Dr. Tim Murphy, who is a Navy veteran, psychologist, Member of Congress, has a very good bill, I believe.

One of the things I am taking away from this is that we don't really have a definitive system that we are working with on this.

It is not uncommon for us to hear from veterans who were blocked by HR officials or managers for consideration.

Some form of veterans preference has been a fixture in Federal hiring since the Civil War.

So those points are in at the beginning.

It is not uncommon for VA hiring managers to complain that they always try to use a special hiring authority.

In reality, veterans preference is often thwarted by an overly complicated competitive or excepted service system.

I think it is important that we also focus on the hiring and retention of high-quality employees within the department.

I look forward to our discussion today, as we have spent several months working on this proposal and listening to key stakeholders.

I want to thank this first panel for your testimony and answering all our questions, and your willingness to serve.

There are also reports of substandard patient care, which, if true, should not go unpunished.

You know, I think you touched on some things we find too often in the system, that when you get out of the military, there is lack of access and lack of choice, and it is frustrating and very difficult.

I could not agree with you more when you talk about the bureaucracy that ends up being involved and making it more and more challenging.

What we are finding is, many veterans come out of the military with either very inflated expectations about the type of job and position they are going to have or a lot of hesitancy because they do not know how in the world they are going…

The Committee will continue to pursue investigations into this hospital.

I look forward to hearing from each of our witnesses as to how we can better spread the word not only within the local area, but nationally as to why employers should always want to bring the men and women who have sacrificed for our…

I want to thank you, and I want to thank all the panel Members today for your testimony, and taking the questions, and sharing your insights.

Although the announcement was ambiguous and the Department continues to try to downplay the allegations, news reports have stated that the situation involves misconduct within higher leadership at the Cincinnati Medical Center and regional…

There is a culture that needs to be changed because we are there, they are there, to serve the veteran.

In Hamilton County, we do have a veterans court, and that does not specifically involve the police department.

And it must be done if we are going to get more of our veterans and their skills to work, and increase our collective competiveness.

I equate it to kind of being in a box with all of your friends for a number of years. You are in that box, and you can see people on the outside, but you largely do not communicate with them.

I am afraid that we find, too often, that we have people there that are self-serving, which goes directly against the life of those that serve in the military who are there to serve for others.

You know what? that veteran who is sick doesn't care. They want to be seen and they want to be taken care of.

I appreciate the reality of that. We got it done. So I understand the frustration.