I am concerned that VA may be relying on outside entities too heavily, and that some contracts may not provide the best possible service or value to our veterans.

I don't see how you could have 7 months and not know that you are going to need this.

Can you give me some insight on how we are attempting to improve diagnosis of Traumatic Brain Injuries?

I am concerned with some of my other colleagues' questions, too, because I am looking at TBI.

Is there an offset? If you are getting Social Security or some disability under Social Security, is there an offset for the veterans compensation?

A lot of those compensated amounts are just off-kilter. I get all these veterans coming to me saying that they are not really receiving enough money for what they really suffered.

I am still not clear on why you need Social Security data, and my time has expired.

There is a limited number. I mean, you don't have a watch list that you are looking at...

I urge you to keep up the good work and let us keep moving forward.

Well, I was talking about other agencies. Do you have HHS?

Did any of those apply to your agencies?

The reason I asked for the time periods is because I was assuming that most of the gentlemen here from the four agencies were relatively new at their positions and that you will begin to undertake these major changes, and hopefully we will…

How about you, Mr. Simpson? Does your agency have any type of penalty for failure to perform or inadequate performance?

If there is a fixed-price contract and there are cost overruns, does the contractor have to eat that cost overrun?

In terms of the budgeting, how does DOD cover the cost overruns?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

if additional resources are not provided, we risk an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible

High achievement always takes place in a framework of high expectations.

I would hope that you would say you hope to see that the students have highly improved.

That was done out of political motivations.

We want to see that the students come out of the public schools in the District of Columbia 2 years from now are highly improved based on the teachers that you have hired and this bureaucracy that has been created.

I hope that you all can survive through this on such a smaller scale, but to try to make yourself comparable to one of the 50 States is what is creating the problem.

That is interesting. And who has the responsibility of certifying teachers in the District?

That is done by the Governor.

We want this to get down to the classroom. I am looking at all this bureaucracy that is going to be here.