Thank you, Chairman Mann, for holding this hearing. You look good in that chairmanship.

I think it is a misdirection of priorities to send that much future taxpayer funding, again, to what we consider a manmade crisis at the southern border.

In fact, in the last Congress, we passed a bill, the Brandon Act, because a veteran in my district went to the VA Center, was denied care, and 5 hours later committed suicide.

Would you agree that these veterans, frustrated by access to critical care, would be at elevated risk for suicide?

So we can't let this happen, right? I mean, this is a vulnerability for the safety and security of our country, is it not?

I think I ought to point out that it's been very public, it's a matter of public record that President Biden himself aggressively took advantage of it to save himself as much as $500,000.

I am very concerned about how the VA has interpreted and differentiated between institutional and uninstitutional extended care.

Never should a veteran walk out of that VA in crisis. I think clearly something has to be done here around these access points.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball team for winning the 2023 Naismith National Player of the Year award, the AP Player of the Year award, the Wooden Award National Player of…

Many taxpayers accept complexity that favors them.

One of my top concerns with the crisis we are seeing at our southern border is that we know that individuals on the terror watch list, sex offenders, some of these transnational gang members, drug traffickers, human traffickers, the list…

The most important metric of success is whether the suicide rate has gone down, and unfortunately, it has gone up.

Had the VA sent us testimony in a more timely manner, let me emphasize that, had the VA sent us testimony in a more timely manner, I would have liked to have addressed the initiatives they are talking about today.

The Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) Transparency Act (S. 127) requires transparency reporting by PBMs to shine sunlight on prices and fees associated with prescription drugs.

Prohibits deceptive, unfair pricing schemes, including spread pricing and arbitrary clawbacks of payments made to pharmacies.

The current drug price system is so opaque that it is easy to see why there are many questions about PBM motives and practices.

I believe the key way that we can solve high prescription drug prices is to have more transparency.

Something ought to get done this Congress, considering the fact that there is already a bill out of Judiciary, a bill out of Commerce.