SecVA Press Conference 5/24/2023

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: So, we’re excited that we’re coming to you live from the secretary’s office today. So, with that, I don’t have much to say. We’re going to go ahead and get this thing started and I’ll turn it over to ‘Secretary McDonough.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Great. Terrence, thanks very much. Thanks everybody for joining. I similarly don’t have much for opening comments. We’ll get into questions here quickly, but we do have two great guests with us today; Lisa Pozzebon, who is the Director of Cemetery Operations at the National Cemetery Administration and James LaPaglia the NCA Digital Services officer, who, is joining us today as well from NCA. Lisa and James will talk us through plans to commemorate Memorial Day this weekend associated with NCA facilities, now our national cemeteries. James will talk us through the latest manifestation, the upgrade of the Veteran Legacy Memorial. Without further ado, why don’t we get into our NCA colleagues and then we’ll get into questions.

Lisa Pozzebon, Executive Director, Cemetery Operations: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. For more than 150 years, our nation has commemorated, commemorated the service and sacrifice of our service members. Memorial Day, roots date back to the Civil War when Major General John, a Logan Head of the Grand Republic of the Army established a day to decorate the graves of the war dead. The establishment of the National Cemetery System which dates back to that same time period in 1862 when Congress recognized the nation’s need for a place to remember the fallen and authorize the president to, and I quote, “establish cemeteries for soldiers who had died in the service of our country.” And from this one sentence, the National Cemetery System was born.

Today, NCA cares for nearly 5-million service members., Veterans and their family members interred at 155 national cemeteries. Through VA’s Veterans Cemetery Grant Program, states, territories and tribes have established and maintain an additional 121 Veteran cemeteries.  Through both of these cemeteries combined, we provide access within 75 miles of those cemeteries to nearly 94% of all Veterans. We’re serving the nation jointly. NCA continues to grow and ensure our mission is fulfilled so that those who have served are honored and remembered with a final resting place befitting their service and sacrifice.

At NCA we take great pride in our mission, and that’s evident in our unparalleled customer service results. NCA has not only achieved but has sustained the highest score on the American Customer Service Satisfaction Index over the last two cycles, outperforming both private and public organizations. Our latest score was a 97 on the index of a hundred, and that’s the second time in a row We’ve achieved that score.

NCA will hold Memorial Day ceremonies at more than 130 of our national cemeteries and details on each of those ceremonies can be found on our Memorial Day webpage at www.cem.va. gov/memorial-day. All our Memorial Day ceremonies are open to the public. The programs generally consist of a wreath laying, a moment of silence, the playing of TAPS and then the delivery of speeches and remembrances. Additionally, there are volunteer opportunities for anyone interested in assisting with flag placement in advance of or pickup after Memorial Day. I strongly urge you to contact the local national cemetery to learn of the dates and times for those opportunities. Finally, I just want to let you know that all national cemeteries are open every day from dusk until dawn for visitation and memorialization. So not just over Memorial Day weekend, but every day. I will now turn to my colleague James LaPaglia to discuss the Veterans Legacy Memorial.

James LaPaglia, Digital Services Officer: Good job, Lisa. Thanks, Lisa. Good afternoon. Grateful to be here to share some exciting news about Veterans Legacy Memorial. This is one of VA’s end-of-life benefits for Veterans and survivors. I know we have some people joining us virtually. We are using paper copies today here around the table, but those of us who are participating virtually, if you go to www.va.gov/remember, you can follow along a little bit as I demonstrate the power of VLM. So first some background about what Veterans Legacy Memorial is. Then we’ll talk about the big expansion for Memorial Day.

This is a web app that NCA launched in 2019 to honor Veterans in our own VA national cemeteries. And at first it was just a static site. We, we had 3.7 million pages for Veterans, but it really absorbed information from VA databases, service information, resting place information, date of birth, date of death, then starting in 2020, largely because of the pandemic, because we weren’t having Memorial Day services at our cemeteries, we decided to start with the interactive features for VLM and we started with the tributes feature, which is what we might see in Facebook.

And then the next year over Memorial Day 2021, we completely went interactive. Users can now upload tributes, images, biographies. They can create a word cloud that describes their Veteran, they can create a timeline of their Veteran’s career and even upload historical documents. We’ve expanded, VLM a couple times over recent years.

We added our Veteran Cemetery Grant Program, cemeteries, 122 of them in 2021, which added about half a million more Veteran pages to VLM. And then last year we added the two 14 first U.S. Park Service National Cemeteries. The site’s fully interactive. All the content is moderated.

If you go to the site and you submit something, someone on my team is actually looking at it to make sure it’s appropriate that it honors Veterans, otherwise we reject it. We have a very low rejection rate, about 2%. So, you know, almost, almost without exception, what people are submitting is honoring Veterans and, and telling those stories.

I went into the back end last week to do some searching around on what kind of items people are sharing and we have more, almost 60,000 memories have been shared to VLM since we went interactive. And I started to see the interaction of, or the intersection of everything we do as a department to the issues that we face that are helping Veterans with now go into the backend and searched for PTSD and found tributes, talking about PTSD, information submitted, talking about Burn Pits, GI bill, homelessness, suicide, surviving on under, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell racism, PTSD, Agent Orange and the care that people get in our VA medical centers. So really over these thousands of inputs to Veteran pages, we see what we collectively do in the department to help Veterans and those issues that Veterans are facing every day. Currently, we have 4.8 million pages that includes the expansion I’m about ready to talk about.

Like I said, it’s about almost 60,000 items submitted. All right, the big news for this weekend is we have now absorbed 27 Department of Defense managed cemeteries into VLM, which has added more than 300,000 individual additional interactive Veteran pages. Uh, this was an exciting expansion for VLM.

This is the first time we’re going outside the VA to a different database from a different department. It includes Arlington National Cemetery, which is something our users have been asking for from the beginning. We’re excited, you know, almost, a little over 250,000 of these 300,000 records are from Arlington National Cemetery.

It does include 17 other Army Post cemeteries scattered around the country, five Navy cemeteries and four Air Force cemeteries. We’ve already seen some play on those, on those cemeteries, since we added those 300,000 pages last week and, and started the publicity blitz for Memorial Day. We’ve seen about a 75% increase in the site usage this week.

Which is exciting, looking for a big surge as people look for their Veterans and share memories this weekend. Normally I would be going on to do a demonstration, of VLM, but we’re going to do it on paper. And those of you who are following along here, we are going to go to a Veteran’s page. If you are on the landing page, you’re going to search by Robert Monroe, last name is in the first field, Monroe.

