Johnny Isakson

Do not overbureaucratize the response, or it will take entirely too long.

I appreciate your testimony and your support for the accountability piece, which will be the linchpin that will allow us to do caregivers.

What we are looking for is an explanation, for which there is none to this moment, for some of the egregious things that have happened over the last few years.

There is no intention of this Committee to have any negative impact on career civil servants of the Veterans Administration.

DAV and our members urge serious reform of the VA health care system to address access problems.

I hope that the next time that we meet we will be discussing our mutual joy and success at coming up with significant legislation for the Veterans Administration.

I remain committed to doing exactly that. Our veterans, on Memorial Day, deserve a new VA set of standards and the hope of accountability that is meaningful and real.

I want to enforce the Tester-Burr Rule, and that is where there are differences there can be common ground.

I think ultimate accountability to you as the best authority, as the leader.

I believe the American people expect, and I believe that the veterans of America expect, there to be an accountability mechanization that they understand.

The accountability piece is kind of the linchpin for me, and I have harped on it the most.

We do want accountability in the VA. Do want Choice to work, we want caregivers providing care to those injured prior to 9/11/2001 to have the same benefits as those afterwards.

Our goal is to have an omnibus bill that this Committee, Democrat and Republican alike, agrees to.

We are on the cusp--we are not there yet, but we are on the cusp--of being able to bring to the floor of the U.S. Senate a major comprehensive omnibus veterans bill.

This, in turn, will ensure veterans will be able to get the timely, quality health care they've earned.

This program will be the one program for veterans to receive care in their community.

We must fix this and get it right for our veterans.

I was proud to help author the Veterans Choice Program, and I know that program has helped many veterans get health care without having to wait long or drive far.

I want to underscore your comments and those of the ranking member on the need for us to reauthorize the State Department again.

The chairman and I went to Darfur 5 years ago, if I am not mistaken.

We always brag about them, but we never have a chance to point one out because they are always somewhere overseas.

How much do you think it would cost us to build and maintain a military base in the Middle East?

It is probably the best buy we have got in the entire budget for peace and security.

I hope you'll treat this as a partnership between the Federal Government and the States, not a dictatorship from the Federal Government to the States.

The difference is the State is the authority that enforces that requirement, not the Federal Government.