Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman (Mr. Lamborn) for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor and truly a God-given pleasure to be here tonight to speak on the 77th anniversary of National Bible Week. When you are among colleagues…

Now, having said that, those of us who have had the honor to wear the cloth of our Nation know, number one, first and foremost, it is our mission to win the fight, and, number two, is to take care of everyone else after that.

So then if you're the captain of that ship, if you will, you're the director of that medical center, and you know that to eliminate that infection rate because of the use of a dirty instrument is going to ensure better outcomes for your VA…

If you don't assume the mission and take control of it and take responsibility for it, we're going to be having hearings like this again.

When you have a veteran who's getting a procedure done today, and if they have to think that they're assuming risk--that's shameful.

We want to make sure the veterans don't get infections because instruments aren't cleaned.

So then what I hear, the VISN is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Are you saying that outside the VA system there's not enough data, not enough standardization procedures that we can just take what's working in another hospital somewhere--are we reinventing the wheel here?

The need for government-wide verification of SDVOSBs is a perennial issue that has existed since the SDVOSBs preferences were created.

It is unfair that companies that cannot pass muster move on to operate in less strict areas of the contracting world.

The service disabled veteran-owned small business, or SDVOSB, contracting preference program is a crucial element of the commitment of this country, of our country, and its government that we make to our veterans.