Jon Tester

I just think it is incumbent upon this Committee, and I think it is one of the reasons I am so proud of the Chairman and Ranking Member for getting the Veterans First Act up, because I think it is a step in the right direction.

I supported it because I thought it was going to expedite care in the community when the VA could not provide that care.

This Committee has done such great work in a bipartisan manner that I hope we can continue down that line...

That is a huge problem.

It ain't going to get better.

Nobody expects the Department of Justice to do this alone.

Seventy to 80 percent of those kids born on the reservation are born addicted to drugs.

We urge our two Senators from Montana to join the Chairman and Senator McCain in sponsoring this bill.

This bill would allow tribes to better protect their communities from folks who could cause harm, regardless of whether they are Indian or non-Indian.

I would hope the department might give us...some sort of information so we can distribute to the Committee.

Why isn't the Department of Justice stepping up in Indian Country to meet the problems out there?

I want to thank Senator Tester and Senator Daines for their work this year in the Appropriations Committee.

Senator Heitkamp is right. You are in the line of fire today.

That is why we have to recognize the tribes' sovereign authority to prosecute these crimes and ensure the safety of their communities.

Thanks for holding this legislative hearing to discuss the bills we have before us today.

We cannot continue to sit back and fail to address these issues.

If the threat has emerged because of the Internet, we need to go back to that system as a fail-safe.

I will tell you that the comments about tens of millions of refugees, which is probably true, I mean, we have to work on preemption, because I do not see how we ever deal with a situation like that.

The threats of people wanting to do damage to the homeland have raised, and they were not necessarily--

I am just curious. I mean, we can solve this whole problem by getting the Black Hawks in quicker, but that is not within your purview.

I strongly support the provision in Senator Flake's legislation that provides new tools to swiftly implement watershed projects developed through a collaborative process.

It is time the Federal Government fulfill its obligations and promises to Montana's rural communities and provide needed funding to ensure our rural water projects are completed and our water rights are protected.

Okay. So you want it left the way it is from an eligibility standpoint?

Is that the kind of ratio we use? That is not much percentage-wise.

Why wasn't it done in the fall? Why wasn't it changed?