we do a lot of outreach. We hear all the time how they can't get in to see somebody from VocRehab.

Millions of Americans are unquestionably better off because of the basic research that the National Science Foundation has funded over decades.

Perhaps my colleague, Mr. O'Rourke, is right that both of these programs should not be in the same administration.

This impact on not having consistent high-level funding is making our research institutions like UConn and Yale in my State of Connecticut are having increasing difficulty in retaining the top-tier talent.

Staying focused on veterans' employment, education, and compensation may admittedly be difficult with all of the other issues swirling around the VA these days; however, that is our job and we will do that job in this meeting here today.

We are seeing the impacts of that across the board.

It is currently a problem, because our point should be to enable our veterans.

if the end-users, the veterans we are here to serve, are not able to access, we have a problem, right?

I think we all owe it to them to make sure that those legacy appeals don't just disappear.

Thank you all for your hard work and your testimony before us here today.

that undermines the faith of the American people.

There is no free lunch, there is no free road, there is no free bridge.

I want to thank all of you for saying there is an immediate need. It is about real funding.

we appreciate your persistence and resilience under this very long hearing.

According to the administration, a key element of this infrastructure proposal is to empower decisionmaking at the State and local level because these are the officials who know best the infrastructure needs of their own communities.

What we need is a sound, long-term investment at the Federal level that will create millions of jobs, boost local economies, and pay dividends for generations to come.

I think most of us have found our experience with TIGER grants is Governors are the ones who decide and prioritize those.

we really do want to figure out a way to get to yes with the administration on something that will be good.

I was just home in Connecticut. They see this as pushing the problem down onto the States and local government.

We have aging Interstate Highway Systems and local and State authorities are not in a position to pay for the redo of all of those.

However, if we look at this chart, we will see that 80 percent of the funding under this proposal goes to projects selected or approved by the administration, not by State and local government.

the President's promised $1 trillion has turned out to be only $200 billion over 10 years.

An investment of $1 trillion in Federal infrastructure funding will create or sustain 16 million jobs.

Either we pass real serious legislation or people are going to turn out in November and vote for a Congress that's going to actually do something about this issue.

He certainly likes the idea of doing something nobody else has done.