And then Robert, you go to the dropdown and pick US Marine. And if you go to the cemetery dropdown, it’s Riverside Search for the results, and you’ll see Robert’s face, uh, instead of his Marine Corps seal on the page, and you click on that to go to his page. For those of us around the table we’re right here. We’re looking at Bob’s page. I show Bob’s page a lot and, and I actually have established a relationship with his surviving spouse, and he’s entered out there at Riverside. This page shows the power of VLM this surviving spouse has. Since the site became interactive, she’s on the site every other week instead of what you see at the cemetery was someone standing at a headstone talking to their late husband or their late son, or their late daughter or spouse. This is happening virtually. We see people grieve. We see people telling funny stories. We see just the gamut of emotion on this one page. You can see at the top if you’re following along those little information bubbles. There’s more than a hundred tributes on this Veteran’s page.

In the memorial tab, in the life of mementos tab, there’s more than a hundred items. It includes the word cloud, it includes a biography, it includes every single type of content that we have available. And she’s also uploaded 17 documents. So, as you look through that first page, you can see this the, the part of the page that we pull in from VA databases.

You can see his service information, his date of birth, his date of death, his service seal. It’s a Purple Heart recipient. You see that displayed. His rank, his service branch, and then you see his resting place information and a picture of his niche cover. That resting place information is also interactive.

It’s a clickable map. You can click for directions, you can click over to that, the cemetery’s website and it has all the information about how to contact the cemetery. Then as you move to the next page or further down the page, if you’re doing this online from WebEx, you can start to see what Linda Monroe has started to upload.

You know, she was there on the site a couple weeks ago and then a couple weeks before that. And she, she’s not only talking about times in the past with, with her husband, she’s talking about what the grandkids are doing today and that she’s brought flowers to him two weeks ago and.

Bob apparently had a love relationship with hummingbirds, and they would die bombing at his house in Southern California. She was talking to him about that, right! It’s amazing to see how Linda interacts with him in this running conversation that she has. The next page starts our journey on the second tab, which is the life of mementos tab.

And you see just graphically represented, these are all words that she and others have contributed that describe her Veteran, that describe her late husband. And you see things like heroic, devoted all American superhero, friend. daddy. Powerful words that describe that describe her late husband.

She contributed to his biography, which is really a longer length tribute. We see a lot of obituaries that are submitted for biographies. And then at the bottom, as you move down, you start to see the military timeline. And these are each individual entries that she submitted of achievements for her husband’s career.

And on the paper copy you have in front of you only see three. But on, if you’re doing this online, there’s a read more button. And you press it, you press it, press it, and three more appear and three more appear, and three more appear. And, and I think she has at least a dozen or more of these individual chronologically appearing memories for her husband.

And the app does it all automatically. I mean, she doesn’t have to organize these chronologically. The app just takes the dates and displays them. Then as you move down further down the page, and no kidding, see the image library. And, and if you’re seeing this online, you see pictures of grandkids from yesterday.

You see wedding pictures from them from four to 50 years ago. You see pictures of him when he had his time in Vietnam. And so, you see that mix of images across the page. And then finally the last tab is historical documents. Again, Linda has gone through the box of memories and the scrapbooks, and she’s uploaded citations for awards.

She has uploaded informational letters from commanders. So, I always show this page, not, not just because it’s one of the most popular pages for content, but it really shows the power of VLM for the spouse, right? And that that’s what we want VLM to be. We want to take mineralization beyond the confines of a physical cemetery, to, to a worldwide community where people can share those memories and keep the Veteran legacy alive for anyone to see.

I think that’s the end of what I have to share with you today. This Memorial Day my call to action is for folks to go look for your Veterans. We have 300,000 more of them now on VLM. If you’ve been waiting because your Veteran is in Arlington National Cemetery, or one of the other military cemeteries, now, your time this weekend, after the barbecues and kayaking, take some time to go to vlm va.gov/remember, find your Veterans, share their memories.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Thank you so much. Excellent, James. Excellent.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: Yeah. Thank you both, Lisa and James for being here today and for your wonderful teams across the country doing this for our men and women and our families. With that we’ll open it up to questions. Patricia. Good to see you.

Patricia Kime (Military.com): Thank you. So, my question is for you, sir. What happens if somebody goes to the database and can’t locate their Veteran even though they know for a fact that their Veteran is buried, say, in Arlington or at a Veteran cemetery? Because I know for a fact that the app at Arlington National Cemetery is lacking certain Veterans.

James LaPaglia, Digital Services Officer: Actually, this, this happens periodically. I have a VLM Health Desk and a team of people who take these issues by email and phone call, not just within our own, VA National Cemetery or grant program cemeteries, where a record might be missing or what’s displayed on the page is inaccurate. A name might be misspelled, or a decoration is missing.

So, we, I think last year we took about 300 of those issues and worked them with cemeteries to get those corrected or records added. We assume the same thing’s going to happen with Arlington. We have negotiated a process with them that it’s a handoff from the help the VLM Help Desk team to their team where if a Veteran is missing from VLM the Arlington National Cemetery team, which manages the entire database for DOD and internments, can find out.

Why a record might be missing from the database, or if it’s in the database and doesn’t quite meet the VLM data rules, what we can do is make it meet the VLM data rules. So, a page will be created, and again, if there are family members or others, who, call or email in and say, Hey, the information on my, my wife’s page is not accurate; her middle initial was N instead of X. It’s the same handoff to Arlington National Cemetery. And then they’ll get back to us and we’ll close the loop with the customer. So, the time it takes to negotiate that and to find documentation to support what people claim might be erroneous or to fix databases, you know, it can happen that same day. It can take several days for us to figure it out, you know, where, where the information is and, and how to correct the record. But that’s something that we deal with and anticipate more. And is the contact information for like, fixing those things inside this database? If like you go into the main page, is there like a click? Yes, there is, there’s a link at the top of the page that says Help Desk. People can click on that. It’ll give the information. It’ll be a phone number; it’ll be the email address. The customer service team will be on duty all Memorial Day, week and all three days. And then normally they’re on duty from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: Thank you. Yes. Over to you Leo.

Leo Shane (Military Times): I actually have a Memorial Day question too before we start beating up the secretary, but last year was the first year since everything reopened after the pandemic closings. Are you anticipating even larger crowds this year, last year where there was still a fair amount of concern about Covid? So I don’t, I don’t know what preparations you’ve made. I don’t know if there’s any projections as to what to expect at cemeteries this year.

