WASHINGTON (AP) — House and Senate negotiators opened compromise talks Tuesday on legislation to expand health care for veterans, and said they hope for quick response to a scandal that has uncovered long wait times, false record-keeping and accusations of criminal activity at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

At their core, the bills passed by the House and Senate would allow millions of former members of the armed forces to seek health care outside the government’s veterans system if they were unable to get a timely appointment inside it.