Brian Schatz

I want to know where VA is on getting a new CBOC for Hilo because this is the highest priority for Big Island veterans.

Thank you for holding this hearing to review the VA's fiscal year 2018 budget request and the 2019 advanced appropriation request.

Your openness today will help us know how to best help you.

I hope today's hearing will cover all aspects of VA, and I urge my colleagues to leave no stone unturned.

I support these efforts, but I want to hear from you today how we can help you avoid situations where you don't have the funds needed to provide the care veterans expect.

I would love to see Congress address it.

The programs fund broadband access in libraries and schools, and provide low-income Americans access to opportunities that can lead to a better life.

We can't close that divide without USF, which is why the FCC has done a lot of work since 2011 to update USF and refocus it on deploying broadband.

The largest carriers have strategic commitments to nonrural businesses and are underinvesting in a way that affects the largest number of rural customers across the country.

First, we have to remain vigilant against waste, fraud, and abuse.

USF, as you all know, was created to make sure that all Americans have the security and the opportunities that come with being connected to essential communications networks.

I worry that the way the FCC has implemented its USF mandate does not always account for that uniqueness.

But today it's not enough to have access to voice services; access to broadband is a necessity for people to be able to participate in society.

This is unacceptable.

Telehealth can provide innovative means of making healthcare more flexible and patient-centric.

Do you think that that 13-person group would benefit from the perspective of a woman?

As you know, there is a 13-person group of men, not the HELP Committee, not the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, not the leadership, just 13 men literally meeting in secret talking about what to do with around one-sixth of the…

I worry about fits and starts and what kind of signaling that sends about our resolve, as China continues to violate and challenge international law.

I think the concern is the message it sends by condoning separate treatment of Native communities by this Committee.

On a political level, I think it is a very different question for Hawaiians in general.

It dishonors the legacies of Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel Akaka and threatens the future work of the Committee.

The BUILD Act is a dramatic departure from the norm. By leaving out Native Hawaiians, this bill is an attack on my State and my people.

What Senator Heitkamp said is really exactly right which is that what we are doing here is trying to accommodate the fact that we cannot get cloture or we are not going to be able to get unanimous consent.

I think the public deserves to know exactly how this all plays out.

I know he is going to do the right thing, as I would, and defend the integrity of that investigation.