Currently, there are approximately 45,000 veterans in southern Minnesota who would be eligible for burial in a veterans' cemetery.

It is my hope that by bringing all parties together here today, we can make progress in evaluating the Veterans' Cemetery Grants Program and, ultimately, to serve the needs of our veterans as best we can.

As our veteran population continues to age, and as we wind down two overseas conflicts, the placement of our national and state veterans' cemeteries becomes increasingly important.

the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and my Subcommittee will continue to listen to your needs and work to fix several issues that we discussed here today.

So we really have given more control back to the local states, given back control to the local regions to make these with support from the Federal Government.

Therefore, I would respectfully request that everyone be courteous to our witnesses and remain silent until the hearing is formally adjourned.

I see that that spirit of collaboration and stewardship of taxpayer dollars, as well as fulfilling our moral obligation to our veterans is alive and well.

And I might add, it feels like I spent a lot of my life up at Camp Ripley, and I can tell you that that facility is second to none.

I look forward to hearing more from the citizens of Fillmore County as well as the VA in today's testimony.

I wish people could actually watch how we do things in the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Often with my colleagues, they hear me talk about southern Minnesota and I can see them roll their eyes.