Jon Tester

I believe he is cleared on our side and so if, Mr. Chairman, if you and the other members of this subcommittee can make that plea to your caucus to take off the hold so we can get him confirmed, it could make a big difference.

The nondefense discretionary cap is going to be $3 billion lower than it is this year, so we are going to get a double whammy off this thing, if you know what I mean.

The very first meetings that I was at in Senate Veterans' Affairs, we talked about interoperability between the DOD and VA.

The question is when and at what point in time are we going to be interoperable to the point where the information that the DOD has, and by the way, if it is not good information coming to you, you do not have good information.

I do have some issues that are more parochial. I will put those forward to you in writing to get back to me.

If the same thing would have happened there on private property, would it have been 2 years for the cleanup under the same circumstances? I hope not.

I hope you can track these numbers. You know them.

The bottom line is the Choice program is broken. We need to fix it, and we need to fix it as soon as possible.

This is going to leave a hell of a hole, guys.

Earlier this year I introduced legislation with Senator Sullivan and some others that would provide veterans with the option of filing a fully developed appeal that would be adjudicated through an expedited process.

Today with a number of my colleagues, including Senator Udall and Blumenthal, I am introducing legislation called the Improving Veterans Access to Care in the Community Act.

We have to simplify the appeal process so that there are not so many bites at the apple.

Together all of these things would assure that the VA is better able to utilize the tools at its disposal to better meet the healthcare needs of veterans.

By providing spending flexibility across community care programs, this legislation would provide the VA with the ability it needs in places like Montana and other areas.

Would you agree that if we do not get that bill done, that it could have a dramatic impact or continue the kind of impacts we are having on veterans right now with Choice?

Moving forward, it will put in place a less complex and confusing framework for Care in the Community.

If you need $1.3 billion for the new hires that we are hiring and it is not in the budget for 2018, we are not doing our job.

We need your help on.

Could you speak specifically to the progress that is being made, if any, and I hope there is being progress made on this, by the way, to more properly adjudicate claims involving military sexual trauma?

The VA has previously said that a failure to address this issue would have enormous negative impacts on veterans' access to healthcare.

And do you feel this budget is adequate? No, I do not.

Are you confident that this budget that you are putting forward, those priorities on research particularly, will be heading in the right direction?

For farmers to do trial and error is a good way to go broke.

I think that you have done some positive things for research in here.

I do not want you to get into those details.