Tim Walz

Thank you for holding this bipartisan and important hearing.

We just have to make sure that, as we put regulations in place, they mesh with what are the best practices.

The situation in Phoenix and elsewhere that provided even one veteran substandard care is simply unacceptable.

I think restoring that trust is one of the first and paramount things.

I never understood as a military person myself why there was no equivalent of the quadrennial defense review?

The report you issued is very damning to the VA.

I think this is the thing, and we have heard it before, I mean it is hard to fathom that this kind of stuff happens or the pettiness that goes on.

I stand with you to get it done.

I and jointly with Ranking Member Tim Bishop have written a letter to the House Appropriations Committee requesting their support in directing EPA resources towards pilot projects.

Our goal is clean water, and that is best achieved by focusing more on facilitating compliance and less on punitive enforcement mechanisms.

If we miss this opportunity or don't cease to rise to the occasion, then shame on all of us.

I think all of us where you get it, we are trying to separate adequate resources from effective use of those resources.

I am concerned with the process by which this interpretive rule was effectively finalized.

This is one of our greatest opportunities to make lasting improvement.

This is a pivotal moment that we are at, pivotal.

I believe this IR has regulatory effect and that this effect may serve to dis-incentivize the very practices we are hoping to promote.

This nation is committed to getting this right.

The core mission of the VA needs to remain intact. We need to strengthen it.

What we do possibly within the next weeks and months will have decades long implications.

I respectfully request that you withdraw the interpretive rule.

This is a bipartisan effort, but--and the chairman and I are friends and he knows me well enough, he knows that nobody does passive-aggressiveness like Minnesotans.

We all know there should be one record. We all know that DoD and VA should work together.

It's incredibly disappointing to hear how you've been handled. It's beyond the pale that some of this would go on.

We need to figure out a national veterans' policy. We need to have a national focus on this.

We should be stewards of every taxpayer dollar and no veteran should receive a claim that doesn't deserve it.