It takes compassion and, as I have said in previous hearings, someone on the other end of the phone who sounds like they want to help.

Your insight into VA's mental health programs will be tremendously helpful to this Committee.

I come to the floor today because in just a little over 2 hours we are going to take up the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014. Let me explain what that is. The Child Care and Development Block Grant Program was created in…

as the ranking member of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I rise today to pay tribute to Jerry L. Hedrick, a lifelong North Carolinian, distinguished public servant, a United States Army veteran, and a leader of distinction at many…

If you'd get that to us, I'd appreciate it.

My math says we're going to be behind the eightball on day one because we won't have enough beds.

We're going to break every fail-safe that exists at the FDA.

The numbers that we look at suggest for every infected individual that they will infect somewhere between 5 and 20 additional individuals.

I think we've already spiraled. I think we're in that spiral now.

I think we continue to be a step behind up until this point, this response point.

Today the Committee is holding another hearing on the state of health care within VA, specifically focusing on the final IG report released last month as it relates to Phoenix.

This legislation is a first step in providing veterans with the ability to choose where they receive care if VA is unable to provide care within a timely manner or if they live greater than 40 miles from a VA facility.