It is, obviously, a big population of people for our State, but I think you can go across the country...

I appreciate your attention to that.

I rise tonight to talk about the matter that is before us, which is the National Defense Authorization Act. I don't think we have to make a fulsome argument tonight that it is very important we pass this authorization act for the…

We appreciate our witnesses' testimony and the expertise and experience they bring to bear on these difficult issues.

I'm out of time, but I'll submit a question for the record as to what the Federal Government might do to help.

Many high schools and colleges, particularly public institutions, are insufficiently staffed to provide such support with student to counselor ratios at public colleges as high as 1,500 to one.

Why are we just kind of dropping Pell students with just a voucher and saying that that's enough? They need more than that.

They need assistance walking through the application process.

Obviously, I know often in this town when there is a problem, some people think the solution is always a Federal law, and I understand the concerns about that.

And in terms of your direct experience, the differential between the bids between you and, say, a firm that is not playing by the rules, can be in that range of 10 to 30 percent. Is that accurate?

Without this monetary and tax incentive for employers to fix the problem, it will continue unabated.

It does not seem to make sense that it is not a violation presently.

You felt that you had to do that in order to keep your job and have income for your family.

Thank you, Senator Isakson. What I will do is provide an overview of the backgrounds of our witnesses.

The Payroll Fraud Prevention Act would provide important transparency for workers and employers.

When an employee is wrongly classified as an independent contractor, that worker loses vital rights like payroll protections.

Payroll fraud is a problem that is cheating workers, employers, and taxpayers through the loss of worker protections.

I think it is, in a word, not just necessary or essential but really, in a word, reasonable.

The only thing that really changed is that you had a lot less protection and therefore later had to pay a very severe price for not having those protections.

The vast majority of employers that follow the rules are placed at a significant disadvantage when competing against a business that is breaking the law.

comprehensive immigration reform would enable more immigrants to come forward and inquire about and protect their rights.

I did because it was far too much a giveaway to the insurance and drug interests and did not provide the level that I thought it should for a real prescription drug benefit.

Too many people have experienced problems with Healthcare.gov since October 1.

I do not believe the problems are indicative of flaws in the law, but I do think that they are indicative of flaws in implementation.

The initial consumer experience of HealthCare.gov has not lived up to the expectations of the American people and is not acceptable.