Mark Begich

I want to make sure you concur with the understanding that Congress has on this, that you would not propose, like last year, when the Air Force tried to backdoor an effort, especially on Eielson Air Force Base.

I would like to know what 'exploring collaborations' with community and Federal providers encompasses?

So do you not then, on those that they agreed to fix, how do you know----

Percent fulfillment and so forth.

Thank you for doing the report, because without your report, I'm not sure we would have known the depth of this issue.

Did they not do that?

I look forward to further discussion on this because I think we have to be real about what these costs will be, because they will not be in the thousands, they will not be in the millions. They will be in the billions because of the amount…

Is that report still open?

This one is a big issue, as you know.

Mental health continues to be a concern in rural areas, access, wait times, etc.

Can you give me the assurance I need that they're actually doing and following up on the issues you've brought forward?

Did they give you dates that are now past due?

It's also a little piece of the bigger issue of disability claims.

I am glad to see you have identified rural veterans--$250 million is included for rural health initiatives such as mobile clinics, fee-basis care, and telemedicine.

Disability claims is a common thread among us all here

It's very frustrating to me, because being on the appropriations side and being on the authorizing side, it's kind of an interesting story.

I got a little animated on this issue, because it was somewhat amazing to me.

Help me understand. You give them a list, and tell them 29, or whatever the percent is.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order. There being no objection, the Senate, at 6:23 p.m., adjourned until Tuesday, April 16, 2013, at 10 a.m…

We can learn from them.

So all new that are leaving from now forward, they are going to complete electronically.

I want to thank you for reaching out for first people in this country, especially Alaska Native and American Indians.

If I can interrupt you on that, how much faith do you have that DOD will actually perform what you need them to do--because I know that has been a struggle in the past.

Can you restate that for me, and then tell us what is your confidence level in that?

A lot of effort is needed to make sure we move that forward.