Lisa Pozzebon, Executive Director, Cemetery Operations: Yeah. So each of our cemeteries, work with the community as they’re preparing for Memorial Day. They’ve made some projections on what they think attendance might be. And I think you’re right. You know, I think as more and more people feel more comfortable coming out and, and gathering together, I mean, all our ceremonies are outside. There’s really no indoor activities at the cemeteries, but, you know, we certainly saw a lot of folks coming out, you know, in the last year. We’ll see after the event takes place. Sometimes it’s hard to tell and, weather conditions can play a role in that as well. But we do look forward to, you know, achieving, you know, what our pre pandemic numbers were for Memorial Day ceremonies.

Leo Shane (Military Times): Okay, great.

Lisa Pozzebon, Executive Director, Cemetery Operations: It really does vary from a couple to; we have some where they get, you know, thousands coming out for, for the day of activities as well as the, the flag placement draws huge crowds as well to who want to come out and volunteer and ensure that flags are placed at every grave site.

Leo Shane (Military Times): Okay, great. Mr. Secretary you sent out a message earlier today to the workforce about, the end of remote work coinciding with the end of the pandemic. How much, I don’t know if you know what percentage of the workforce is not back at this point, and how much resistance, how much resignation do you expect to see over the next few months as a lot of folks have gotten used to the remote work, you’re going to require them to come in? I believe it’s half of, I don’t know how long a pay period is, 14 days.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Pay periods are generated, two weeks. So, two weeks, 10 days.

Leo Shane (Military Times): So, they’ll be required to come in for half of that.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. You’ll recall. Thanks for the question, Leo and thanks for coming up, and continuing to do these engagements. I find them really useful.

I did send out communication to the workforce today. I laid out that consistent with the guidance from OMB about six weeks ago or so; come fall we’ll be expecting our employees here in the National Capital Region to be in office workspace at least as much as they’re in, uh, flexible work arrangements. So, we’ve laid out there that our goal is to get, basically five days per work period. So, I don’t have a hard figure for you right now Leo. Congress has also asked us for that data. So, when we have that, I’ll definitely share that with you as we will share it with Congress as well. I’ve been asked in public setting and I’ve also received some letters. In terms of what to expect from the workforce. Let me just say right up front, how proud I am of the amazing accomplishments of our workforce has done during these three years of the pandemic.

Obviously, our thoughts are very much with the five VA contractors who died from COVID, with the 277 VA employees who died from COVID and we know of about 24,671 Veterans who died of COVID who were associated with VA health care. Presumably there’s a bigger number than that, but those are the numbers that we know. One of the things that really strikes me is even at those moments when those Veterans were passing, our caregivers, our clinicians were family, were friends and were, a source of great comfort for those Veterans at that very difficult moment. And that’s just a manifestation of the amazing sacrifice and the amazing work that our workforce has done over these last three years. We did make public yesterday and again today, some data about that performance. So first and foremost, I am so thrilled and appreciative of sacrament of the good work that our VA employees have carried out in this period.

You know VBA right now is more productive in terms of claims processed and time to process than even before the pandemic. So, that is again, evidence of the good work that they’ve done. So, in light of that good work, I think we will have some of our workforce who are disappointed. There are also, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of VA employees, you know, the tireless staff at Mann Grandstaff, as one example who have been, you know, and many people in this building who have been working, day in, day out for three years. But there, there will be some disappointment.

I went and had lunch in the canteen, just an hour and a half ago, or maybe two hours ago, and I heard some frustration there. But I’ll be going to the canteen at least, once a week when I’m in town, I mean when I’m not traveling, to make sure that I can sit down with our employees, hear from them. We’ll be consulting with our employees, in terms of how we implement this, in terms of what the expectations of them and their supervisors will be.

I’ll tell you this, and this’ll be the end of this long answer. Being down there with our employees at lunch reminds me of why we want to do this. Working, you know, being in person as effective as our team has been, being in person allows, even more innovative problem solving, even greater creativity, even more enhanced esprit de corps. All the things that will allow us to continue to deliver for Veterans at an even higher level.

So again, I did hear some pushback at lunch. And my guess is I’m going to hear pushback on my email and that’s really good. I want to be a part of an agency that has a free flow of information from our employees. But again, it’s in that engagement that I also see the goodness of the why of this, which is as well as we have performed, we can perform at an even higher level when we’re in workspaces like we are here; collaborating, working together, learning from one another.

Leo Shane (Military Times): Yeah. I’m, I’m glad you brought the VBA employees because that’s been a focus for a while. If you see that some of that productivity comes, slips back or is not, is there an opportunity in the future to reevaluate this and say, hey, maybe telework is useful for other jobs, maybe will be more flexible in certain jobs going forward?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. So, remember what today’s message communicated is we’re really looking at the National Capital Region, NCR. Meaning, and I’ve had these conversations in the field with, you know, with our tireless VBA leaders. Those are great leaders right here in the NCR. We got great leaders in the field. But I’ve sat at ROs and in town halls that I’ve had over the course of the last two years, I just sat in an offsite with the VBA leadership. When we’re performing at this high level in the field and we can demonstrate productivity like this and we are seeing returns like we are seeing on the PACT Act for example, we’re going to defend their right to be able to continue to work in those more flexible settings.

A big part of this effort that we’ve been going through now for months has also been looking not just at the ratio of days in days in the office days in flexible settings; we’re looking at what are the attributes of a highly effective workforce. What is the data that affirms that highly effective workforce? So, we’ll be building that between now and the fall. And we’ll talk to you guys throughout it as we’ll and be talking to workforce as well.

Leo Shane (Military Times):  I’ll let, I’ll let Orion jump in one second here. But, but that’s not to say.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: So, all the questions are answered.

Leo Shane (Military Times):  And it’s not to say that, that the, the National Capital Region model that you’re using now is necessarily the model that everybody’s going to be using.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Correct. Correct. I don’t, I don’t want anybody to mistake; we’re moving quickly to communicate today in as clear a fashion as we can for purposes of clarity. It’s not to set up the next move. It’s not to do anything other than to say, this is what we know we are doing now. And we moved today, notwithstanding the fact that we’re going to do this in the fall so that people have time to plan with their families, right? They have time to talk with their supervisor, talk with their teammates.

Obviously, we’re going to, you all know how strongly I feel about our collective bargaining responsibilities. So, we’ll obviously work this with our union partners too, and we will fulfill our obligations to our union partners. So, all that takes time. The planning takes time. But make no mistake, we’re not setting, this is not one move to set up the next move. This is we’re going to do. Thank you.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: So, before we get to Orion, we have a question online from David Elfin. So, we’ll turn to David.

