Beto O'Rourke

I have enjoyed working with you in my first term in Congress.

In a community like mine, El Paso, where 25 percent of the population are immigrants... this is going to be a boon.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, I want to begin by thanking you for your accountability.

I want to thank the President for this very difficult decision that he made, a very imperfect decision by its very nature.

I think the status quo is untenable. As you and others have said, it amounted to effective amnesty.

I do, however, want to address an issue that Congressmen Smith and Duncan brought up, and that is the release of convicted criminals.

I feel like there has been this implicit political bargain where there is going to be stepped-up enforcement and deportations.

I hear from a number of veterans in my community that go to the VHA clinic in El Paso that they receive exemplary care in a timely fashion.

What are the threats at our other ports of entry, sea ports and land ports, from a public health perspective?

What are the audit and accountability mechanisms for CDC Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) grants?

I would love to get your answers to those in a little more specificity.

For Dr. Merlin, my understanding is that there are experimental treatments for Ebola...

I thank the gentleman from Washington for his leadership and the chairman for his on this very difficult issue. I want to make one point clear to my colleagues. We are essentially declaring war through an amendment to a budget resolution…

We know in this country 22 veterans a day sadly take their own lives.

I think we need to institutionalize these cultural changes.

I join my colleagues who said earlier that there is perhaps no way that the American public can know everything that each of you and the men and women who work with you have done to protect this country.

I think we have to be far more creative and really be rigorous and disciplined about applying resources to where those threats are or where they could be based on established risk.

But common sense tells me, just from cases that I have seen in my district, that there is a cause and effect relationship between care that is delayed, that ends up being care that is denied, that ends up in veterans dying.

If you are missing legislative authority to do any of the things that you are talking about doing to turn around and improve the culture at the VA I hope that you will come to us as quickly as you know that.

I think the ability to fire senior executives, get the dead wood and the fraudulent actors out of the way quickly...

When a Member of the Congress says, we all know that terrorist networks are using our Southern Border to enter the United States, I think it is very important for all of us in our sworn responsibility to know whether or not that is a true…

I have been told by DHS categorically as recently as last month that there is no evidence, nor has there ever been, of terrorists entering the United States from--through the Southern Border.

I believe we are going to formalize that War to include Syria from the President's announcement tonight.

I just hope that for my colleagues that weighs in the balance as we make decisions about sending servicemembers into combat roles again.

Thank you for raising the profile of this issue, you along with the ranking member, ensuring that this does not go unnoticed.