Sherrod Brown

Poor care coordination can lead to worse health outcomes, increased hospital admissions, and higher cost.

What Mansfield did--Mansfield, OH, a city of about 50,000--they had two zip codes, one predominantly Appalachian white, one predominantly African-American, where they had very high low-birth-weight baby rates.

The impact they have had on preventive care has been pretty phenomenal.

I would just ask, the four bills that we passed in committee--African growth and opportunity, trade adjustment assistance, trade promotion authority, and the Customs bill--all passed out of committee by strong bipartisan majorities, right…

I think it is also important to always put it in the context of when we went into Iraq.

I would like to work with you in doing that better because we clearly have not in the past.

The disconnect between the Department of Defense and the VA; the evidence was sort of indicative that Defense officials... did not have all that much concern for these men and women once they left the service.

I strongly believe that if the medical facility within 40 miles does not provide the specific treatment required by the veteran, that veteran should be able to seek outside medical care.

We are all hopeful that by changing the distance to forty miles driving, not forty miles as the crow flies, more veterans will take advantage of the pilot program.

I would ask, if you are confirmed, if you would work with the VHA to interpret the law so that veterans who are enrolled in the program are able to seek treatment at a medical facility that actually offers the necessary care.

We had a significant--thank you for that. We had a number of problems when I first came to the Senate almost a decade ago in Dayton, one of the oldest VAs in the country.

We will act legislatively if we need to. We should not have to, and we expect not to have to.

Thank you for holding this hearing. Dr. Shulkin, thank you for being here, and Ms. Council, thank you for testifying and for your willingness to serve our country.

Insurance matters to my State. In addition to the millions of insurance consumers in Ohio, the city of Columbus is second in the Nation in concentration of insurance jobs behind only Hartford.

The FSB, remember, is not a U.S. regulator, and it is not accountable to Congress or the American people.

AIG realized 40 percent of the loss--45 percent of the losses of all insurance in 2008 and received 55 percent of the Government's support provided to insurers.

The Treasury Secretary, who also chairs the FSOC, has told this Committee that the FSB's decisions do not bind the FSOC.

I think the first thing to do is put yourself in taxpayers' position when, as individual people in this country, we are spending taxpayer dollars and we buy Chinese steel to build a bridge in California.

Eighty-six billion dollars is the number arrived at of unaddressed repairs. It is a huge deficit.

We do not in this body think all that much, unfortunately, or often enough, about low-income workers and low-income commuters, for that matter.

Federal transportation investment has been flat since 2009, but the level of backlog maintenance and repair grows each year.

I am committed to passing a long-term reauthorization bill that grows the overall transportation program.

So, that current 60 percent requirement for domestic content is going up, step by step, under MAP-21, is that right?

New investment in infrastructure puts Americans back to work fixing railways and roadways.

I was pleased to join Senator Murray and Senator Heller on their bill, Women's Veterans Access to Quality Care Act.