Daniel Akaka

I appreciate reading about you and also listening to what you are saying today because many things that you are espousing here is music to my ears, and I am so glad to hear you say them.

I am encouraged by your statement on the importance of congressional oversight, and if confirmed, I hope you will encourage greater transparency and accountability throughout the DHS.

I am planning to introduce legislation that provides effective tools to recruit, retain, and develop national security employees.

It is good to have you here with the Subcommittee.

We have so much more to do, but we are going to have to work together to do it.

Well, thank you very much for your responses. It will be helpful to this Subcommittee, and I want to thank you for being here today and wish you well in your future work.

Well, I am glad to hear that the move is in that direction.

Recruiting, retaining, and developing the next generation of national security employees is critically important.

I want to say aloha and welcome to our witnesses, and thank you so much for being here today.

I think the fact is that we are trying to create a place that families can call home.

I want to thank my Ranking Member for his profound statement to the panel and especially the VA.

S. 475, if enacted, would place a spouse in a more advantageous position to servicemembers on the question of payment of state taxes.

Ultimately, the concern would be that the most favorable situation be created for the overall family.

It stands to reason--and I believe it happens in practice--that an active duty servicemember who enters the service in New York and is first stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, will retain his residency in New York.

I look forward to working with you and the Members of this Committee to advance legislation that will help improve the lives of servicemembers, veterans, and their families.

This bill will also allow military spouses the flexibility to hold property in their own names, something the rest of us probably take for granted.

I hope this would help injured servicemembers experience a more seamless transition from active duty to civilian life.

The legislation before us focuses on providing assistance to veterans disabled while serving their country.

This would provide them with the financial tools to arrange whatever services they need to live in their own homes.

Without an annual COLA increase, these veterans and their families would see the value of their hard-earned benefits slowly diminish.

VA supports a cost-of-living adjustment of this nature.

The passage of S. 407, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009, is critical.

Thank you very much, Mr. Duvall.

Should there be further legislation that would help the cause, we certainly want to consider that as well.

It is important that we continue to educate, protect, and empower consumers.