 join me in welcoming the 11th Secretary of the Veterans Affairs, Dennis McDonough. Good morning, everybody. Pearl, thanks for the great introduction. It's great to be among this great company this Sunday morning. I want to highlight a couple of people who really make this partnership what it is. Randy Rees, Mark Burgess, Darlene Spencer, Darlene Spence. Pearl, thank you. And Joy Alem, whose shininess as a Minnesotan is only outshone by her relentlessness and her unrivaled reach on Capitol Hill. And of course, our shared asset, Rob Reynolds. You are the glue that makes this great organization run. And that brings our partnership to life. So I thank you for everything. I'll begin just by saying thank you to all of you, to each of you for your service, your devotion to vets, your having made the trek here this weekend, and for our partnership in serving vets, as well as you have served the country. These past years, these past two years, we have delivered more care and more benefits to more veterans than at any other time in our nation's history, thanks to many people, including each and every one of you in this room. We're going to keep fighting like hell for vets together for all vets to give them the best outcomes. And we're looking forward to collaborating even more effectively to build on what's working and to fix what's not in the year ahead. Now I want to focus on our partnership because we have no more important partner than you. I see that every day. But earlier this year, I saw the real impact of your work. This past summer, Rich Batchko, an incredible DAV volunteer from Nevis, Minnesota, about an hour from where I went to college, was on his way to drive a rural vat to his appointment. There had been bad storms in the area over the previous weeks, and trees had fallen all over the property, including on to the veterans' house and garage. So the driver picked up the veteran, started asking about the storm damage, quickly learned that the veteran had been without electricity for almost a week, and that he was having a hard time getting an electrician to come out a week without electricity in the middle of the summer, which is a thing, even in Minnesota. So Rich immediately sprang into action. On the road to the clinic, he called another DAV volunteer, Darius Simon, who immediately called the local DAV commander, Jason Bristlin. Darius already had his saws in the truck, so he and Jason got right to work cutting down the fallen trees. Within four hours, four hours, the electricity was back on the veterans' house. Just as Rich's car was pulling back into the driveway to return the vat home from his appointment. In just four hours, three DAV volunteers, three vats, had worked together to get this disabled vat running water and power. The impact that you make on behalf of veterans every single day is inspiring. This is what our work is all about, getting the job done for vats together. Whether that means providing the best care in the world, the benefits you've earned, or a dignified, lasting, resting place that honors your service and sacrifice. So when you hear from a vat who needs something, just like those three incredible Minnesota vats, I'm a little partial of Minnesota, I get it. But I want your first call to be to us. Together, we can solve problems with full transparency, holding nothing back, continuing to build trust by telling the whole truth. We're proud of our accomplishments, but we're going to be candid about our failings, candid with ourselves, with you, with your fellow vats, and with the American people. We still can, in fact, still must be better and do better for the vats we serve. Let me touch on our goals for this year. More care, more benefits, to more vats than ever before. Let's start with more care. Over the last two years, we've delivered more care to more vats than at any other time in our nation's history. In just the past year, vats had 73 million outpatient appointments at VA, and 37 million more outpatient appointments in the community care providers in your states and in your communities. Meanwhile, we've seen a staggering 3,000% increase in the use of telehealth. Just since 2020, that's been over 23 million telehealth appointments in that time span. And in the midst of such revolutionary change in how we deliver care by telehealth in the community, vats are continuing to tell us that they trust VA. On average, for outpatient care, trust is hovering around 90%, including among historically marginalized vats. Now, one reason community care sometimes is slow is because we need more staff to do the work. And I'll talk about hiring in a minute. But I want to ask you for your help with our partners in the community. But before we get to that, let me just say each and every one of you in this room has helped us earn and maintain that trust with our vats. But we need to build more with women vats. Trust is down at 87%. And we need to significantly improve trust with our younger post-9-11 vats. Across the board, the younger the veteran, the less that vet is going to trust us. But to build trust, we need to make their care experience better, more effective, no matter if it's in the direct care system or if it's in the community. And we need your help. We need to build even deeper on this strong partnership, strengthening effective networks, making sure our network members help us coordinate care for veterans. Because VA doesn't always get community care records it back from our community providers in a timely manner. In fact, sometimes we never get the records back at all. It means we can't coordinate the vats' care. It means we can't manage the cost of that care. It means that care gets less effective even as it gets more expensive. The trend should be just the opposite, more effective while becoming less expensive. As I said, one reason care in the community is sometimes slow is because we need more staff to do the work. I'll come back to that hiring in a minute. But I also want to ask your help when you go home to sit down with community providers in our network, in your states, in your communities, and ask them for their help. We need them to sign up for our Health Share Referral Manager system. For the technology that we have that will improve communication, coordination, and medical documentation sharing between VA and our community providers. And if they're not going to use Health Share, there's the Joint Legacy Viewer. There's eFax. There's also the US Postal Service. We need them to use VA's Request for Services process to meet any additional needs that you're seeing, that they're seeing. And we need them to talk to us, share documents with us, so we're doing a better job coordinating your care. Another place we need to deepen our partnership between VA and DAV is in our number one clinical priority, mental