Mike Rounds

The Administration should and has a responsibility to be responsive to requests by all members

A bipartisan recommendation.

I like the idea of block grants, and I like the idea of having access to guaranteed loans, revenue bonds, and so forth.

I could not agree more. I think it is a very important tool for us to make sure it is maintained into the future.

I think it makes our banks within the United States less competitive with some other competitors elsewhere.

I am just curious. I think it is an issue that should be addressed, and I am just wondering if you have got a timeframe or a concept in terms of how to address the increased costs that they have.

I have heard a number of concerns from financial institutions that arbitrary thresholds set in Dodd-Frank make it difficult for them to do business.

I hate to lose the protections that our rural VA members have received through Choice.

I most certainly want to make sure that that veteran has the ability to access local care in a timely fashion.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think there is a group of us out here that feel that they are flat out out of control and that there are no controls on them that Congress can come in, bring them in and ask questions.

S. 882 would grant full Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to all Post-9/11 Purple Heart recipients.

We deeply thank Senator Rounds for its introduction.

This important legislation, introduced by Senator Rounds, would provide full entitlement to the Post-9/11 GI Bill to Purple Heart recipients.

It is time for me now to go to the floor and vote.

The legislation, introduced by Senators Rounds, Manchin, Warren, and Kaine, would also make Purple Heart recipients eligible for participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program.

The VA supports S. 1192 because it would benefit Post-9/11 GI Bill beneficiaries by reducing the negative impact of test reimbursement on the remaining benefit entitlement and increasing the months of training available for the…

So then, would you agree that a potential fix for this provision could be to add a paragraph that would require the VA to perhaps equally distribute any remaining Post-9/11 GI benefits from the deceased servicemember or veteran to…

That is a very positive development. For those 370,000 individuals, this is great news.

I think what that means is the last time we checked, there were 370,000 claims outstanding that now can expect to receive payment for the emergency room care that they have expected since 2010?

I have been working at introducing new legislation in this Congress--as a matter of fact, we introduced it yesterday--that basically would exempt smaller institutions from the post Dodd-Frank HMDA data reporting requirements.

My concern is from a Montana perspective that if we continue without adjustment, with all the best of interest, we will end up not having access to capital in rural America.

We need to have a profitable banking system, quite frankly, and we need to have credit unions out there that are doing what they need to do to make sure that they are serving their customers.

But we want the veterans out there who right now might be seeing a Choice Program which is being improved...

Gentlemen, I just want to talk a little bit about the difference between the proposed CARE plan and Choice as it is today.