Jon Runyan: “I applaud you, Secretary Shinseki, because every time we talk to you we talk about accountability.”

Any impediments to veterans who might show clear and irrefutable evidence that they should be granted benefits, should be considered.

The men and women that we are discussing today fought on behalf of our Nation and they should receive the same benefit of the doubt that U.S. servicemembers receive when they are asking for benefits that they earned.

I thank the gentleman for his comments on that. And I will just tell the committee that I have had many conversations with the Air Force about this exact issue, and to be able to take a capability away from what we can do in our global…

Intimidation or retaliation, not just against whistleblowers but against any employee who raises their hand to identify a problem, is absolutely unacceptable.