David Elfin (CyberFeds): Hey, Secretary, thank you for doing this. Following up on Leo’s questions. The five days out of that you’re planning, how much freedom does each office have to set those five days? Is each individual employee going to be able to set which five days they’re in? How’s that going to work?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah, so we’re going to work that out, we’re going to use this time. David, thank you for the question. You’re welcome and I’m going to keep doing this. (gesture to the camera he will continue to hold press briefings) We’re going to work the details out. You know, we want each of our managers to be empowered to communicate with their teammates. We’re communicating very clearly to our political appointees, what our expectations are of them.

The next set of steps will be around our SESs and then obviously our bargaining unit and employees. We’ll work that through the established practices and procedures with our union partners. Again, I’ll let you all know, but let me just underscore one more time. I take very seriously our collective bargaining responsibilities because I believe our collective bargaining is a very useful management tool that leads to better outcomes to Veterans. So, we’ll work that all out. But again, remember what our goal is here, is as much time in office settings, as in the flexible settings. So that’s why we’re shooting for the five days. My goal is not to negotiate that down here in this press conference or, or anywhere else. That’s our goal. How we do that is going to be something that we work out with our managers and with our workforce. And again, the reason why, is we see the amazing things, the best workforce in the federal workforce. That is to say, the VA workforce. We see the amazing things that they can do and the amazing things that they have done during the course of the pandemic.

When working together we’re maximizing the best of in-person with the best of the flexibilities that we frankly have led the federal government on, and frankly we’re leading, the American health care system on. I think that’s going to lead to not only best outcomes for Veterans, but also lead to employee satisfaction. You know, employee wellness and now using the e-signal as we do with our employees. We’ll have the data to make sure that we’re understanding that as we implement it.

David Elfin (CyberFeds): Secretary McDonough, you said you had some pushback at lunch.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yes.

David Elfin (CyberFeds): Have you already heard back from your union partners since the email came out?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: I have not. We gave a union, we gave our union partners a heads-up and as we always do, it’s really, again, really important to me that they have time to digest this before, you know, it hits the street. That’s been one of my commitments to our union partners, that you know, pre-action. They’ll have time to consider these things that will continue that kind of conversation going forward. I’ve not heard any formal communication. I did see one of our union leaders down there. I’d hoped, to see them but when I finished talking with the people at the table he was gone. So, I hope I can track him down, but I’m sure, I’m sure I will. But in all cases, again, those kinds of interactions, as important as they are, lunch and the kinds of consultation we’ve been doing now, going back months, including extensively in the field that I’ve done, are not meant to replace our responsibilities with our bargaining unit employees and with our union partners. So, we’ll do that, uh, that formal process as well.

David Elfin (CyberFeds): Last one for me. You guys are a huge agency. You got so many people in v VHA and VBA, as you mentioned, who are in the field. Terrence, maybe this is something you’re going to answer if the secretary doesn’t know. Do you have a rough idea how many people within the department are in the NCR and what percentage of people who work for VA are in NCR? Cause you couldn’t answer what the percentage of people who are in the telework agreements. I wondered what’s our total workforce we’re talking about to begin with?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Let us, let us see if we can get you the specific data there. But you are right, that overwhelmingly our workforce is in the field. And look, I mean, let’s be clear that in some ways the NCR, the headquarters versus field distinction is on, in some level artificial. Because we have our DCVAMC right here. We have our board, you know, our Board of Veterans Appeals is right here in the National Capital Region. The fact is they’re doing now tele appeals and based on a lot of different things including Veteran demand. It could be that the board over time manifests its workforce more like the field than it does like the rest of the NCR. And so, but we’ll get you those numbers. But overwhelmingly, our people are in the field, you know, 451,000 people now. That it’s not only a huge workforce, but it is a hugely effective workforce, and we’re going to use the right mix of tools to ensure that we get best Veteran outcomes, timely access to world class care, timely access to earned benefits.

David Elfin (CyberFeds): Thank you.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: Thanks David. We’ll turn over to Orion Ryan.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): Thank you. Hope the mic’s in the right place here. And I thank y’all for doing this. As, as always. I actually want to ask about VLM, quickly. Sure. I want to make sure I understand. So, this is about 300,000 new Veteran records added?

James LaPaglia, Digital Services Officer: Yes.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): I see 4.8 million or more total. How much of that, are you finished? How much more work is there to do?

James LaPaglia, Digital Services Officer: Oh, we are not finished. This is still a fraction of those Veterans who have other resting places. Our goal is to eventually have a page for every Veteran, no matter where their resting place is. We have another ginormous VA database that we’re going to be tapping into hopefully this fall, which is the marker ordering system for private cemeteries. You know, you go to a private cemetery and if it’s a Veteran, not a standard white VA provided marker or flat, flat marker. And We’ve done a little bit of discovery there and looks like 5 million records additional. So, this fall we might double in size as far as the, the scope of how many records are in there, but that’s still not the end.

We’re already in touch with the American Battle Monuments Commission and they want to come in next spring in time for Memorial Day. Then we have a lot of other situations, you know, where a Veteran’s remains might be on a mantlepiece in a living room somewhere. Or their remains have been scattered somewhere, or they were, interred at sea.

So, we have more development work to do. We’re excited about it. Our goal is to provide a page for every Veteran, no matter where they’re laid to rest. And, and that’s going to take some time. We’re excited to try to get to that finish line.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): Lots more work to do thank you. That’s great. Thank you.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: So, may I say James, his enthusiasm for this is so infectious. He briefed us as a leadership team last Friday morning. I gotta tell you, after that briefing, I was like, I know exactly what we need to do in our press conference. So, awesome. So awesome.

