I look forward to an update on this research as it moves forward on how we can ensure veterans get the treatment they need for such exposure.

I understand that you recently signed off on a medical investigator report pertaining to the Albuquerque VA medical center.

I would call on everybody to remove those holds and put the Inspector General in place for the Veterans Administration.

Mr. President, earlier this afternoon we had a very strong vote here in the U.S. Senate to move forward on the legislation we are currently considering. It is called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. It is legislation that is…

I think it also was to get enrollment numbers up under Obamacare, which was part of the desire by the White House at the time, and continues to be.

And, again, just to be clear, as compared to some of the testimony we heard earlier, there was information.

Well, again, there were plenty of tools, including the corrective action plans we have talked about and the enhanced oversight plans, short of even terminating.

Who did do the analysis when additional taxpayer dollars were given to New York?

They did not do an analysis. That is the point.

Well, Mr. Slavitt, with all due respect, you are a smart guy, why should we be having to give you numbers that are publicly available? Get the numbers yourself.

We are talking about $1.2 billion of taxpayer money that is going to be lost.

Yes. I mean, look, it was a lousy time to start a health startup in any category, and certainly in the insurance sector.

the reality is there are 700,000 consumers who now find themselves not just, again, dislocated, but some of them actually facing the possibility of paying twice, once for their premium and now for claims that were never paid to health care…

Well, $30 million of taxpayer money. It is the same people. These are taxpayers who have found themselves losing their health insurance and now potentially facing claims from providers because their health insurance company that was a…

HHS had authority and sole authority to be able to stop these disbursements when it became clear that the CO-OPs were not likely to be financially viable.

The experts tell us that, if anything, the year-end claims numbers are likely to turn out even worse than they are now, that it is not going down, it is going up.

I will say some of what you have just said confuses me, at least as to the period 2014 and 2015.

So to say that there is and was assurance objective standard for deciding when underperformance should trigger an enhanced oversight plan, that is not what we learned.