Tim Walz

I think it's important information with the hearing that's going to be next week up in New Hampshire with Ms. Kuster.

My concern is, though, when do we make a decision that we've tried hard enough or that we've reached that point.

As you have heard, I associate myself with the remarks of the positive nature of the provisions in this bill. It has been the House Veterans' Affairs Committee that has been in the forefront of improving veterans care, from the post-9/11…

I know in this case that the commitment from the VA is there to get this on the forefront.

I think it is probably happening. But there is a disconnect between that, the private sector pain management experts.

We treat addiction after it is there, good luck.

I think it is important to--as this Commission, maybe one of the last bastions in the Congress of trying to stand on human rights as a whole and talk about the importance of our policies.

I can assure you, Mr. Smith, we are raising this, we are talking about these issues.

I cannot tell you that I feel like it is necessarily any better on the rule of law on human rights, stretching from religious freedoms to reproductive freedoms to many of the other issues that we have discussed in here.

I said, 'That is not so surprising. What is more troubling to me is that students here might not know what happened.'

Please don't ever stop speaking about it. Please tell our story. Please tell what is going on. It is critically important.

in the spirit of trying to find a balance between compassion, smart economic policy, and being good stewards of taxpayer dollars, that is our responsibility

But we cannot decouple economic growth from human rights growth, and, as a Nation, we need to hold those ideas up.

This Congress has no more passionate, committed human rights champion than Chris Smith.

I think with the first couple of Presidents there was some movement, some movement, but I believe that under this current regime they have taken some big steps backward.

I think as a Nation, that we can't decouple our economic interests from our human rights and our values.

The Chairman on this Committee did that in a--what I considered an assault towards one of the basic safety net features in crop insurance, and did a masterful job of making sure we keep that important program intact.

That hearing last week was the best hearing we have had in this Committee in two years.

I appreciate the hearing. It is another example that the Chairman of the full Committee, Mr. Conaway, is here, another example this is a bipartisan Committee that actually is interested in moving things forward.

The Chairman has mentioned it, not a lot of cotton in southern Minnesota, but as a kid who grew up chocking cockleburs in cornfields, there is probably not a lot of difference between chocking pigweed and cotton.

I would close, Mr. Wright, by thanking you for that quote from William Jennings Bryan.

Thank you all for your testimony. It is really helpful.

I have to tell you, my veterans have no faith that it is going to work, they don't believe this.

This is about education. This is the way that Congress is supposed to work.

I thank the subcommittee chairman and the ranking member for the time. More importantly, I thank both of them and their respective staffs for the bipartisan and continuously exceptional effort to serve our veterans. I thank them for the…