________________________________________

Todays audio hearing on these
Bills was somewhat uneventful.

Rather intriguing was the feature
that the congressionals themselves
sat as "panelists". All of the
statements went forward without
fanfare up until they got to
Panel 4. All of the Bills were
hailed as a step forward in the
machinery of VA's murder factory
and each Bill had no oppositions
raised to pose a legitimate
threat to any. A lot of discussion
was made on the pressing crisis
of VA care to returning war troops
who live in Rural areas. Amen,
I say --- this has been out there
for my entire lifetime so I am
glad to hear it come up on the
national debate scene right now.

The Womens Bill too also fared
well in support and statements
and everybody was on their best
foot forward for all of this.

When they got down to Panel 4,
which were the only 2 representatives
from the VA, it was here that things
took a turn of tone and became
the high point of the hearing.

Gerald M. Cross, M.D., FAAFP, Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Health, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Accompanied By Walter A. Hall, Assistant General Counsel, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, did the ever so routine
position tapdance that a few of us
had seen so very many times before at
the VDBC Commission hearings.

For those who just don't get to go
to very many of these Washington events,
the VA has a standing "response" routine
to all attacks on the current system
which amounts to simply just this:

1. We are already doing that, but
we call it something else.

2. We are already looking into that
but haven't taken any action.

These are the "canned" responses largely
fashioned and steered by VA's Office
of General Counsel, which you can clearly
see was sitting in the airspace of
Dr. Cross.

Dr. Cross sharpest criticism and
opposition came on HR 2790 which
is the Bill to name a new Director
at the VA for Physicians Assistant.
The objection came that first,
Congress should not be meddling
or interfering with the internals
of how the VA practices or structures
it's practice of medicine. He did
not even like the precident it
was setting.

Actually there is some credence to
this, but I would be the last one
to take sides with the VA on hardly
anything at all. There is not a single
licensed medical doctor sitting on
the House Veterans Affairs Committee,
so then the question comes out: "Where
do they get off trying to tweek
the way Doctors go about setting up
their practices there?"

Then he also slammed the fact that
no new Bills were needed because
tweeking and revising existing programs
are the only thing needed at the moment,
saying that the Physicians Assistants
themselves were doing an outstanding
job in reviewing and revising their
own internals.

The problem here again is the VA
General Counsel doing all of the talking
for this guy, and we've heard it all
before at the VDBC Commission hearings
almost in the same exact words. Doctors
are controlled by the General Counsels
Office because an official mistatement
can lead the entire agency into a
mushroom cloud of malpractice lawsuits
from all of us nasty ole Vets who know
a thing or two about flinging hostile
papers.

Then came the grand slam from Dr. Cross
saying that the Bills themselves
were misdrafted, in some cases lowballing
budget estimates after the VA itself
had far more money slated for the
same pursuits already underway at
the VA. There was at least 3 full minutes
of Dead Air just before the crickets
started to chirp in the hearing room
on this one. (tick, tick, tick)

The truth is, even in our own Vets
For Justice pursuits, Congress is
headstrong to draft Bills which
are askew from what was originally
asked for in advocacy. The House
is far worse than the Senate from
doing these screwups, but in the
end we take what we can get. So this
really did have a ring of truth to
it while Dr. Cross was talking.

The hearing lasted only an hour and
a half, and summed up, the VA was
to deliver to them (the House) other
papers and panelists for discussion
from the Physicians Assistants sector
to refine and amend the whole direction
of where HR 2790 was headed.

To me, it was trite formality that
the VSO's lined up to endorse all
of the Bills, because not one of
them would know the meaning of
PROTEST and OBJECTION if it bit
them on the noses anyway so they
may as well rubberstamp everything
since this is all they have been
doing for entire DECADES. It's
not as if any of the Congressionals
are afraid of the VSO's or anything.

For now I am not seeing any real
threat to any of these HR Bills
other than to send to a strong
message to the VA itself that they
are mad as hell and they aren't
gonna take it anymore. Does THAT
sound familiar ??

The audio playback LINK will be
up over the next couple of days
and look for it here at VFJ.

____________________________________



AUDIO LINK TO BILLS HEARING
click on "Click to Start RealPlayer"
wait for it to load
turn up volume on your computer
1 hour 30 minutes.


http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12...%2F01%2D17%2D08a.wma

Note: This content may require the latest RealPlayer, which is not available on Windows 95, Mac OS9 or Linux systems.


ORIGINAL POST

The House is back in session
and here comes the flood of hearings
just as we expected. Scheduled
for tomorrow is the lineup below
as follows:

HR 4231 - change to USCA to allow
treatment at non-VA facilities
for emergency cases.

HR 4204 - suicide study act

HR 4107 - Womens access to VA care
Bill. The Fort McClellan Veterans
have entered an Endorsement of this
with the opposition that it seeks
to exclude women chemical exposure
cases.

HR 4053 - mental health care Bill for
drug users.

HR 3819 - emergency treatment reimbursement
for care at non-VA facilities

HR 3458 - TBI pilot program in rural
communities

HR 2790 - creating new VA Director
of Physicians Assistants.

HR 4146 - USCA change to support
non-VA care for emergency cases.

Go into www.House.gov, scroll down
on the page under Legislation and
click on THOMAS Legislation.
Load in the full Bill number
with the HR letters. This utility
does NOT generate LINKS so the
only way to see is to go there.

Tomorrow, go into the House
Veterans Affairs Committee and
click on the LIVE AUDIO LINK on the
far left margin for January 17th
while the hearing itself is underway.
Turn your computer volume up.

http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/hearing.aspx?newsid=177