Mark Takano

Protecting workers with adequate break and rest protections, and air-conditioning is not rocket science.

We can do much better.

The goal here is to give veterans every single credit they deserve for their previous work experience in the military.

This hearing comes at a perfect time, as we gear up for the reauthorization of WIOA.

I ask all my colleagues to join me in passing S. 475, a bill to designate the clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Gallup, New Mexico, as the Hiroshi ``Hershey'' Miyamura VA Clinic. Let me just add that I had three great uncles…

I ask all of my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 1530, as amended, the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I ask all my colleagues to join me in passing H.R. 3981, as amended, and I yield back the balance of my time.

The VA EHR is a bipartisan mess, and it calls for bipartisan solutions.

I certainly hope we do get this issue fixed.

Yesterday, we received the quarterly patient safety data that was mandated by Representative Frank Mrvan's EHR Transparency Act in the last Congress.

I look forward to continuing to work with my House and Senate colleagues to ensure that we get this bill finalized and enacted into law as soon as possible.

It cannot be understated how big this problem is, both in terms of cost and scale, but a modern EHR is necessary if we want VA to be able to provide world class healthcare.

I share Ranking Member Cherfilus-McCormick's belief that VA must focus on developing a baseline EHR that minimizes deviations as the program moves forward.

We cannot allow DoD to pressure VA into going live prematurely just so that DoD can reach its goals.

I am concerned, though, to hear that VA is moving forward with the program at the Lovell Federal Healthcare Center.

I mean obviously the California taxpayers support and subsidize this education, but it is possible to I think produce an affordable undergraduate experience.

Given the fact that free community college was stripped from the reconciliation package, we have to look at other ways to address costs for students and institutions.

I want to remind folks that community colleges are not just entities that serve as steppingstones to 4-year institutions.

If we are serious about lowering costs for students, universal free community college would have lowered costs for students across the board.

We must be especially careful not to put more veterans at risk.

However, what we have said and will continue to say is that any change to a program or policy must be evidence-based and data-driven.

Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, this committee is embarking down a different path, and it is trotting out a highly charged, highly partisan bill.

At no time during this hearing have you heard anyone on our side of the aisle assert that the fiduciary program is infallible.

The rights, if you believe that they pre-existed the Constitution, that the Constitution attempts to preserve, was a practical attempt by very practical men

Perhaps this committee should be interested in pursuing and urging VA, or requiring VA, or mandating VA to do more studies, to get more information, to look at the data more carefully.