Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the blessings of this day.

If Committee members have any opening statement prepared, I ask that they submit them for the record.

That is what we are needing to try to find out because our understanding is we are not supposed to be duplicative with this.

As part of the omnibus legislation passed last year, Congress increased the leverage allowable to the SBICs from $225 million to $350 million.

Earlier this week the President took aim at our Second Amendment rights. We know his purpose was to restrict the constitutional right of law- abiding citizens. It will undermine our personal privacy rights. It will make it to where due…

This shows why rural economic development is so important to supporting agriculture.

I thank the gentleman from Kentucky and my neighbor across the river. Mr. Speaker, the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan rule is a dagger aimed at the heart of the coal industry and affordable, American-made energy. According to…

Farming looks mighty easy when the plow is a pencil and you are a thousand miles from a corn field.

The most important obligation we have is to keep Americans safe. As Paris has reminded us, there truly is evil in the world. We know that our seas and our borders alone will not protect us. We must act swiftly and smartly in the face of…

It seems to me that small farmers and ranchers have been neglected for too long.

We would also like to commend Representatives Bost and Meng for introducing H.R. 3714, to modernize small business size standards for farmers and ranchers.

I want to thank you for bringing this up before the Subcommittee, and I would encourage everybody for an aye vote to try to move it on to the Full Committee.

VA has to figure out what type of sensible metrics will be used or Congress will make them up for you.

I simply don't understand why in the year 2015 we are still relying on the U.S. Postal Service or a fax machine to submit VA paperwork.

It shouldn't happen.

I think you'll see more of the small type of home builder re-enter the market and I think that ends up benefiting everyone.

With the possibility of nine billion people on the planet by 2050, we need to produce more food on less land leading during that time.

So it seems to me that the veterans who are most in need of the services of the VR&E are those who are either unemployed or homeless or both.

So you two are obviously very impressive. But obviously the concern of this committee is how do we make things easier?

Mr. Leghorn, can you go into a little more detail maybe about the type of feedback you have been getting from HR departments for larger employers on the effectiveness of the VEC?

the veteran process, whether it is trying to get employment or access your GI benefits, should not be an exercise of banging their head against a wall

Yes, you know as I listen to this and listen to the fact that, great idea, would both of you agree with that?

I want to do the right thing.

I believe that a majority of the people there are trying to provide the best possible service they can for our veterans.

Do you see why the American people, first off, they feel like they're being lied to?