1/31-2/4/10
VPCC in Washington DC

The trip to the Madison airport was routine-it was an afternoon flight that was dependent on the weather in DC. The Delta flight took off close to on-time and made up time in the air. Skip picked us up at Reagan and took us to the Capitol Hilton, right around the corner from our DC office. I’m in the Truman Room. Dinner at Burger King.

Monday was catch up day at the office as I’m so rarely there. On the road, there isn’t much access to a printer, so I probably printed out a ream of paper in these couple of days. Went over the Washington Conference schedule with Wanda, as well as signed off on some letters that were hanging around. Went over the schedule for the VPCC with the staff. Ate lunch at McCormick and Schmick’s and had the seafood chili in a taco shell. They are now following me on Twitter, which is cool. Went from there to the VA for the budget rollout to all the VSOs with Gaytan, Robertson and Searle. It’s a $125 billion budget, up by $11 billion over last year, and answers some of our priorities. It still had the $48 billion that was in the 2010 budget as the advance appropriation, and has about $50.5 billion as the advance appropriation for the 2012 budget. The staff will now look at it in detail and be ready for the Washington Conference. Dinner was at Morton’s and I had the salmon.

The Veterans Planning and Coordinating Committee Meeting was Tuesday and Wednesday. I will briefly give the agenda and who presented the topic, but far too much transpired to try to record it here. The Committee members present were the VA & R Chairman Mike Helm, Legislative Chairman Jim Koutz, Economics Chairman Randy Fisher and NEC Liaison to VA & R Bob Owen. Consultants present were PNCs Rehbein, Morin, Conley and Spanogle. I served as the Chairman, and National Adjutant Wheeler and Leading Candidate Jimmie Foster were also present. The morning session started with Barry Searle providing an update on VA & R staffing and responsibilities, Joe Wilson with a System Worth Saving update, Jacob Gadd with a Medicare Reimbursement update, and an update on VA construction was provided. After a short break, we had Deputy Staff Director Kim Lipsky of the Senate VA Committee and Chief Counsel David Tucker of the House VA Committee provide priorities of their committees. The final presentation before lunch was from Jerry Reed on all the services he has been providing to the Wounded Warriors at Walter Reed. He has been so successful, we need to find a way to put someone at other centers for all branches.

Lunch was a working lunch, as we were slightly behind. The afternoon session had Director Brad Mayes of VA Compensation & Pension Service discuss VA Claims Processing, Senior Policy Advisor for Health Affairs Dr. Stephen Ondra of the Office of the Secretary, Dept of VA, and an update on VA billing private insurance for treatment of service-connected conditions by Jacob Gadd.

Wednesday morning began with PNC Conley’s presentation on the Changing Needs of the Veteran Population. Next Dr. Trowell-Harris, Director of the VA Center for Women Veterans talked about Women Veterans Issues/Challenges. Col Ritchie, MD, Director of the Behavioral Health Proponency Office in the Office of the Surgeon General of the Dept of the Army spoke on Improving Mental Health Care Treatment including PTSD, TBI and Suicides. The morning ended with Steve Robertson giving us a VA Budget update. We took a brief break for lunch, then heard from Patricia Vandenberg, Asst Under Secretary of Health for Policy and Planning, Veterans Health Administration, on the Challenges Facing Rural Health Care. The final presentations were on the VA’s Long Term Health Care presented by Rick Greene of the VA Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care and Lisa Pape of the VA Office of Mental Health Services Domiciliary. Each member of the Committee gave wrap-up comments and I adjourned the meeting. There was a lot to digest, a lot that requires staff follow-up and research, and a lot to report at the DC Conference. A lot of these areas have been the subject of reports or studies from the past that have deadlines that I’m sure were long missed. Once this report comes out, we need to start paying more attention to this on a routine basis, rather than wait for meetings. Some of us then went to Greenbelt 136 for a ham dinner.

Thursday morning, I taped the 4th Sitrep of the year in a little different format. Marty Callaghan sat in and conducted a mini-interview. After a seafood stir fry lunch at McCormick and Schmick’s and an afternoon in the office, we were ready for the next trip. The weather report doesn’t look good, and we hope to be able to get to West Virginia from Dulles.