The Public Record
Johnny Isakson was a prominent Republican politician from Georgia who served as a United States Senator from 2005 until his resignation in 2019. Prior to his Senate tenure, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005. Throughout his political career, Isakson was known for his focus on issues such as education, healthcare, and veterans' affairs, often advocating for policies that supported these areas. He played a significant role in various legislative efforts, including those related to nuclear energy and environmental regulations.
I see the ranking member, Senator Blumenthal, has joined us on the floor. I might, with your permission, pose a question: If the Senator would not mind Senator Boozman making his remarks, and then Senator Blumenthal and I will close the…
Happily. The lay of the land is that we asked for 45 minutes for a colloquy to discuss the Veterans First bill, which we are in the process of doing now. Senator Blumenthal, the ranking member, will join us in a minute, and we should be…
I thank Senator Tillis for his dedicated work and representation for the people of North Carolina and the veterans of America. I am pleased now to yield to the Senator from Alaska, Mr. Sullivan.
We want to--not only do we want to put in a system that works, we do not ever want to be in a situation where we grow to a 450,000-person backlog before we do it.
A lot of times, I have bought technology equipment and IT equipment that my people really did not want.
Not only do I think it is a good idea, but I am going to appoint you and Senator Rounds to co-chair that event.
I think most of the time that it is. Unfortunately, it presents a bad image of the VA that is an image that is not really meritorious because my experience with the VA has been basically very good.
Every member, Democrat and Republican alike, had a lot to do with that thing.
I go back to my State of Georgia and Atlanta, in particular, and we are ground zero for where a lot of those people are brought, thinking they are getting into America, but end up becoming sex slaves, drug traffickers, or worse, or…
I represent the State of Georgia, the capital of which is Atlanta, which is ground zero for Mexican drugs coming into the United States.
I want to thank everyone from the VSOs for their testimony and the members of the Veterans Administration for their testimony in the previous panel.
Please help us get the remaining few holds we have got on that bill in the Senate off our bill so we can get it to the floor and pass it, because it is a major reform of the VA that is going to make a significant effect and significant…
It enhances Choice access for veterans to get provider agreements and things like that for care in the community, but it in no way moves toward the VA going out of business and privatizing the VA.
There is no Member of our Committee that I know of who has made a statement one way or another that it is in any way possible for anybody to believe that we are for privatizing the VA, first and foremost.
The VFW supports most aspects of the Care Veterans Deserve Act of 2016, but we have serious concerns with the bill's significant expansion of the Choice program.
The VA has been very much reaching out, and your leadership in passing ARCH to begin with and now memorializing that program in provider agreements and equalizing reimbursement across programs so everybody is the same was a tremendous move…
The objective that we set out to achieve here is for most appeals to be resolved within a year or less.
We are really proud of what we did when we reformed the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act and it is getting more training targeted at our veterans which is what it is all about.
Senator Blumenthal and you, I think, represent the best of us in the U.S. Senate in working together.
I am very hopeful, in fact, optimistic, that we can bring the Veterans First Act to a successful conclusion...
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