Kathleen Rice

So the next thing is what causes me--I am curious about, it says even with this traumatic growth, VR&E provided entitled determinations to applicants with an average of 43 days, below the national target of 45 days.

It wouldn't be an ideal situation to have one counselor for three schools that are not always geographically friendly, but at least that is a start.

Are we communicating these services of VR&E better to women vets than we are to men vets?

We just had the Brave Act passed out of here that actually would allow the Secretary of the VA to give preference to businesses that are seeking Federal contracts that show that they have a record of hiring veterans.

How do we communicate with them, whether it is online, through the mail whatever it is.

What are counselors doing to help veterans find--find and retain housing, which is this--they are equally problematic, the joblessness and the homelessness, obviously.

The 20-year study that Congress mandated found that 90 percent of participants are moderately to highly satisfied.

How can we do a better job vetting aviation workers? How can we do a better job ensuring that criminals and terrorists cannot get a job in one of our airports and gain access to secure areas?

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General issued a report that detailed how 73 individuals with links to terrorism were able to get jobs with airlines and airport vendors and were cleared to access secure…

Just to show how bipartisan we are all going to be, as a Democrat, I would like to welcome my former colleague, D.A.--former D.A. Dan Donovan.

the culture is not going to change and there will never be effective administration, holding people accountable, until people are actually held accountable.

you are putting that concern over the concern of whistleblowers, who are actually suffering probably more than someone who could be fired on the spot.

Why is there such a reluctance to apply FAR regulations when you are talking about non-VA care?

Recent incidents--most notably the gun-smuggling operation involving a Delta employee--have highlighted the urgent need for us to look closely at access controls in our Nation's airports and the potential threat of employees exploiting…

Community-based outpatient clinics near the Denver VA have some of the worst wait times in the entire country.

I will never vote for one more red cent to go to this project until once and for all someone sitting at that table can tell all of us why this happened.

Because the number-one way we know we are going to stop this is just hold one retaliator accountable.

That is another disturbing thing to me. That is almost an afterthought to you.

It suggests to me that the balance sometimes tips maybe too far towards efficiency and maybe at the expense of effective security.

It is a chilling reminder of the risks Transportation Security officers face every single day on the front lines.

I want to thank you for convening this hearing, first and foremost.

The TSA PreCheck program, as I understand it, is one of TSA's risk-based initiatives aiming to maintain effective security while also maximizing efficiency.

It's a chilling reminder of the risks Transportation Security officers face every single day.

We are committed to developing solutions to enhance the security at our checkpoints for your safety.

That makes sense to me. It seems like an appropriate balance between effectiveness and efficiency.