"It is unacceptable and irresponsible not to have that position filled by somebody and I call on the Administration to do their job."
"I think Secretary Mabus should be ashamed of the statement he made this week because he has taken the eye off the ball of solving this problem."
"We owe it to these veterans."
"If we need a backlog to be created because we have people who may have legitimate claims, create the backlog and then we will figure out how to fund the operation to draw down the backlog."
"I have been told that there have been claims denied since I was given an assurance that they would not be for at least the three types of diseases."
"There is not a single veteran that has ever served in the armed services who will say, we will not fight one battle until we can win them all."
"I think it's irresponsible. We've had this--the Secretary come before this committee and say that the number and severity of threats have not been greater since 9/11."
"If we fail to do it, I think it's a failure on the part of all parties to fix what to me is a blinding flash of the obvious, something that needs to be fixed."
"If we do not make the changes, how can we actually achieve the goal of zero homeless veterans?"
"We have got to move pretty quickly if we have any hope of hitting that trajectory."
"These people are evil people, and they are going to continue to expand in the areas where they think they can."