Brad Wenstrup

It is a budget request that is robust, and it is one that continues this Nation's long tradition of investing in our veterans.

I look forward to working with all of you in that regard, not only here in Puerto Rico, but across the United States of America.

We have people that, many people have gotten their medical education through the military, and they serve in the military.

We talked about provider shortage and the challenges that we face, and it's not just in the VA.

We will have only one panel of witnesses and only those invited to testify will be permitted to speak.

Thank you, all for being here today, and for all the good work each of you do to serve your veteran neighbors in Puerto Rico and across the Caribbean.

Well, thank you, very much Congresswoman.

I want to take a moment to bring attention to the Herculean effort put forward by VA employees, to keep facilities operational both during and after Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

I'm Congressman Brad Wenstrup and I represent Ohio's Second Congressional District and I'm honored to serve as the Chairman of the Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on health.

I am pleased to be an original co-sponsor of H.R. 3218.

If we set up metrics, we should be able to set up metrics to evaluate the VA health care system in general, each VISN, each hospital, each facility, CBOC, each practitioner, for that matter.

I can tell you a lot of the ideas that I hear coming out of today are greatly appreciated, but, to be honest with you, there are a lot of ideas that I and other Members of this Committee have been talking about and asking to be implemented…

I missed two votes on June 22. If I were present, I would have voted on the following: Rollcall No. 316: On Ordering the Previous Question, ``yea.'' Rollcall No. 317: On Passage of H. Res. 396, ``yea.'' personal explanation

But you can't ignore the reality.

This is not the case. And privatization is certainly not the goal.

Leadership as a character quality has nothing to do with orthopedic surgeons, podiatric surgeons, or any other training.

This is about the veteran in need of care.

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

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.

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

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

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