we have had jurisdictional issues and a challenging time conducting oversight because of the structure of the Capitol Police Board.

So, Mr. Chairman, I would ask that you consider when you prepare your chairman's mark, this as an example of where we are shortchanging our own needs by not having the kind of expertise over a long extended period of time at CRS.

If a Member is using Dropbox and they have not gotten permission since January of 2016 to use Dropbox...

Thank you. Mr. Ayers, thanks for the really incredibly good job that you have done and your stewardship over the Architect of the Capitol, and thanks to your staff because I think they are among the finest in the country.

Diversity has been a problem.

I stand in opposition to the Republican pay more for less care act, under which Americans will suffer from higher healthcare costs, less coverage, a crushing age tax, and a ransacking of the Medicare trust fund, which our seniors depend on…

I want to focus on military quality of life, because at that hearing that we had in March...

Okay. And then just as I run out of time, on the Board of Veterans Appeals and the backlog...

I look forward to being surprised.

I would like to follow up with your office so that you can be aware of this technology.

I would suggest to all my colleagues on the committee that if there is a place that cries out for an exemption if this hiring freeze is going to continue, it would be the OIG at the VA.

And we do appreciate you being here on fairly short notice so that we can discuss the VA's efforts to modernize its electronic health records platform.

To best identify the needs of our veterans it is important that we hear from them and partner with those who know them best, our VSOs.

So are you concerned that you will be unable to hire the necessary additional auditors and employees that you need to be able to do the appropriate amount of oversight that is necessary here?

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, for yielding, and I appreciate you agreeing to hold this important public witness hearing.

Because there are literally lives at stake from getting it wrong.

I would ask both the chair--both chairs--to please consider doing that, just so we can delve into a little bit more detail.

The frustrating thing here is that the VA--and I say VA, not you--but the VA's foot-dragging and missteps have become our emergency.

I don't think it is clear how it works and what happens from beginning to end, every hour of every day.

When I got on the Appropriations Committee, I inherited, as the then-chair of the Leg Branch Subcommittee, helping to bring in for a landing the really unbelievably blown timeline and cost of the CVC.

We have lives at stake.

And you don't qualify for an exemption in the hiring freeze policy?

Do they all receive the same training?

So leaving it in place just for one fiscal year and having it expire would be devastating to people who are in the midst of a fertility cycle.

I think you can understand the doubt that I feel, given that the VA has already had a problem with fudging and altering data to reflect better numbers than reality.