The reality is, regardless of whether the Oracle Cerner implementation can be accomplished... the VA will probably continue to rely on VistA for at least another decade.

If you are not going to produce better healthcare, then why spend that money, because it is all about better healthcare for veterans.

When I see a system that is providing the vast amount of healthcare delivery information for you and I see you starving it, and then you come in before us and tell us that it is not only being utilized for the vast majority of the…

Obviously, this is exceptional that we had so many individuals take their life in a short period of time.

I don't know that there is anybody that is not frustrated with the whole electronic health record, the billions of dollars that are being spent, and it doesn't appear that we are moving the ball.

I was shocked by what I heard. I was just absolutely shocked.

Can I just cut to the chase and say, would you attribute this increase to the Cerner system, Dr. O'Toole?

I think it is a disaster.

We need more of [providers], not fewer of.

Our oversight responsibilities will not stop here.

Again, the question was: What component of VistA generates and tracks these alerts? How are you addressing this issue that they are not being resolved?

We ought to be asking our question, is that sustainable, because quite frankly, it has to be done, and I do not think it is sustainable.

I hear this firsthand from servicemembers and veterans in Montana who tell me that TRICARE is not working for them in rural America.

Congress has repeatedly failed the Department in recent years by putting you on automatic continuing resolutions, and getting you a budget that is late.

I don't think there should be any reason for a Senator... not to get the answers we need, it is unacceptable.

Inflation was sparked, one of the big reasons was massive spending here in Washington, and now we are going to be bearing the challenges with higher debt service over the course of the next several years.

Within 5 years we are going to spend more on annual interest on the national debt than we spend on national defense.

I understand the DoD is now going to make some changes with this policy, but quite frankly, it should have never happened to begin with.