Tim Walz: “I would just like to respond to the chairman. I, too, have not made the argument on privatization. I do not believe that…”

“I would just like to respond to the chairman. I, too, have not made the argument on privatization. I do not believe that is the goal here. I do not believe that is what we talked about. If there are those that have that, that is not the intention of this committee, the chairman, his staff, or anyone involved with this. And when we did talk--and I think this could be an interesting way for this House to listen to how we do this. There was transparency in these negotiations, and we sat in front of people and did them. And one of the issues in there was we had to build the capacity amongst the VSOs. We need to stop for a minute. There may be times we need to take those hard votes against it, but I ask all of the Members to think about this, Madam Speaker. All of the veterans service organizations have lined up in opposition to this. {time} 1430 Now, that doesn't mean that they are totally right, and it doesn't mean that there isn't something here we can talk and debate about. The question is trying to get their goodwill. I think when we talked the last time, we had some leases, and I am not calling them token, but in the budget of the big VA, which I do think in many cases is adequately funded, trying to get some of that to show the sense of goodwill.…”