The Chairman has been incredibly accommodating to me this morning. You stated that you felt that updating the ratings schedule was a very high priority task. Do you believe that the VA agrees with that being a very high priority task?

Is unduly restrictive . . . and inconsistent with current models of disability.

I trust my colleague. He said our goal is to only get safe products to market.

I have deep respect for Senator Harkin--debating tobacco. And at that point, the FDA was the only agency in the world that could regulate tobacco.

We needed better outcomes, we needed more investment to make sure that the outcomes of the American people were, in fact, better.

I might note that this is not a cheap investment.

I happen to believe, as you know, that the disability system needs to be, for the lack of a better word, updated to reflect where we are and the new ways that we have got to think in the future.

I think a process that takes that long is indefensible. Our veterans and their families deserve better.

Earlier this year at one of our hearings, I think a number of organizations testified that the VA Appeals Management Center should be dissolved. They called it a black hole.

Perhaps the most significant shortcomings of the current system of veterans' benefit determinations and their judicial review is the delay that veterans face.

I appreciate that, and for the purpose of my colleagues to understand that there is a learning curve that these people have to go through.