health and suicide prevention. We all have to be there for vets when it matters most, especially in times of crisis. Two years ago, we failed a vet, Major Ian Fishback, because we didn't carefully coordinate our response to his needs across the federal, state, even county system. I can update you that we spent the last year among the VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and Vision 10 and working with Michigan State authorities so that we're in a better position to ensure that a vet isn't responsible for managing complex government bureaucracy. That's my job. That's our job. We're responsible for that. We have to do that for all vets. And this is the charge that the President gave us in this year's State of the Union. Vets need and deserve suicide prevention solutions that meet them where they are, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach. So let me walk through quickly five solutions we're continuing to implement this year in an effort to continue the progress we've made over the last two years in reducing the number of veteran suicides. First, we just announced the final round of prizes through our mission daybreak competition, totaling nearly $20 million across 40 teams to build out proven new solutions developed by Americans in communities across the country. Developed by you and your neighbors, these investments will help develop innovations that save vets' lives. Second, the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention grants are getting resources to local suicide prevention services where vets are. Funding local innovations among the people who know vets best, their local partners, their neighbors. Third, we launched suicide prevention 2.0, designed to recruit, hire, and train more than 100 licensed mental health providers serving veterans at high risk of suicide. At VA, as in every health care system across the country, we're badly in need of additional trained mental health providers. Fourth, we're significantly expanding VA coverage through the Compact Act, opening doors of emergency care when vets need it most, access to any health care facility, VA or not, for free emergency mental health care. Now, the Compact Act is connecting us to vets who may have never worked with us in the past. So it's critical that we continue listening to and seeking feedback from veterans, from DAV and other VSOs, from our VA employees, our community partners, and each of you. In the week since this benefit has been implemented, we've already received valuable feedback. For example, we heard that additional communication and education to veterans about who qualifies for this important benefit would be helpful. Additionally, we have heard how important it is for our community partners to hear that from VA quickly when seeking improvement for care payments. We're using this feedback to get better. And you have my commitment that we ensure that vets receive the suicide care they need when and where they need it, without worrying about payments, without worrying about co-pays. Finally, we brought on over 1,300 peer support specialists to support us in this fight. These peer support specialists are all vets, trained to use their personal experience with their own recovery to help struggling fellow vets reconnect, find a sense of belonging, and access resources at VA or in their communities. Look, here's what we know. After decades of success with recovery programs, like 12 steps programs, something I'm very familiar with in my own family, recovery takes work every day. Every day, it takes recognition of a higher power. We also know that nothing helps one's recovery, quite like helping out someone else who's fighting through recovery, through everyday challenges. Vets helping vets, long after they take off the uniform. There's nothing better than that. Nothing better than that. And there's no one who does that better than DAV. Now, I know that's a lot, but this is a huge priority. And together, we can do it. Together, we will do it. Now, let me touch for a minute on how we're partnering, VA and DAV, to get more benefits to more veterans. Right now, we're delivering more benefits more quickly to more veterans than ever before. And the Board of Veterans Appeals is a big part of that. But we can do better. And your benefits advocates are helping us do better. Volunteers like Wanda Daniels in Georgia. Wanda's 25-year Air Force veteran currently serves as the adjutant for DAV's Georgia office. Not only that, she serves as her chapter's benefits advocate, chapter 92 in Jefferson, Georgia. Every week, she travels two hours to the department's headquarters to handle her duties as adjutant. She's always on the move, meeting vets wherever is most convenient for them to process their claims. She's especially proud of the work she's done to reach underserved women vets, ensuring they receive the benefits they've earned from their service to this country. This past year, she was awarded the President's Lifetime Achievement Volunteer Service Award in recognition of the thousands of hours she has volunteered on behalf of her fellow vets. President Biden's letter read, we're living in a moment that calls for hope and light and love, hope for our futures, light to see that way forward, and love for one another. Through your service, you are providing all three, hope, light, and love. There are few people who embody these traits more than DAV volunteers like Wanda, like each of you in this room, like Rob Reynolds. So we at VA have to continue to do our part to ensure the best possible outcomes for vets. We have to keep working to shorten vets' weights by ensuring they're in the right line with files ready for a final decision. We at VA have a lot of work to do, communicating better with vets about why claims were denied, what they can do to challenge denials, and how to close information gaps in their claims long before the decision, long before the hearing on appeal at the board. The first time vets know what's missing too often is when they're just before the judge. That cannot be the case. So we have to work better together to maximize vets' chances of getting what they've truly earned and so richly deserve in the first instance, and if not then on appeal. Now, I tell you all this because we set an all-time record last year of getting vets over 1.7 million decisions on their claims. And we're on pace to break that record this year, just since the PACT Act was signed last August. Veterans and survivors have filed more than a million claims, over 24% more than during the same period last year. To date, we've awarded 103,000 toxic exposure claims out of the 128,000 that we've reviewed. Again, thanks to your help and in part because you made such a strong presence across the country at the PACT Act Week of Action last December