay, we see, Congressman, you wanted to know about this benefit.
03:43Well, we could connect you there.
03:44What we're trying to do is make that more streamlined or looking at the possibility of
03:48how do we do that so that the veteran can get directly to their care,
03:51get to somebody who can answer their question, but do it without having to dial several numbers.
03:55One of the problems we found was is that they would dial one number,
03:58maybe our main 401 number, 411 number, but yet at the end of the day,
04:02they're having to get another number to call.
04:03So I'm with you.
04:04Let's make it as easy as we possibly can and streamline that so that they can get the help,
04:07personal help that they need.
04:08But just to be clear, it'll be a human on the other end.
04:11Yeah, we're making sure that we have as much human interaction as we can.
04:14The other week I had a dishwasher installed.
04:16I called the number and it was an AI chat assistant.
04:19I was ready to hang up.
04:21I don't want that to happen to our veterans.
04:24And in the letter, in the response, you said, quote,
04:28VA call centers are incorporating self-service options.
04:32And, quote, there is always an option to be connected to a live representative.
04:36So, again, to drill down on this, can you be specific about what self-service options are?
04:42Because in the private sector, these are lousy.
04:46Time is used.
04:48Use your time.
04:49Yes, sir.
04:50I have 15 seconds left, Mr. Chairman.
04:52Can the secretary answer the question?
04:55Yes, he may answer the question.
04:55I'll answer the thing.
04:56Yeah, we're going to continue to work.
04:58I think the main thing, though, is there also has to be an understanding of how we also can process efficiently
05:02and looking at it.
05:03So, if there is ways that we can get them, if they can, say, push one to go right to VBA, we'll do that.
05:07That's my mind of how we can do this.
05:09Or if they can actually leave their information and they can get the information that they need sent in
05:13or set an appointment.
05:14Those are the kind of things that do work in the private sector as well.
05:16But we'll continue to work together.
05:17Thank you, Mr. Secretary.