Richard Burr

There is going to be on our part the need for an unprecedented level of oversight, transparency, and accountability as part of these reauthorizations.

Would you agree that taking away someone's constitutional right to own firearms should be a pretty high threshold?

If confirmed, will you ensure that my staff and I will be provided with the requested information in a timely manner?

This is a Nation that will always be grateful for that service.

Let us make sure that we are getting as much bang for our buck.

If confirmed, will you be proactive at alerting the Committee, including both sides of the aisle, about significant issues involving VA?

VA has developed a 5-year plan to eliminate homelessness based on six integrated pillars including outreach, education, and community partnerships.

VA must ensure that these resources are being used as effectively to help struggling veterans reach positive outcomes.

I thank you for that answer. I appreciate the fact that you understand that we need to be as thorough in where we explore and what we ask.

Let me say to my colleagues, what this simply does is to take something that is happening naturally--a transition from diesel, in most cases, over to natural gas--and it accelerates it. It gives it a 5-hour energy drink. We should take…

I want to highlight the progress that we have made. There were deficiencies in our structure as to how I think we attacked the homelessness problem within the VA.

Although the Department's Enhanced Use Lease authority has expired, VA is prepared to work with Congress.

I think to some degree that is reinforced by what the IG's report came out with.

It shocks me to some degree, as much as the Chairman has been focused on homelessness and the stated commitment of the Secretary and the VA that we seem to be ignorant of the successes that exist in communities all across the country.

I think it gets to some degree as to what the IG's report identified.

I think we are all committed not just in the veterans population but in the active-duty force to make sure that wherever these pressure points are that we find a way to relieve them long before we reach a suicidal end.

I think I can speak for the Chairman in saying that the Committee is committed to do a much better job at understanding the problem and, more importantly, the trend.

I hear you loud and clear; and as a guy that is trying to get the same thing done for Camp Lejeune Marines for three decades, I hear your warning and the frustration.

We cannot let that happen to folks who have been exposed to burn pits.

It is alarming to me. I am hopeful that the IT thing will be the solution.

The VA deserves credit for trying something different. None of us know whether it will work.

When I made the comment earlier to the Secretary which will be in the form of a question that the VA took in 430,000 more claims than were decided, it is not to give the VA a black eye. It is to say let us make sure that our expectations…

The signature wounds in our wars today are about PTSD and TBI. The stigma has never been taken off PTSD.

It is particularly troubling in light of the fact that the VA could potentially face a cut of 2 percent under sequestration.

These are disturbing trends that I see from the information as we analyze the prior year.