Public Hearing "Program and Assistance for Our Aging Veteran Population"
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COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HOUSE VETERANS AFFAIRS & EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND HOUSE AGING & OLDER ADULT SERVICES PUBLIC HEARING "PROGRAM AND ASSISTANCE FOR OUR AGING VETERAN POPULATION" TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2 018 PA SOUTHEASTERN VETERANS' CENTER 1 VETERANS DRIVE, SPRING CITY, PA 10:02 a.m. HELD BEFORE: HONORABLE STEPHEN BARRAR, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE CRIS DUSH HONORABLE FRANCIS X. RYAN HONORABLE MARTINA A. WHITE HONORABLE CAROL HILL-EVANS HONORABLE PAMELA A. DeLISSIO HONORABLE STEVE McCARTER HONORABLE STEVE SAMUELSON, DEMOCRATIC CHAIR HONORABLE TIM HENNESSEY, CHAIR HONORABLE CHRIS SAINATO, MINORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE BRYAN BARBIN HONORABLE MARK M. GILLEN HONORABLE BARRY JOZWIAK HONORABLE RICK SACCONE HONORABLE DOM COSTA HONORABLE JONATHAN FRITZ Page: 2 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE - PUBLIC HEARING, 8/28/2018 1 ALSO PRESENT: 2 RICK O'LEARY, Majority Executive Director, Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee 3 ERIN RAUB, Republican Executive Director 4 SEAN HARRIS, Majority Research Analyst 5 MIKE HILLMAN, Minority Executive Director 6 7 8 9 10 TESTIMONY INDEX 11 MAJOR GENERAL WELLER 11 12 MS. OSBORNE 47 13 MR. GETZ 67 14 MR. FOSTER 72 15 MR. SINGAGLIESE 101 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Page: 3 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE - PUBLIC HEARING, 8/28/2018 1 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Good morning, 2 everyone. I would like to call this House Veteran 3 Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee public 4 hearing call to order. Okay. 5 At this time, I would like to ask General 6 Weller to please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. 7 (Pledge of Allegiance recited.) 8 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: All right. Why 9 don't we first take a couple seconds to go around and 10 introduce the members and the staff that is here today 11 with both committees. 12 REPRESENTATIVE FRITZ: Thank you, 13 Mr. Chairman. Good morning. 14 My name is Jonathan Fritz, representing the 15 111th District, comprising Wayne and Susquehanna 16 Counties. 17 REPRESENTATIVE COSTA: Good morning, ladies 18 and gentlemen. Representative Dom Costa, 21st District, 19 Allegheny County, City of Pittsburgh. 20 REPRESENTATIVE SACCONE: Good morning, 21 everyone. Rick Saccone, representing the 39th District, 22 which represents Southern Allegheny County and Northern 23 Washington Counties. 24 REPRESENTATIVE JOZWIAK: Good morning. 25 Barry Jozwiak, 5th District, Berks County. Page: 4 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE - PUBLIC HEARING, 8/28/2018 1 REPRESENTATIVE GILLEN: Mark Gillen, 2 Southern Berks, North Lancaster County. 3 REPRESENTATIVE BARBIN: Bryan Barbin, 4 Cambria County. I represent Johnstown. 5 MR. HILLMAN: Michael Hillman. I am 6 Democratic Executive Director, House Veterans Affairs. 7 REPRESENTATIVE SAINATO: I'm representative 8 Chris Sainato. I'm the Democratic Chairman of the House 9 Veteran Affairs Emergency Preparedness. 10 MR. HARRIS: Sean Harris, research analyst 11 for Committee of Veterans Affairs. 12 MR. O'LEARY: Good morning. I'm Rick 13 O'Leary, Executive Director for Chairman Barrar. 14 MS. RAUB: Erin Raub, Republican Executive 15 Director of the House Aging Committee. 16 REPRESENTATIVE DeLISSIO: Pam DeLissio. I 17 represent the 194th, which are parts of Philadelphia and 18 Montgomery Counties. 19 REPRESENTATIVE McCARTER: Steve McCarter, 20 Montgomery County, House District 154. 21 REPRESENTATIVE HILL-EVANS: Carol Hill- 22 Evans, representing the 95th District in York County. 23 REPRESENTATIVE WHITE: Martina White, 24 representing Northeast Philadelphia, the 170th District. 25 REPRESENTATIVE RYAN: Frank Ryan, Page: 5 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE - PUBLIC HEARING, 8/28/2018 1 representing the 101st District in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. 2 REPRESENTATIVE DUSH: Cris Dush, the 66th 3 District in Jefferson and Indiana Counties. 4 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Thank you. 5 I want to thank the staff for sending me 6 the memo on the uniform of the day. I forgot my jacket 7 and tie, so I apologize for being so casual. 8 Good morning. I am Representative Steve 9 Barrar, Majority Chair of the House Veteran Affairs and 10 Emergency Preparedness Committee. 11 I want to welcome everyone to our joint 12 public hearing with the House Aging and Older Adult 13 Service Committee on the subject of assisting our aging 14 veteran population. 