Ralph Norman

The way to predict the future is look to the past.

So, you know, the old system is not sustainable under ObamaCare.

From where you sit, what should we be doing in our roles?

I welcome the chance to consider the issue of infrastructure resilience and highlight the role the Federal government can play.

Reliable and strong infrastructure is critically important to my home State of South Carolina.

Well, and I just urge you, what we hear at the local and State level are a lot of the decisions are made at the local level, and they're set in their ways with using a particular type of product that they've used just because they used it…

In case you're wondering, the rose on my lapel is for the 100-year women's right to vote.

Thank you, Chairwoman Sherrill, for convening this meeting, and thank each one of the witnesses for taking the time to come.

This is very promising, because some of the biggest problems we have... the mental health aspect falls through the cracks

The value of this, if we can have data, however small, it will pay dividends on down the road.

By having the 2-year window to evaluate it, we're going to encourage the patients, the veterans that are actually being served, to get involved.

At the end of the day, it's to help that veteran. It's to help that family of the veteran.

I think one of the advantages, and why we put the pilot program in, is to give it time to see what works and what doesn't work.

A lot of these veterans are, particularly on some of the surgeries they need, being put off time after time again.

If you don't have the information, it's like flying with a blindfold on.

What greater service can we provide than people such as yourself, when you call in with a particular illness, be able to say, we've included your data, along with others, here is what some treatment can be based on the information.

I agree, and in my office this week, National Police Week, we had six police officers, three of them had gotten shot, and guess who did the shooting? A veteran from the Vietnam War who was on the SWAT team.

That's why it's so important. If you don't have the backup data, how do you--and if you can't find it, like you say, then how do you act on it?

The suicide rate is a direct result of just what you're talking about

Yes, ma'am. It's based on the medical information that the veterans have donated that the DOE can use to further the treatment, try to predict who's going to get what.

The U.S. is a leader in innovation, as I have said.

I am all for lowering prices. You do that through competition, through capitalism.

If you are going to take politics out of it, I do not think it starts with criticizing the President.

Let's have a debate, and I disagree and I think others would disagree with both of you.

Thank you, Chairwoman Sherrill.