I think it's a wonderful program, innovative, and maybe it's too early to tell the impact.

Are we seeing any kind of positive signs on veteran mental health or suicide issues nationally, or are the trends still trending in a direction that is continuing to be alarming?

It was the Republicans, I will remind you, that told the Democrats months ago that if you want to try to get your Ukraine funding, you're going to have to take up the border issue. This is what we ask for.

The legislation is a durable solution, vastly superior to what can be achieved through the May 2023 Solicitor's Opinion.

I'm certainly going to put my shoulder into it on the committee here to see if we can't get that number up.

But it speaks to the need to increase maritime domain awareness.

We are in the midst of a very heartbreaking spike in mental health challenges among our military members.

The Palmer Pioneer Home in Alaska is our only State Veteran Home.

I truly appreciate your focus on supporting our servicemembers by advancing projects that improve their quality of life.

I appreciate that the VA has placed the Vet Cemetery there as a high priority among the projects to establish new cemeteries.

I wanted to work with you and your team on how the VA formula can be reevaluated to better reflect some of the realities on the ground.

The contributions or the potential contributions to national security for this deep-water port can't be understated.

We can't think that this is about political advantage for one candidate or another.

The sooner, the faster we can attend to this. I would just put that before you in terms of a prioritization.

Look, when the Vet Centers are there, I agree with Mr. Fisher, the response, you know, it's been great.

The way the list is stacked, as we all know, it puts the expansion of existing facilities--there are multiples ahead of any of the efforts to bring on a new facility.

I'm curious about where we are with the claims backlog and the claims inventory and the backlog because I'm told that following the PACT Act we've seen that increase dramatically.

I give you my commitment that I will look into that as a deep-water port for the Arctic.