Thom Tillis Blasts 'Narrative' That GOP Is Pushing To Privatize VA

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing earlier this month, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) spoke about privatization of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Transcript

00:00Senator Tillis. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be quick. Number one, Mr. Bartram, you're going to

00:06most likely get confirmed, and you're going to most likely come to several oversight hearings

00:11that are going to ask you how your work on this secret mission to completely privatize the VA is

00:17going. It's a narrative that's been here. I've been here 10 years, and I think anybody in their

00:23right mind needs to know it makes no sense to be 100 percent brick and mortar, nor does it make

00:28any sense for the reasons that you've said, to be pure community care. The VA can point to several

00:34best practices and several instances in several communities that they need to be there, and I,

00:41for one, believe that you've answered the questions to my satisfaction. I don't think anybody who knows

00:48anything about the organization would come to any other conclusion. Mr. Workman, I've got a

00:53chiropractor named Bender, an optometrist named Eiler, and a dentist named White, so workman going

01:00for assistant secretary for labor just makes sense to me. I, look, here's another thing that we've

01:08talked about for a year, and congratulations to your family. Are those your kids behind you there?

01:12Yes, sir.

01:13Congratulations to you, and Mr. Bartram, too. For 10 years I've been here, we've talked about we need

01:19to fix the TAP program, and for 10 years I've said that what we need to do is have the right analytics

01:25coming out of the DOD, and we will be successful when we have a TAP classroom of one. The problem

01:33that you have now, if you go into the transition assistance program, you got some of the more senior

01:38people that may have, you know, financial sort of literacy at a different level than you're going

01:44to have some kid just coming out. They may have their earbuds in or, you know, watching something

01:49on their phone while they're punching the ticket to go through TAP. We all know that that happens.

01:53It's a disservice to those kids to put them in the same classroom for someone else punching the

01:57ticket. Do you know whether or not there's any sort of incentive or back review on the extent to

02:05which that TAP program has been proven beneficial to the students? In other words, some way to measure

02:13in an after action whether or not that TAP program, and the instructors for that matter, are held up to

02:19a standard on efficacy and ultimate result for the TAP program? Well, Senator, I thank you for the

02:24question. I have not been in vets down at the Department of Labor. I can assure you if confirmed and I get

02:32into vets, we are going to take a look at that. My guess is the answer is no. I came from large

02:38organizations where metrics matter, and my guess is the way that we're finally going to get a TAP

02:43program that makes sense and does right by our warriors or veterans is to just focus on that.

02:50Have that as a goal. I know it will take time. It will take years. It will not be completed in your

02:56tenure, but I'm really tired of people talking about it, and I think if we're intellectually honest

03:00with ourselves, it's been a bipartisan failure to substantially change the TAP program since you

03:05went through it. Absolutely. And we owe our service members more, and we need to be instructed

03:11by information coming out of the electronic health record and everything else in the DOD to do right by

03:16them. What I want to do, you're about the only thing I saw in your resume that I'd like to spend some

03:24more time on, and we're not going to do it here, but I'd like your commitment to talk a little bit

03:28about this large organization, if you're confirmed, that you're going to inherit, and you've got a

03:34great resume. As a matter of fact, about the only lapse in judgment that I've seen in your resume

03:38is you're trying to run for lieutenant governor in Ohio a while back, but other than that, you look

03:44pretty solid. You're clearly a patriot, but I'd like to, if I can, just get a commitment. Maybe we can

03:52get on a phone call, or if you can come over to my office. I didn't get an opportunity to talk with you

03:57in advance to just get your sense of the people that are going to be around you that will have

04:04that large organization expertise that you're going to need. And then maybe you can convince me that

04:10maybe you have some relevant experience. I don't expect the president of the United States or you

04:17to be a subject matter expert in the organization that you're inheriting, but you need to have the

04:22apparatus in place to understand the level of complexity and the challenges you're going to

04:26have as a manager having nothing to do with you being a warfighter or a veteran. Can I get that

04:31commitment to just follow up with you? Absolutely, Senator. What we'll share with you is our assessment

04:36that I've read on areas. We'll share bluntly the assessment that we've read confidentially between

04:42us and we can have a good discussion. Absolutely. I look forward to having that discussion. I thank

04:47you all for being here today. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Senator Dillis, thank you. Both of you,

04:52gentlemen, a lot of what I know about veterans is what I hear from them. A lot of what...

Category

Transcript

Recommended