I think maybe this all comes together on what is possible, and Mr. Fortenberry was at the heart and the nexus of a very new way of delivering veterans care.

What we need to know, and what this Act does, is very simple. It simply clarifies that the VA has the capacity and the authority to do research into medicinal cannabis.

The VA has always been, since the early 1920s, this Nation's premier research institution.

But at the expense of and to be very honest, why blend them together if it is not just to continue to move money out of there.

Opening Statement of Walz, Hon. Tim

So, this idea that it is cheaper, it is quicker and it is better in the private sector, there is no data to support that.

But the understanding is if this money is cycled away, it drains off and will kill the VA as that institution.

I am. And I don't deny and I think there is validity in this because the issue is it is not the false choice of privatization versus VA itself; it is a hybrid model of this.

Nobody in the veterans community is saying that. Nobody wants it.

The appropriations have continued to increase for our warriors at a time of war.

There is an ideological belief and it is my belief right now that is dominating, certainly coming out of the White House that the idea is that we can go totally to the private sector care, no need for the VA.