Lisa Murkowski

It was like every hearing on an annual basis.

Who is in charge of executing that plan just in terms of making sure you move through as many of them as quickly as possible?

So you sound relatively certain that the hospital provider agreement will not be terminated, that services will still continue as you are working through these issues; is that correct?

This is simply not tolerable, it's not acceptable.

What is Indian Health Service doing to collaborate with SEARHC in the development of a plan moving forward?

You've got to be kidding me. There's no way to possibly provide some upgrades to a situation that is in desperate need.

We believe that there is authority within the administration to grant regulatory waivers, but it hasn't taken action to ensure that the benefits of open enrollment and protection from cost-sharing would be available to all Indians.

Making sure that they have hope, that they do not view suicide as an answer or that they turn to substance abuse that not only takes them down but their families down and their whole communities is just so key.

This is the last year of a two-term President, and I think there are many that have said there has been time that was wasted here.

Last week I joined with Senator Leahy to introduce S. 2612 which will enable the full implementation of this agreement.

There will be no compromise. There cannot be no compromise for these healthcare benefits.

It is unacceptable because we know how to correct it because we corrected it. And then you come in and you create chaos.

We do not have very deep representation with medical specialists, but specialists who were willing to take the Choice card are now telling me they do not want to have anything to do with the hassle.

I have given you my assessment and the assessment of so many of the veterans who are coming to my office.

You cannot pull the rug out from underneath those who have earned these healthcare benefits.

I regret to tell you that we have seen very little follow up on the state of the VA health system in Alaska.

I am asking if you can assure you that NMFS will be providing that funding for the installation of currently available electronic monitoring systems on our small boats within Alaska.

Alaska has been very willing and very eager to move forward on this. We just need to know we are going to have some level of support there as well.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Secretary, welcome. We have had many opportunities to talk, and I think I always talk about fish.

The goal has been to be able to use the available technology to allow our fishermen to produce a system that gets the data.

I can tell you that just in the past 2 weeks, I have probably had no fewer than half a dozen different entities coming to me saying we have to make better progress on our charting.

If there is anything that we need to do to make that a reality, you let us know on that.

The timing on this is critical.

It's absolutely critical that the full fiscal year 2017 MILCON program that we submitted is funded this year.

Our VA health system in Alaska is a mess. I referred to it last week as chaotic.