There is no compromise on what our veterans have earned, so know that we are going to keep working at it.

We can get them back in, because they are great providers, they are great partners of us.

It took a long time, but we got there.

We are having a difficult time with provider attrition.

We have low morale. We have fear of retaliation.

With a signature of that ROD, we are really very excited for a host of different reasons.

the current leadership team at the VA took a system that was working well in our State and went about dismantling it.

the failings of the Choice program in Alaska.

I think this is the first time that we have seen one another since you visited us in Alaska.

I personally think it was a tragedy that we could not keep her.

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

We need to ditch Choice, we need to go back to what we had built where VA have identified community providers.

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

We need to get back to where we were in Alaska. This bill will do to that or we are not advocating it.

The timing on this is critical.

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

You know that you do not have it now.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.