I personally believe we have to focus on prevention to stop the cycle before it begins.

We owe them much more than that.

I would love to see this Committee and the VA have a roundtable on mental health issues and mental health services.

Clearly, the studies that have been done up until this time didn't take into account benzene, or to the same level of concern, TCE and/or PCE.

We have an obligation to figure out how much of these dangerous chemicals veterans and their families were exposed to and what impact these exposures might have had on their health.

Providing health care to veterans and their families would be one step toward meeting, I think, our moral obligation to those who we put at risk.

The proposed build-out of the HUD-VASH program to a level of 60,000 vouchers by FY 2014 would effectively mean the end of chronic homelessness among veterans in this Nation.

We urge this distinguished committee to adopt the language in H.R. 2735 on this issue, and authorize a change in the law.

This measure [S. 1160] was first introduced by then-Senator Barack Obama in the 110th Congress.

The only other great hope we have is that the Senate will rise up in unity to support the Homes for Heroes Act of 2009.

You need to keep us informed on this.

the safety of the U.S. public is of paramount interest to us, and I am committed to doing everything I can to achieve that.

A 25 percent cost overrun is extraordinary.

I can understand if you didn't know a 3 percent cost overrun, but 25 percent, for heaven's sake, that seems to me unfathomable that you didn't know that.

It seems to me unfathomable that you did not know that there would be significant cost overruns.

I look forward to today's testimony so that we can ensure our advisory committees are acting in a balanced and transparent manner.

I hope this issue is part of the discussion today because it is the 800-pound gorilla in the room when it comes to access to affordable health care for women.

I think the expansion of Medicaid is a flunk to what the President suggested, and that's quality and access have to be linked.