Lisa Murkowski

The Senator greatly appreciates the Secretary's time and attention to the unique needs of Alaska with respect to broadband deployment.

I want to shift now to broadband.

So, I mean, this has been the challenge, is the ability to understand and predict what we can anticipate year over year.

Which has been a frustration of mine because again we've got to figure it out here and we're all trying to look into that crystal ball to understand where we're going, what is it going to look like, and we've asked for a more reliable…

Including whether or not overpayments have been made?

But since the 105(l)s have started being paid, we've seen estimates really kind of all over the board, I think wildly unpredictable, and they have certainly injected some budget uncertainty into the process.

Yes, it's always about our resourcing, but it's also a matter of prioritization.

So there's some buzz out there that this may be a situation where Cook Inlet was just one example.

So if you're planning on sending this plan up, I don't see how you're giving us the time as whether we are authorizing or whether we are appropriating to consider this in a way that is viewed as a serious proposal.

I think there's going to continue to be a need for both the village-built clinics program and the 105(l) lease account.

So in theory, if there's not a discretionary proposal for the Interior bill this year, there's $6.6 billion that is currently unaccounted for.

So your thoughts on whether you separate them out and can you tell me where you may be on this report for village-built clinics (VBCs)?

So you don't see that there would be any additional scrutiny or anything that would slow or hinder these renegotiations then?

So, Mr. Chairman, my time is well over. I may come back to this because I'm trying to determine whether or not there's been any type of a comprehensive analysis of whether or not overpayments are at issue and the extent of that.

I believe that IHS has been chronically underfunded and we need to make improvements.

I have consistently raised this funding as a priority in our hearings.

So oversight again absolutely key to everything that we do around here.

We recognize that this is going to help with the mental health and behavioral health issues that we have spoken about

I appreciate that, and please let us know how we can help with again a transformation that I think is quite significant.

I think this is great news. I think it's already bringing energy to our troops.

You just can't surge it up for 6 months and then take those resources away and expect all to be well in the world.

We are watching daily as the kind of bulking up of NATO's East Flank continues with Russia, but we can't take our eyes off the fact that we have a Western Flank.

It rocks my confidence in the court.

I did not support it last time because I felt it was over expensive. If there is something new that is on the table today. Obviously, we take a look at that.

It's your VA, too, and so how we can make sure that they feel supported and reached out to.