Providing veterans with an opportunity for employment is a top priority of this committee.

Most of these programs you discussed are new programs. While veterans issues are at the forefront today in people's minds here and in Congress' mind, these programs, you know, will endure while they are at the center.

Maintaining our nation's economic leadership in the decades ahead will require highly skilled and educated employees.

Information that the VA has provided us recently suggests that simply breaking out the work load into what they call those segmented lanes resulted in a ten percent processing increase during the first 60 days.

I think our number one priority should be making sure the veteran is taken care of, not whether or not that claim is processed in a regional office.

As I have said before, today's plans and projects are tomorrow's hospitals and clinics, and - whether it is by building the new, renovating the old, or leasing the existing - our allegiance must always be to the veterans who rely on VA to…

It seems, however, that even though VA has a plan, they struggle to execute it.

In preparing your answers to these questions, please provide your answers consecutively and single-spaced.

Repeatedly, the IG and the GAO has pointed out serious issues with mismanagement, overage, delays in construction within the VA system.

Providing veterans timely, quality health care in a safe environment is a focus of this Committee and one I stand firmly behind.

Unfortunately, most of those reviews have repeatedly pointed out serious issues of mismanagement, lack of oversight, overages on expenditures, delays in construction, and multiple instances of insufficient guidance.