I thank all of you. I am going to now yield myself time for questions and comment.

I appreciate you all taking time out of your morning to be here with us and for sponsoring legislation to help our veterans.

As a doctor and as a veteran I feel strongly that we cannot continue to allow a practice as toxic and damaging as smoking to continue taking place on VA medical facility campuses.

I hope our colleagues in our upper chamber will take note of the testimony discussed during today's hearing and act swiftly to get this much needed bipartisan legislation to the President's desk.

I think that highlights to me the importance of bringing people in from outside the VA.

And I agree, Mr. Celli, competition drives excellence.

I am proud of last week's effort and convinced that if enacted H.R. 1367 will lead to improvements nationwide.

I want to thank you all very much for your testimonies here today. It is greatly appreciated.

Military itself is not the answer, and diplomacy is key.

We need to really define, I believe, what our strategy is and what our principles are and then work in the right direction.

My manager's amendment makes a number of minor technical changes to the reported version of the bill and would significantly reduce discretionary costs while maintaining the overall intent of the bill. The biggest change that would be made…

Mr, Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of Representative Meng's amendment, which would stipulate that the annual determination of Veterans Health Administration staffing shortages must include…