James LaPaglia, Digital Services Officer: This is, as I said to your team on Friday, this is the most emotionally valuable work that I’ve ever done in more than 33 years. For these Veterans and survivors just in our entire team OIT partners here at VA, the NCA, our partners that we have in the field here at VACO, our grant cemeteries and, and of course our contractors who are doing the development work; It’s just, we, we are so emotionally involved in this. It, it’s just wonderful.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Well, thank you.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): And, and Mr. Secretary, I’d like to ask you as usual, I’m going to turn to the EHR briefly here. As I reported on Sunday.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): The director of Spokane’s VA medical center told supervisors in an email that they will need to eliminate the equivalent of 146 full-time positions over the course of probably years. But because of the projected budget deficit of about 35 million just at that VAMC because, or largely caused by the new EHR.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Mm-hmm.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): Now, Dr. Elnahal told me on Friday, as he told me back in October, that at no point would EHR related budget problems result in staff cuts at the affected sites, but evidently the VISN is giving a different message. So I just want to give you a chance to clear that up.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah, thanks so much. I mean, I associate myself with, I saw Shareef’s answer to you associated to myself with that answer. I obviously am very, very close in touch with the VISN. So if there’s any confusion about that, I’ll make sure that I follow up on it. But as I understand it what Shareef said is exactly what the VISM saying too. And if there’s something that’s different about that, let’s, let’s make sure that we see those two things and we’ll follow up with you.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): So you know, we’ve heard from Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate saying, yes, you know, whatever resources VA needs for these five sites, yes, you guys will have it.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Mm-hmm.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): Was this just a miscommunication, or?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Again, I associate myself with Shareef’s answer. Dr. Elnahal’s answer to you. Congress has been very exceedingly generous to us over time and that’s Republicans and Democrats. So that’s what I’ll say about that. In terms of what happened here with the communication, I just associate myself with what Shareef said.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): Okay. I want to read just a small part of a letter that Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers sent you today.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Sure.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): Don’t expect you had a chance to read that yet.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: I haven’t yet. No. Just a piece of it.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): She said, quote, “Mr. Secretary, can you make a commitment to me and every Veteran in eastern Washington that your department will use every available dollar appropriated for the EHR to prevent a reduction in staff and services at Mann-Grandstaff in Spokane and at Wayne Wright in Walt Walla?”

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. Look, I look forward to being in direct touch with, McMorris Rodgers, and I’ll have that conversation with her. Here’s what I will say. We have just had the two best hiring quarters in VA in 25 years in VHA. That’s because hiring is a priority for us, and hiring is a priority for us because we are today providing more care to more Veterans than at any time in the history of VA. And because of the PACT Act about, which we feel quite strongly, we hope to be providing even more care to even more Veterans. And so, we will spare no expense at getting precisely the people that we need to provide that care.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): All right. I want to ask you just a brief follow up, and I’m sure I know you can only go into so much detail there. Dr. Elnahal in the course in his monthly, um, media roundtables, which I really appreciate him doing that too. has really emphasized the progress VA has made, VHA has made in that hiring. What I hear from staff in Spokane specifically is that they’re trending in the other direction. I understand that hiring is difficult across VA and across the American health care sector. So, this is not exclusive to Spokane. But they have lost some key positions, including chiefs of service there recently. So, understanding that there’s, there’s some broader, uh, issues at play here. I’m a little confused why we can’t say, and of course, lots of challenges related to the EHR, but when it comes to just staffing, , what more  can the VA do? You’ve talked about additional resources for the affected Cerner sites. Can you give us any more information about what those resources would look like?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. Well let’s see. I want to make sure I wasn’t unclear. You read a sentence from Ms. McMorris Rodgers’ letter where she’s seeking a commitment, and I think your question is why can’t I make that commitment? The point is, I’m not going to make that commitment to you. I’m going to make that the commitment, if I’m going to make it, to her, I’m going to respond to her letter to her rather than through the press. Okay one; two it is true, and I’ve said this to you guys in the briefing room, that progress is lumpy, I’ve said. Meaning that there are still places in the country where there are vacancies around specific expertise, around specific occupations. You know, there’s also still problems with us onboarding. So, we’re going to stay on top of all of that. Hiring remains a priority for us, and we’ll stay on top of that. In terms of, you know, making sure that the problems we identified in the assess and address process, and the investments that we need in the five sites, we’re going to, we’re continuing to work that.

And as we have news on that, we’ll definitely report that out, you know, and we’ll, we’ll definitely stay in touch with our providers in the field on that too. In fact, they’re the principal source of input for us on that. So, we’ll stay on top of all of it.

Orion Donovan-Smith (The Spokesman Review): All right, thank you. Good.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: I want to just go back on just on one thing. Just a follow up to Leo on one question. You, uh, you asked about who does the new future of work uh, message apply to? One of the things that we’re, we really are focused on here in the National Capital Region, is making sure that we are a headquarters element that really supports the field. And the reason in response to David’s question that so many of our personnel are in the field is that that’s the point of delivery overwhelmingly to the Veteran.

And so, one of the things that, you know, we want to make sure that we’re doing, you know, by, you know, getting the best out of flexible work arrangements. Coupled with the best of, you know, in-person requirements is that we are the best possible partners for our field element. That’s also why we’re starting with the National Capital Region here today, right? I want to not lose that. And when I say our workforce overwhelmingly is in the field, you know, it’s the goodness in VA is the workforce, right? I’ve said this all the time, I’ve said this all the time. The technology does not provide great health care. Thehe machines don’t provide the great health care.

Our clinicians, our clinicians, Mann Grandstaff, our clinicians across the country are the ones who do it. They’re the secret sauce here at VA.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Before we get back to you, Patricia, we’ll go to Ellen. Good afternoon, Ellen.

Ellen Milhiser (Synopsis): Good afternoon. Thank y’all so much for doing this, and I’m really sorry I can’t be there in person, sir. I’m sure you’re aware that the House VA committee’s technology modernization subcommittee held a hearing this morning on VA’s IT contracting. The basic message was the huge contracts are going to fail and you should be making smaller, more modular contracts. Representative Rosendale, the chair, seems to be heading in a direction of y’all modernizing Vista and picking out small modules for the EHRs such as scheduling and pharmacy and building them and putting them together almost like Legos with the new contract modifications with Oracle Cerner. Is this a possibility in y’all’s minds to change direction?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Ellen, thanks so much.  I think what I’d say her not having had the benefit of seeing the exchange, is I want to just associate myself with, Kurt del Benne’s, good work at OIT. I haven’t had the benefit of seeing what our OIT team said in response to the questions either.  So, let me just say that I have great confidence in that team. Until we have a chance; until I have a chance to personally dig into how it went today, I think I, I probably don’t have much more to add.

Ellen Milhiser (Synopsis): That was actually my second question. Several of the committee subcommittee members said that the VA refused to send anybody, and I was wondering what that might be about.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. You know, I, I can talk again, I can talk to Patty about that, about whether we are invited, how we’re invited. But again, I don’t, I don’t want to get into the mechanics. I don’t, I just don’t have any data on that for you.

Ellen Milhiser (Synopsis): Okay. Thank you, sir.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: Thank you, Ellen. Uh, we’ll go back to Patricia.

