Gus Bilirakis

I urge Members to support this legislation and, in turn, support homeless veterans. I yield back the balance of my time.

I have no further requests for time. If the gentlewoman from New York has no further speakers, I am prepared to close.

I share your concerns on the completion date for the Orlando facility as well.

This bill is needed to ensure that veterans have access to the necessary information to best decide where to use their valuable and hard-earned GI benefits.

I would like to express my hope that the Senate will pass H.R. 4057 as amended.

I have grown increasingly concerned over the last several months about the future of the U.S.-Israel security relationship.

I am happy to yield 2 minutes to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Stutzman).

I am happy to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Stivers), a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

I'm happy to yield 3 minutes to a senior member of the Veterans Committee, my good friend from Florida (Mr. Stearns).

What is it going to take to get it done?

I am concerned about the inconveniences.

We need to bring them together. And I think the task force is a great way to do it.

Since the fall of Mubarak, we may have seen the end of authoritarian regime, but we have yet to see the rise of a new democratic leadership.

The legislation would require a credit and criminal background check each time a fiduciary is appointed.

The VA's fiduciary program suffers systemic weaknesses.

The same types of problems discussed at that hearing continued to happen today.

Last week I introduced H.R. 5948, The Veterans Fiduciary Reform Act of 2012.

It is abundantly clear that VA's fiduciary program requires significant improvement.

Although I applaud VA for taking the initiative to transform the claims process, we must ensure that these transformation efforts continue to progress in the right direction.

Unfortunately, as is often the case when dealing with VA, they have waited until the eleventh hour to address this contract expiration.

I know that I, and my fellow Committee Members, have many questions as to when this system will be ready for national rollout.

However, despite the development of this transformation process, the backlog continues to grow, and the rate of accuracy and processing time has, at best, remained stagnant.

It is time for VA to uphold its responsibility, to our veterans and to the American people, to break this cycle of un-productivity and deliver the benefits that the agency was created to provide.

This access to promised benefits has been made ever more difficult in recent years, as VA continues to struggle with unconscionable backlogs and unacceptable delays in getting our Nation's veterans the benefits they need.

We owe it to these heroes to not let even one of those VRAP slots go unfilled.