Political Quotes

“I rise to talk about the issue that my colleague from Nevada just raised. We had a vote yesterday--which, to say it was overwhelming is probably an understatement--for the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act. That act will create transparency in the VA system, it will result in the hiring of more doctors and nurses, and it will provide resources for veterans and their spouses to obtain a quality education. We are grateful that happened. We are grateful for the overwhelming vote, and we are certainly optimistic about the results that will flow from that legislation. We have more to do in addition to that. We need to continue to look for ways to address the claims backlog that my colleague from Nevada just outlined, as well as other issues that will come before us. I thank the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Chairman Sanders, who is with us today on floor, and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs for their work on behalf of veterans. The claims backlog, which my colleague just talked about, is a critically important issue for veterans and their families in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and all the other States as well. I commend the work of Senator Heller and his staff. My staff worked very hard on these issues. I want to commend especially Gillian Mueller in addition to John Richter for their work on the issue itself and the working group collaboration that resulted in this report that Senator Heller cited.…”