Beto O'Rourke

When I was sworn in in 2013, I began to hold regular town hall meetings and I was struck by the number of veterans who would attend them to tell me that they could not get in to get a primary or specialty or mental health care appointment.

I think we have to insist on consequences and accountability and performance.

When we have cost and time overruns, it is not just money and time in an absolute sense...

I have yet to hear a compelling answer to Mr. Lieu's questions about why we can't unify within a single system.

we have essentially looked the other way because of very real, short-term immediate problems.

you can't solve a political problem militarily.

short-term focus has caused us long-term problems, and probably more importantly, it causes the people in those countries significant suffering and long-term harm.

When we know that care delayed becomes care denied, turns into tragic outcomes for veterans and their families.

I think there are some very serious operational concerns that are self-evident to everyone here.

Is some demand more important than other demands? So if a veteran is coming back from Afghanistan with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and cannot get in to see a mental healthcare provider, is that not more important?

When officially we know that 22 veterans a day are taking their own lives, and most veterans organizations that I have spoke to think the real number is certainly much higher than that.

I like that, because if we had a chief information security officer that is a level to which we hold that person accountable.

I would like to know how you think Iran would respond if we were more explicit about sign this deal with a more ideal standard than the one we currently have, or else we will invade.

It is hard for me to understand, considering that we invaded the country to Iran's immediate west and changed that regime.

I would like to bring the perspective of my community, the community I have the honor of representing in Congress, El Paso, Texas, to bear in this discussion. El Paso is the safest community with an over 500,000 population in the United…

Out of 141 mental healthcare systems within the VA, El Paso ranks 141st. We are dead last.

I have got to, on behalf of the veterans I represent, tell you that we are in crisis right now, and we really need your help.

I think it's within the VA's interest to answer that if you can.

We are not likely to get a major facility in El Paso in part because of the royal screw up in Colorado, in Louisiana, in Nevada, in Florida.

What is more important is actually getting that accountability.

I think we are doing our best to strike that balance in ensuring accountability without being punitive and working constructively with the VA.

This is the best way I can think of of supporting our servicemembers and their families in this time of war, because I can think of no greater way to support them, to ensure that we have a strategy with defined, achievable goals when we…

we must be successful politically if we are going to be successful at all in the other lines of strategy

This should be for you a five-alarm fire.

If we have a crisis in mental health and we are treating all hires the same, we have a problem.