and in part because each of you, like Wanda, is finding vets where they are to ensure that their claims are getting filed. We have to make sure that every vet knows about these new toxic exposure benefits and how to file a claim. Let me give you an example as to why. A vet exposed to herbicides while serving in Thailand in the early 70s had been trying to get service connection for Parkinson's, Diabetes Militis II, Type II, and Peripheral Neuropathy for the last seven years. All his previous claims and appeals denied. On the first day of this year, the first day we granted PACT Act benefits, that vet was granted service connection for 13 disabilities. That's because the PACT Act, which is law because of DAV. The PACT Act added a presumptive for his service in Thailand. For him, that's a retroactive and monthly benefit that will go a long way toward quality of life, supporting his well-being for the rest of his life. So we have to tell all vets. One, apply for toxic exposure benefits and care right now. Applying before August 10th this year means benefits will be backdated to August 10th last year. The day President Biden signed the bill into law. So get your claims filed before August 10th. Second, enrolled vets should get a toxic exposure screening at their VA medical center. 1.8 million vets already have. That means we're now working with them to get access to specialists to address those cases, which in over 40% of the reviews have shown vets with additional exposures we had not known of. And if those vets aren't enrolled and can't get the toxic exposure screening, let's get them enrolled. Third, some vets worry that applying for toxic exposure benefits will impact their current benefits. You worked hard to get your rating. You worked hard to get your battle buddies rating. And you don't want to have it docked. The truth is this, that with a PACT Act, you're 32 times more likely to have your benefits increase or stay the same than to see a decrease. 32 times more likely to see your benefits increase or stay the same. Fourth, there are people who try to convince vets they need to pay somebody, need to hire a lawyer to apply for their VA benefits. That ain't true. Working with DAV doesn't cost you a thin dime. Working with VA does not cost you a ruby red cent. It's free. It's easy to apply. And these are your benefits. Hard earned, as you already said. And so richly deserved. Fifth and last, everybody can learn more about the PACT Act and apply anytime by visiting va.gov.plct or by calling 1-800-MY-VA-411. That's 1-800-698-2411. So we've talked about more care and more benefits. And I'm going slower than I promised. But let's talk for lastly here about reaching more vets and how our partnership can ensure that we do that. First, we're investing in modern facilities to expand access. We've opened 17 new CBOCs last year, providing better access for 2.8 million vets. This year, we're awarding and competing significant major construction projects that will serve millions more. And thanks again to that PACT Act that you ensure got signed into law, we have new authorizations and funding for 31 major leases to improve access for more than 4.5 million vets. Let's continue to ensure we work together to ease the exercise of these leases, share data on how we position them correctly, so that we bring care to veterans rather than expecting you to travel hours to get your care. We still need more people to ensure we're processing claims more quickly, providing more timely access to world-class care. That's why we're aggressively hiring for positions across VA. VBA has hired 2,500 people so far this year, but anticipates needing 4,500 more. So far this year, VHA has hired 18,500 people. And our nurses, LPNs and nursing assistants are staying with us longer after a very tumultuous period in the pandemic. But we need over 33,000 more people at VHA. So we need your help in finding and hiring the best of the best. Send us vets to hire, newly retired vets to hire. Send us people who believe in our mission, our shared mission, and want to serve vets, people like Serena, who we hired in Michigan. Her grandfather is a World War II vet, and she said, I just want to give back because vets have given their whole lives for our freedom, the best mission in the federal government. Reaching more vets means reaching all vets, all vets. After World War II, we failed a million black vets, men and women at every level. After they finished fighting in Europe in the Pacific, black vets had to come home to something as insidious as any enemy. Racism, that's a fight that's still raging. We're still learning our lessons. VA is not immune. There have been unacceptable disparities and benefits decisions based on racial bias, discrimination based on orientation or identity. We're committed to righting those wrongs to ensure we're combating racism and discrimination rather than perpetuating it. So we'll continue to take steps to ensure all vets get what they have earned and so richly deserve. We'll be taking a series of steps this coming year, building on steps that we've taken over the last two to ensure that our fastest growing cohort of veterans, women veterans, feel welcomed at VA. And we'll be taking the next steps to make sure that we're providing the full spectrum of care to transgender vets. I'm not naive about the environment we're operating in. The pressure we can all feel around politics. I feel it too. But some things are beyond politics. All veterans deserve timely access to world-class health care and earned benefits, not some, all, each and every one. Because when you and all our vets signed up to serve, we made a promise to you, to each of you. If you fight for us, we'll fight for you. If you serve us, we'll serve you. If you get our back, we'll get yours when you come home. Now, our country as a whole makes that promise, but it's our job at VA and at DAV to keep that promise, to each of you, to every veteran. And here's my commitment to you. I will never settle for anything less. That's the lens through which I have seen my work to date. And I'll stand by that approach this year. And in the spirit of partnership I've spoken about with you today, and I've intended to conduct myself with over these last two years, I'll always be candid with you about the decisions I'm making, always open to you, to your feedback, to your advice, even when, if not especially when, you disagree because that's when it matters most. So I look forward to working with you over the coming year. I look forward to continuing to serve more care, more benefits, to more veterans than ever before. May God bless each and every one of you and our service members protecting the country today. And our veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Good to see you, brother. Good to see you.