Patricia Kime (Military.com): Yes, thank you. Sir, there’s been discussion recently about listing out more illnesses that are related to the PACT Act, the presumptives, you know, the 300 that eventually are going to like, be published in the federal registry that are associated with PACT Act. Like the PAC TAct just says like right brain cancer or whatever. Can you sort of give us some timeline of, to when those will see those? And then a related question would be, I think in a hearing yesterday they mentioned that a VA person mentioned that you’ll be looking at, domestic exposures and like mentioned Fort McLellan specifically.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: So, I’m just trying to like, figure out a timeline for any of this review. I’ll have news for you on timelines and so when we do, we’ll let you know. Okay.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: Jory afternoon, Jory.

Jory Heckman (Federal News Network): Good afternoon. Thanks for doing this. Sorry, I can’t be there in person. I wanted to go back to the memo, the email to staff about the return to in-person work, and the irony’s not lost on me asking this question remotely. But in terms of your email, it points out that VA hiring has been robust over the past couple of years, and that this workplace flexibility has kind of been, one of the incentives, I guess, for people to join the VA given this new change in things that we’re going to see in the fall. Do you anticipate that incentive, uh, going away for some p

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah, thanks. You may have understood that sentence differently than I intended it to be understood. Jory? One of the things, for example, I think is really exciting, as I say about the why, is because we have grown so much. The opportunity for more direct interaction, interpersonal interaction among existing and new employees rather than just over Teams or over Zoom is a great management opportunity for our managers. A great growth opportunity for our new teammates and a great culture building opportunity for us. So that’s one of the reasons for the growth of the VA workforce in the last, couple of years, almost 20% since the end of FY 21 at VBA alone. That kind of growth is a good opportunity for us to make sure that we’re learning and interacting, directly, interpersonally to make those growth opportunities.

That’s what I meant by that sentence as it relates to why we’ve had the kind of success that we’ve had in hiring. We’re constantly looking at that. Flexibility is surely a factor, but by no means the only factor, uh, mission. The ability to work on behalf of Veterans remains overwhelmingly the most important asset that we have as we recruit and as we retain the best workforce in the federal government; new authorities around retention bonuses, relocation bonuses, pay enhancements. Enhancements on the employee debt repayment program for our employees with student loans. Those are all very attractive in our hiring. Those are all direct results of the engagements that we’ve had with Congress, for example, in the PACT Act and all the enhancements in Title IX, which we asked for, as well as the Raise Act which has been really important for our nurses, where we, again, we’ve had a really positive couple of quarters in this fiscal year.

Lastly, you ask how many or what kinds of jobs we’ll retain the flexibilities, you know, we’ll be making those determinations. Our managers will be our hiring managers, our HR experts who will be making those determinations as we’re posting those jobs, and have every confidence that when we post them, where we post them; we’ll continue to get historically high numbers of applications as we have been even in this very tight labor market. And as I said, I think that’s a result of a lot of different things.

Jory Heckman (Federal News Network): Okay. And one other point in your memo to staff is just that in 2010 or 2020, sorry the VA really jumped through some hoops to make sure mandatory telework was something that VA employees could do. Now we’re at a very different time where the opposite’s happening.

You know, the workforce has grown. You know, federal office space has stayed more or less static in terms of logistics of making sure that the office space is able to accommodate a larger growing VA workforce. Are there any anticipated challenges there? What steps are being done to make sure that the, the office spaced VA has is able to accommodate that larger workforce?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah, great question. You know, so we had been under a strategy of downsizing. We were implementing a plan to downsize our office space. We’ve frozen that. As we now look at what our needs are going forward, we’ve frozen that now going back several months, so that’s one step that we’ve taken. The other step, obviously is again, why we want to communicate now in anticipation of something that’s happening in several months in the future here, so that we have the time between now and then to make sure that we have the requisite office space to make sure that we have the office space outfitted to accommodate hybrid meetings. I’ve got this funky new thing on my TV here you know, accommodating, as I say, hybrid meetings.

We’re also, I’m also walking the halls more and dropping in on meetings. It’s actually really cool to see the kind of collaboration that’s happening inside the building here. In fact, we tweeted about this, I think it was last week or the week before or something.

Jory Heckman (Federal News Network): Yeah, no doubt. Then one final thing. In terms of the remote work review that you guys are doing, the people who are fully remote, in terms of whether those positions are appropriate, I think is the word or not. Ccan you just expand on that a little bit more about what the appropriateness of that, kind of looks like? I know it’s probably going to be, your mileage may vary per position, but kinda what’s the criteria there?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. Jory I just want to say that you’re implementing the Orion strategy on just one, just this final question.

I think the most important way I can respond to this question, Jory to help everybody understand it, because I think I’m going to leave it to the managers and the supervisors and our experts at HRA kind of how we determine appropriateness ultimately is, I want to make sure everybody understands the difference between telework and remote work.

The question there is, it has to do with what your duty station is. So, if your duty station is Washington, D.C. and we’re under telework responsibilities, well then you report to Washington, D.C. if your duty station is remote, right? That means you can work from a remote facility that isn’t Washington, D.C. even if traditionally the billet had been in Washington, D.C. and I think this has been quite dynamic over the life of the pandemic. One of the things that I think we have to do is just take a step back and understand what billets are telework, what billets are remoted and how does that match with what the needs of our Veterans are? I say all the time that we’re a Veteran centric organization and we ought to be making our decisions off that rather than how the decisions were made in the height of the pandemic. And so that’s what that section is referring to. Jory. I hope that responds to the question.

Jory Heckman (Federal News Network): It does. Thanks for taking me bonus question there. Thanks so much.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: We’ll see you next month Jory. We’ll go to Lucy. Good afternoon, Lucy.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): Hi. Thank you everyone. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I am starting with, we’ll have a few topics to get to, but just starting with the update on the equity team. Any news on that front, and then I have three more quick ones, please.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Nothing else, uh, on that. Lucy? Uh, uh, we’re continuing to work it. We’re, uh, you know, we’re spending a lot of time on this. In terms of news for you guys, uh, none. None at the moment, but we, we’ll come to you when we got it.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): If you can also talk about what’s going on behind the scenes with finding these Veterans that may have not received, benefits that are claiming it was because of a racial issue. Obviously, there is a court case going through the courts. Last time I spoke with Terrence, I know you all, punted the communication as far as filing motions to the DOJ. Anything that you can tell going on behind the scenes with those cases?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: I can tell you that I won’t comment on any of the legal proceedings. We are constantly, working with Veterans on individual cases, but you know, as a general matter, we don’t comment about the individual cases either. And so as I say, when we have news on the equity team, when we have news on the progress we’re making, we’ll definitely share it as we do on all these things.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): If I may also ask you just a few questions on Mission Daybreak. Obviously, there’s a lot of chatter, continuous chatter about the suicide numbers. It just, still being what one, two-star told me off the record, almost the pandemic of current day military. How are you all establishing a program of accountability to know that the money you’re giving to Mission Daybreak recipients to be able to, um, interrupt the suicide numbers that we’re seeing? How are you all going to know that these programs are working after awarding the millions of dollars that you awarded recently?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Thanks very much for that question. I think I’d say two things. One is I recognize and admire your fierce dedication to this issue. So, I think one thing that we should do is make sure that we get you to sit down with our team, OMHSP, the Mental Health and Suicide Prevention team one, two.

