I question whether the VA should conduct its own major construction at all.

What is absolutely clear is that before any money is given to the VA to bail them out of the mess they created in Aurora, VA construction officials responsible for this travesty must be held accountable.

After the gross mismanagement that occurred in Aurora, why shouldn't the Army Corps of Engineers or someone else build all major construction projects for VA?

This is simply outrageous and could very well make the hospital the most expensive in our nation's history.

Today we will address H.R. 571, the Veterans Affairs Retaliation Prevention Act of 2015.

On rollcall No. 117, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.'' ____________________

I thank the chairman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 280 because, like most Americans, I am appalled at the bonuses awarded to officials within the Department of Veterans Affairs despite gross…

I think that is just characteristic of your glossing over the extraordinary problems confronted by your department.

For you to say that you are going to the Army Corps of Engineers to advise you as to how to correct the extraordinary problems, let me tell you I think what you need to do is focus on providing the healthcare benefits and the other…

Each major construction project is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. That is a problem.

The fundamental challenge is for this organization to reflect your values and I am not sure that that is going to happen.

It is going to take until October of this year to find out that you are in violation of the law when you are already in violation of the law.

I want to thank the oversight of the American Legion on this critical issue. And Ranking Member Kuster, I think you have a great idea, we will do a follow-on hearing to make sure that this is all implemented that we are talking about today.

I don't understand why you have to go through some kind of bureaucratic process to determine that you are in violation of law when you are already in violation of law.

I think it was probably at the top of his list, was dealing with the veterans' homelessness...

I must be kind of simple, because I am looking at this bird sanctuary on this property...

An Examination of Waste and Abuse Associated With VA's Management of Land-Use Agreements.

I just think that it is such an outrage that--we all have homeless veterans in our areas...

Today, I join my colleagues as we address one of the challenges within Veterans Affairs--our goal: ensuring our veterans are provided the best possible care to heal from the wounds associated with being a victim of military sexual trauma…

I want to make sure that our wounded, double amputee above the knees, 2-year rehabilitation, remains on active duty.

And we need transparency, and we don't have that right now in the VA system.

My obligation to the veterans of this country is to make sure that the VA can function and meet the obligation to our Nation's veterans.

As bad as the cost overruns are right now--we are hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. We are years behind schedule.

I think that the fundamental mistake made by the Congress--and I was an Army veteran, I went to the University of Colorado under the Vietnam-era GI Bill...

I think we ought to look at going back to that Vietnam-era plan where we give an amount of money to a veteran and let the veteran shop for what program.