15 We have several expert panels before us 16 today. And I want to thank them for being here. 17 As well I would like to thank DMVA 18 Commandant Blackwood for hosting us at this beautiful 19 state veterans' home. We look forward to touring the 20 facility later this afternoon, or this morning, whenever 21 we're done. 22 Today is rather landmark in that for the 23 first time since my tenure in the House of 24 Representatives, we have both the House Veteran Affairs 25 and Emergency Preparedness Committee and the House Aging Page: 6 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE - PUBLIC HEARING, 8/28/2018 1 and Older Adult Service Committee joined together to 2 examine the needs or our aging veteran population. 3 I think it's a great opportunity for both 4 Committees and the Department to get a full picture of 5 current programs and the existing needs of our veteran 6 community and their families and to strengthen our 7 ability to work together towards a common goal, which is 8 to help residents of our great Commonwealth and to assist 9 them in their time of need. 10 With that, I will now turn over the 11 microphone to Majority Chairman Tim Hennessey for remarks 12 and then followed by Chairman Chris Sainato and then 13 Chairman Samuelson. Okay. 14 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HENNESSEY: Thank you 15 very much. 16 And good morning, everyone. Welcome to 17 Southeastern Veterans' Center. Welcome to my District. 18 Let me first say that this has been a 19 pleasure to be here at Southeast Veterans' Center in my 20 district for all these many years, since 2002, I think I 21 took over, when, with redistricting, I had assigned to me 22 East Vincent Township. 23 And with that, came the opportunity to sit 24 on the advisory committee here at Southeast Veterans' 25 Center as a representative of the speaker of the house, Page: 7 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE - PUBLIC HEARING, 8/28/2018 1 presently Mike Turzai. 2 And I report back to him in terms of the 3 issues that arise here at Southeast Veterans' Center. 4 I will say that it is one of the finest 5 veterans' centers in Pennsylvania. We have a very proud 6 history and a proud tradition. 7 We've got a wonderful staff and 8 administrative staff here at Southeast and we take 9 fantastic care of our veterans. 10 You're going to see the new facility as 11 part of the tour in a little bit. I refer to it the 12 Alzheimer's unit, it's really a much broader focus on 13 mental health issues for our veterans here. But it's a 14 building that opened about five or six years ago. 15 I was under the impression it was costing 16 $30 million. I'm told by the time it was done, it was 17 closer to maybe $60 million. 18 But it is a fantastic new building and new 19 enterprise here at Southeast Veterans' Center. 20 So keep your eyes open. Enjoy the tour. 21 You're going to see a very, very fine home here. 22 I appreciate Chairman Barrar agreeing that 23 we do a joint hearing today on aging issues and aging 24 programs as they affect the veteran population. 25 It's a focus that we haven't really put on Page: 8 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE - PUBLIC HEARING, 8/28/2018 1 things specifically before. And we're happy to do that 2 today. 3 And I want to again welcome you all here to 4 my district. And those of you who didn't apply for a 5 daily visa, I'm going to waive that obligation today. 6 You don't need that visa to be here in the 26th District. 7 Thank you. 8 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Chairman 9 Sainato. 10 MINORITY CHAIRMAN SAINATO: Thank you, 11 Chairman Barrar, Chairman Hennessey. It is a privilege 12 to be in the 26th District and to be here today. 13 I know our committee toured this, I think 14 around six, seven years ago. And there was things under 15 construction and we saw things then. So we look forward 16 to that today. Look forward to the testimony. 17 And it's just great to see so many of our 18 colleagues participating today. We thank each and every 19 one of you for coming for this important hearing. 20 So thank you. 21 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Thank you, 22 Chairman Sainato. I absolutely, I'd like to thank the 23 members for the great turnout that we have here today 24 amongst both committees here. 25 At this time, I will call up Deputy Page: 9 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE - PUBLIC HEARING, 8/28/2018 1 Commandant Mildred Butler-Coleman for some welcoming 2 remarks. 3 Thank you. Welcome. 4 MS. BUTLER-COLEMAN: Thank you very much. 5 Welcome on behalf of the Department of Military and 6 Veterans Affairs, we welcome you to - 7 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HENNESSEY: Would you 8 take a seat. 9 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN BARRAR: Just so you have 10 a microphone. 11 MS. BUTLER-COLEMAN: Thank you very much. 12 On behalf of the Department of Military and 13 Veterans Affairs, we welcome you to the Southeast 14 Veterans' Center in beautiful Chester County. 15 We've been serving veterans since 1986. 16 That's when this first building opened and then we have 17 the newer building that you'll tour in a couple hours, if 18 you so desire.