In terms of how we assess or how we hold accountable the organizations who won the grant, the grant funding through Mission Daybreak, what I would say is that the whole idea be behind Mission Daybreak is to find innovations that are proving themselves, so as to help us make the kind of quantum leap that we need to make to get to zero suicides. We’ve had two good years of data in a row, but the numbers are still way too high and going out and trying some of these innovations, including in places like, our Native Veteran organizations, one of whom won one of the grants, allows us hopefully to break through in places that we’ve not yet been able to break through and in as much as the desi assessments.

How much of that data we can share with you, you know, we’ll share with you as much as we can. I just want to be careful that, you know, we’re not going to share anything that we can’t that relates to any, privacy matters or anything like that. But we’ll share all that data with you cuz again, the idea here is seed money to invest in things that are breaking through and the hopes that we can break through in places and at a scale that we’ve not yet been able to.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): Moving on to, um, PACT Act. There are so many claim sharks that are coming forward at this point. How are you all helping the Veteran who may be as newly qualified for PACT Act, you know, newly covered under the PACT Act, and they’re trying to figure out how to wade through the system. How are you all helping them reach VA accredited law firms? I know that Congress has had two sessions on this. It’s illegal to collect fees on a Veteran for these things. What’s being done to be able to prevent fraud on the Veteran’s backs that are finally covered by PACT Act?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. Thanks so much. We’re very concerned about making sure that every Veteran files a claim and what we say every time is, you don’t need a lawyer to file your claim. You don’t need to pay anybody to file your claim. You can see accredited agents with the VSOs, you can see us directly in all cases. If you contact us at 1-800-My VA 4 1 1, or at va.gov/pact, we’ll get you started on a claim directly. The third thing I’d say is that we are very aggressively, working on, addressing fraud, including by our Office of General Counsel, not only certifying or accrediting those good actors, but sending letters, demanding, cease ceasing and desisting bad actors.

And we’ll stay on top of that. But the most important thing we can do is communicate directly to Veterans that we’re urging them to file their claims directly with us. Work with your VSOs, work with your member of Congress, work with your state Veterans Affairs Director’s office. Work with your county VSO and we’ll get your claim processed.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): I did try looking not too long ago for a list of accredited law firm’s organizations on the VA’s website. I got to a sheet that seemed, informal, if you will. It seemed outdated. Is there a database within the VA where you can check whether the people that you’re dealing with VA accredited and then also explain to the public what it means to have a VA accredited attorney versus someone who isn’t?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. Well, one of the reasons we love talking to you guys is that you help us do that. You help us communicate to Veterans, which is really good, and this is why, again, we want to make sure that we’re in such regular engagement with you, why the undersecretaries are cranking up their engagement with you as well.

One, two, in terms of a specific database, I’ll make sure that we get back to you, working with Terrence on that and working with our Office of General Counsel. Then we would just keep, getting out in the field? I’m going to be on the road in the course of the, next couple weeks on, PACT Act.

I take this moment to highlight again, filing your claim before August 9, 2023. In all likelihood, gets you an effective date of August 10th, 2022. So, there is great incentive for our Veterans to file their claim directly with us working with a VSO before August 9, 2023 so as to get that effective date of August 10, 2022.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): Okay. Couple more sir. Is there a way that you all are, prosecuting these companies? I know that there’s one piece of legislation that’s going through called Plus that would actually legalize Claim Sharks automatically grant them the accreditation in a few months. Are you tracking any of this that you can talk about in this conference?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. Thanks so much. So, I’d say two things about that. One is we can get you a history of the enforcement actions that we’ve taken. Two, I’m not sure I’m aware of what the legislation is that you’re reading there, but I do talk to members about this a lot. We do have a very aggressive fraud campaign that we’re working at VBA. So, Terrence and I were just whispering that we had to make sure that we get you. Maybe we have that crew come to us next month here or we just set up a separate briefing for you guys.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): Okay. I would appreciate that.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: I assure you that the team over at VBA whom I’ve had communication with over the past couple weeks, they’re highly dedicated to this challenge.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): Okay. Good to hear Terrence. Yes, I would very much appreciate that. And literally two more questions. One, you’ve been talking to many  Gold Star families leading up to Memorial Day, and you know, one of the things that we’re seeing is that, The Veteran because of all the, the, the cases that are connected to younger and younger ages of death because of the exposures, uh, the families that they’re leaving behind are younger and, um, there’s a, there’s an age regulation where if the Veteran dies at age 55, then if the spouse wants to remarry 55 and older, they can keep their benefits.

But younger spouses, they lose their benefits if they remarry before 55. Given that we’re losing Veterans younger, uh, so many cases, glioblastoma, um, uh, just newly covered under PACT Act that we’re seeing these Veterans pass away sooner, anything being done to be able to protect the families that they leave behind, just so that they don’t lose their benefits when they move on with life.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. Thank you very much for that. We’re, we’re obviously making a, an a very aggressive push on survivors. I think you’ll see, uh, the fact, uh, of a greater, uh, visibility around and, uh, Awareness to survivors and all of our packed act literature and all of our packed act outreach. I’m looking very much forward myself to spending time at Good Will have a claims table at the TAPS gathering, this weekend as it relates to the specific regulation. Let me find out what we’re doing on that, Lucy.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): Okay. And last question for you, sir. Terrence actually emailed out the data connecting Parkinson’s to the exposure, certain toxins and the likelihood of 70% greater chance to develop Parkinson’s if you are exposed to certain toxins.

What is being done with that information to reach out to people that may have developed that and haven’t connected it themselves? Obviously, there’s a group that is lobbying for themselves, and then there are people that maybe this didn’t connect, the two. What does the internal outreach effort look like?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: After seeing that published data, thanks very much. Parkinson’s is presumptively connected, uh, to, uh, our, um, camp Laure Veterans. And this is why it’s so important and why we’re urging Veterans, uh, to please file a claim, Camp Lejeune Veterans, uh, all Veterans eligible, uh, under PACT Act as well to file your claims.

