My concern about that--and we'll talk to others about it--this is a rule that the--CMS is the federal agency...

Could you define expansion? Are we talking 20, 30 percent, 40 percent? I mean----

Every day that you delay a nursing-home placement, the veteran is happier and the taxpayers are happier.

Your costs didn't go down? Your cost didn't go down----

Stabilize the workforce. This is directly tied to increased reimbursements, as you've heard, which need to be tied to inflation.

So awareness is a big part of the issue?

I mean that can't work for very long.

I like the idea. In other words, additional federal funds not generally but targeted toward workforce retention?

We need a sustainable system of care. And if we want that sustainable system of care, we have to fund it. Our veterans deserve it.

That's a scary thought, isn't it?

I'm so grateful for your office, Senator King.

I'm sorry nobody said we're not gonna return these phone calls, it just didn't happen.

It would be nice to have WiFi in the CBOCs; just saying.

Fifteen percent is the gap?

I think that's something we have to figure out how to waive or something.

Well, I think that's--that's something that you're going to have to be thinking about because it ties back to the workforce problem.

It would help if we had a budget, not a continuing resolution.

We want to keep that permanent.

It's not exactly a morale booster.

This is a field hearing of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Will that access information include information about VA availabilities?

I think Brunswick or Portland is halfway between Madawaska and New York City. People don't realize how tall Maine is.

Certainly that's important. You have what amounts to a nursing home at Togus.

Someone asked Buckminster Fuller, the famous architect, for advice on how to live a long life. His answer was 'always use the bannister.'

The good is we have a historically low unemployment rate, but that creates the question of the migratory workforce.