Kristi Noem

So who has been fired?

So have you come closer together in number? Have you reconciled after you wrote these letters?

But I will tell you that I have been going through this for the last 2 and a half years with the Hot Springs community and with you, and the entire time the Pine Ridge reservation and the Oglala Tribe have told us that they believe they…

How many veterans do you say you service on Pine Ridge?

And you followed that process here in Hot Springs at this facility within the last several years.

So tell me what your ideal hiring process would look like.

But you talked about----

So you are not laying the blame on the Hot Springs facility, that this facility for some reason is the anchor that is dragging down the rest of the system?

I am concerned specifically about how you evaluated that the Hot Springs facility was the highest cost operating facility within VISN 23.

So when you remove services, do you remove the ability to service patients?

Is it not true that you have justified the closing of this facility based on more veterans seeking services in Rapid City?

So at this point, I do not care if you are wrong. I really do not care if you are wrong.

You cannot remember what your original proposal of moving the facility to Rapid City was, how much that would cost moving care services to Rapid City, putting clinics in.

It took them 134 days to answer our questions.

I told you I would come back with the whole delegation and we did.

I wanted to follow up with President Brewer. I wanted you to speak a little bit about the veterans that we have currently living on Pine Ridge.

I was very disappointed to see that the Black Hills Health Care System had considerably lower marks than other hospitals that were in the area and the national average.

I have been very troubled by the VA's disregard of stakeholder grievances.

I believe that the true potential of this hospital has not been reached and that the services that our veterans deserve must return to Hot Springs immediately.

So ensuring that this facility is able to continue serving the men and women who have worn America's uniform is on my top priorities.

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will report the amendment. The Clerk read as follows: Page 12, line 25, after the dollar amount, insert ``(increased by $10,000,000)''. Page 19, line 12, after the dollar amount…

Rep. Noem specifically inquired whether a producer found to be out of compliance in 2015 would then be ineligible for crop insurance premium support during the 2016 reinsurance year.

That is a heavy penalty for producers, considering the amount of subsidy on crop insurance policies to not be reinstated until 2017.

I appreciate that. Also, I have heard some instances where extreme heat losses are not covered.

I do have some concerns about the Livestock Forage Program, because I understand that there is some backlog that is going on.