And so, in terms of what the outreach looks like, you know, we we’re constantly doing outreach. I just want to say one more time, the reason Terrence sent it to you is because each of you has a uniquely effective ability to communicate with Veterans. Each of you is highly trusted by Veterans. And so, we’re urging you to help us to pass that information to our Veterans as much as you possibly can.

Lucy Bustamante (NBC Philadelphia): All right, that is it for now, sir. Thank you for answering.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Okay, thanks.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: Thank you, Lucy. I know we’re getting into later time, but Quill has joined, and Quill has a question for you, sir.

Quil Lawrence (NPR): Okay. Hi there, nice to see y’all, been here, although the whole time, I don’t know if you couldn’t see me, Terrence, but we can see you. See you Well, good to see you, man. I have just two questions and two questions only. I feel like an amateur, but that’s all I got. First of all, my listeners have been concerned a about the debt default and can you hear me sir?

It seems like you can’t hear me. Yep. Okay. They’ve been concerned about debt default. Some of them have been confusing it with government shutdown, to be honest and the effects that would have on their benefits. We’ve been hearing from across the political aisle who’ve used some very salty language about what they think the administration’s been pushing out about the debt and its threat to Veterans benefits.

Can you just tell us what the situation, what your assessment of the situation for Veterans would be if there’s a U.S. default?

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah. Thanks. Thanks very much. Um, let me come back to the saltiness in a minute. But let me just say, as it relates to debt default, there’s just no precedent for default.

So, it’s difficult to know the precise impacts on specific federal programs, but what is clear is that without the ability for the federal government to borrow funds, there is a very real potential that any government program or payment would be halted or severely delayed. There’s no blueprint of what happens to VA if the debt limit is reached each month.

Treasury makes payments on behalf of VA of approximately 25 billion each month. I repeat, treasury makes payments on behalf of VA of approximately 25 billion. All of these payments could be curtailed or stopped among those payments. 12 billion per month in benefits payments to more than 7.1 million Veterans and their families.

2.6 billion per month to community providers for roughly 900,000 Veterans health care per month. 1.8 billion per month to medical and other contractors on over 114,000 contracts. 835 million per month in pharmacy costs were roughly 57,000 monthly payments, 3 billion per month for other costs, including to small and Veteran owned businesses.

4.8 billion per month to pay the more than 451,000 VA employees. So, the president’s make clear a default would be catastrophic for the American people and for our nation’s Veterans. In addition to the potential impacts listed above that I just listed above a default, would he erase millions of jobs, potentially trigger a recession, devastate retirement accounts, and increased borrowing costs, which is why the president has said default is not an option.

As it relates to the back and forth, including yesterday. I think that relates to the concerns that we’ve expressed going back now several months in direct response to questions about what happens if there’s a budget agreement that add 22% across the board cuts.

We were asked and have continued to be asked about what the impact of those cuts would look like, and that’s what we’ve communicated and that’s what even as recently as yesterday, our witnesses testified to. So, uh, again, that is a different thing than the default as you teed up in your question Quil.

So, I want to make sure that I don’t add to any confusion. I hope I’ve answered the question.

Quil Lawrence (NPR): Yeah, thanks very much. And I just have one other question on a different topic. I think you were present you were present during the Obama administration when healthcare.gov needed a sort of a nerd squad rescue and a sort of a massive upgrade in the government’s understanding of tech.

And I’m wondering if you’re seeing an opportunity right now with Oracle Cerner in some of the suggestions from the hearing this morning, but also is there a push to hire more technologically savvy people at higher levels? I think the Oracle Cerner situation, let’s say, showed both that Oracle Cerner didn’t really understand the VA at all, and that VA perhaps was not really understanding what it was going to take to upgrade this. So, is, is there a push to hire more technologically, IT literate people at the, at the higher and medium levels of VA to handle this.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Yeah, the short answer to your question is yes. The second, I’m going to say four things about it. So, the first answer is yes. Second, VA providers are uniquely technologically able. VA was the first provider of an electronic health record many, many years ago, and our ability to manage that electronic health record built by VA clinicians is one of the reasons why, among many reasons why VA is a cutting-edge research institution in the United States. Three. Nevertheless, we do want to add to our capability of technologically able policy makers. And we do want to apply lessons learned not only in our unique experience of VA, but experience from across the government and IT contracting. I know Ellen asked this question earlier, and again, I haven’t had a chance to look at the hearing yet, but IT contracting is a big finding of my own experience and of our experience at VA, which is why when given the opportunity to renegotiate the contract with Oracle Cerner we increased accountability standards, for example again, still in 0.3 here. This is why I am so appreciative of the work of Dr. Evans, our interim director of the EHRM office himself. A continuing practitioner today, as well as a very able technologist, and I think as he’s demonstrated, as a very able leader and manager. Fourth and last point, we’ve been talking to you guys about our aggressive effort to recruit technologists Since I arrived, we were very pleased with the hiring of and confirmation of Assistant Secretary Kurt Del Benne.

We have added technologists at OIT. We in the final preparations of a special salary rate negotiated with OPM to increase our ability to hire technologists. And as we’ve been talking to you guys about since last year, with all the dynamism in the IT labor market, we’ve increased our recruitment efforts in those affected areas geographically and in that affected sector, the IT sector.

We should continue to see benefits of that as we increase our VA workforce. I hope that answers the question, Quil.

Quil Lawrence (NPR): Yeah, thanks. Hope y’all have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: Thanks, you too. Appreciate it. Quil. Sir, I think this concludes our press conference for this month.

Appreciate the nice digs. Yeah. Allowing us to come to you. And I appreciate those individuals who are able to be in person and to those who are, who are not. Thank you again, sir. Appreciate you.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough: Thank you. Right back. And thank you guys for coming up here. We actually thought holding it up here would shorten it. I think it turned out a lengthy made, it made it more comfortable. But, uh, let me just close by saying a note about the profound, uh, nature of Memorial Day weekend and my appreciation, Lisa and James as, proxies for the, NCA workforce and all the great work that they do, um, every day on behalf of our Veterans, and their families., Obviously this weekend, Memorial Day is a particular celebration of our heroes killed in action.

We differentiate that obviously from Veterans Day in next November. NCA is constantly providing world class service to, uh, our Veterans, uh, to our fallen heroes and their family members. And I’m really grateful to you guys. So, thanks a lot, everybody. Have a good weekend.

Terrence Hayes, VA Press Secretary: Thank you, sir.