accompanied i miss edna macdonald director of the regional office and the third panel will host ms. sandra mccauley deputy assistant inspector general for audits and evaluations with office of the inspector general u.s. department of veterans affairs who will be accompanied by mr. mr. brett bronze director of san diego benefits inspections division. additionally the hearing record will include written statements from disabled american veterans, the tragedy assistance program for survivors and the wife of an air force veteran derek shafer with those instructions complete i thank you for being here and i yield to the ranking member for her opening statement. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you for holding this important hearing. i also would like to thank the witnesses you mentioned who are here today for their time and trouble to share information with us. first i want to applaud the va for reducing the log by 34% since march of 2013. we know that the va can maintain this momentum and we are optimistic. we want to end this decades long backlog and we are moving in that direction. our nu

ronald reagan appointed justice sandra day o'connor to the core. she was the first woman to serve on the united states supreme court. i'll say parenthetically than 112 off limits to the supreme court, i think. you were 108, is that correct, when you replaced justice white? [inaudible] >> you with a second woman appointed to the supreme court just 20 years ago this year. what did it mean to the court when it finally had a woman justice? and then when he came on the court, two women justices? i'm also going -- you might say what it's like now with three justices, female. >> when xander was asked that question, what does it mean to have a second woman, she said, if you think i'm glad ruth bader ginsburg is, court, you cannot imagine the joy of john o'connor to be no longer the lone male spouse. [laughter] and she was there all alone for 12 years. well, a sign that women were there to say, came when i was appointed, they did a renovation in our roving room. up until then there was a bathroom and it was labeled a man. so when sandra was in conference and the -- they installed a woman's bathro

clairn thomas. i think one you can say the most important thing to happen was sandra day o'connor's retirement and replacement by justice alito. >> absolutely. you can't underestimate that. they were both conservatives. different kinds of conservatives. justice alito is much more conservative than justice o'connor was. he has tipped the balance in certain areas of the law. he has tipped the balance in abortion. his very first term. he tipped the balance in campaign finance, and. >> and on race, yes. one of the key decisions on affirmative action is very much in play in the cases out of the university of texas that the court will decide probably before june. so he's been very important change. and she was the center -- what we call the swing vote and once she left and justice alito came on. justice kennedy really moved in to that swing vote category. i had does not swing to the left as justice o'connor was willing to do. that's all sort of solidified the conservative majority on the court. >> i think it's probably time to start questions. i'll alternate but start over here. give your

introduction. i came here to say all of that. i am very pleased to be here at the sandra day o'connor school of college of law. i appreciate the invitation to speak. i especially want to thank greg hill, the executive director of the indian legal program, darlene master and patty ferguson for inviting me to be here. i am so fees, so glad and honored to once again be here at the college of law, to be part of this lecture ceres. i have to say at the outset the indian law program . i have to say at the outset the indian law programseries . i have to say at the outset the indian law program. i have to say at the outset the indian law program is certainly well known nationally as a national leader in the field of indian law. i have very much valued my opportunity to work with the esteemed law professors here in various matters. professor soc, professor bob klansman, bob miller, professor miller, professor kevin over atr miller, professor kevin over at the smithsonian. patti ferguson, and thank you for an all-star lineup of indian professors as part of the faculty of this meeting, ranking law scho

sandra baker. >> i loved baker. he was my favorite. >> he spent his final years not only working for wilson but writing at a volume biography of woodrow wilson he so adored him. one of the most glorious pieces about wilson was written by ida tarbell in fact and in fact it was so wonderful i found myself not quoting it he could as i thought it made me look too partisan in wilson's favorite. i think it's quite true what you have both been suggesting about this great sexualization of the media. what we have lost and you articulated it, we just don't think as much about it. we react from the gut and that is why we flock to that cable station that speaks what we think we think even though we haven't thought it. i think that's a big factor today. but wilson had a very good relationship with the media up to and just into the first world war which wasn't -- brought us into it. it becomes one of the great ironies and the wilson story that the most progressive president we had to date not even forgetting t.r. let that this president became the most suppressive of the press which he did during

replacement by clairn thomas. i think one you can say the most important thing to happen was sandra day o'connor's retirement and replacement by justice alito. >> absolutely. you can't underestimate that. they were both conservatives. different kinds of conservatives. justice alito is much more conservative than justice o'connor was. he has tipped the balance in certain areas of the law. he has tipped the balance in abortion. his very first term. he tipped the balance in campaign finance, and. >> and on race, yes. one of the key decisions on affirmative action is very much in play in the cases out of the university of texas that the court will decide probably before june. so he's been very important change. and she was the center -- what we call the swing vote and once she left and justice alito came on. justice kennedy really moved in to that swing vote category. i had does not swing to the left as justice o'connor was willing to do. that's all sort of solidified the conservative majority on the court. >> i think it's probably time to start questions. i'll alternate but start over

. also in attendance today is my niece, sandra peterson, who is the daughter of a vietnam war veteran, who also died from agent orange poisoning. mr. chairman, i filed my claim in 1990. the same claim remains pending. i have waited 1600 days fda delays and denials. the va erroneously denied my claim seven times. for nearly 12 years, my claims that title at va because va did not respond to the notice of disagreement. the court of appeals for veterans claims returned my claim to the va three times based on errors, errors conceded by the va. i know va is waiting for me to die. without immediate attention my claim is destined to sit, idle for several more years as a way, hope and pray for resolution. my late husband, ronnie, was born in memphis, tennessee. on december 31, 1947. as a 19-year-old college student, he was drafted into the u.s. army. ronnie was deployed to the vietnam war in 1968 and 69. on september the 22nd, 1987, at the early age of 39, he died from an aggressive form of cancer, we could be a widow with a young son. his death came quickly from a cancer that dated any parts

you think of think of sandra fluke? and seems like she's getting free scholarships to a prestigious law school on a fast-track and successfully portrayed as a noble victim standing up for the republican war on women and why does this happen and why his victimhood a comforting blanket for so many people? >> guest: i don't own that much about her except she may be parents in the hearing. and i understand that. there was a hearing in congress that involve the funding for contraception and there were no women there. so she questions that and it's not a bad question. but then would happen if she was insulted and profane terms by rush limbaugh and that -- she became a sort of celebrity. and that happens that we can become a kind of representative. and i don't know how. i'm not sure because i don't know that much about the other topics, i would have to know more. >> host: what about the issue of victimhood? >> guest: yes, there seems to be a fascination among gender feminist to prove that women are victims and find data to seal the deal. so it evolved in the 80s and 90s and they would depi