Beto O'Rourke

The word that we keep hearing over and over again is accountability.

We want to see how that accountability is implemented and what the consequences are when someone does not do their job properly.

I want to thank the Office of the OIG, the Corps, and the VA for being here. And I think that it is the nature of these hearings that we are going to focus on where we have problems.

In El Paso you have more than 80,000 veterans who are underserved by the existing clinic.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I want to thank you and the Ranking Member for keeping this Committee focused on performance and accountability at the VA.

We have an access problem. We are very far down on the list to have it addressed in any meaningful, comprehensive way.

What can, to cut to the quick, what can we do to move ourselves up on that list?

I am hoping to get a concise answer to the question posed in the title of the hearing, in terms of what a secure maritime border looks like.

I would submit, sir, that the real metric that the United States needs to be measuring is not how much we are seizing, but what is the impact to organized crime of that that we do seize?

I guess, for Admiral Lee to continue with this line of questioning, I believe either you or the commissioner mentioned that during--or, as a result of the sequester and fewer flight hours, fewer resources deployed, we saw less tonnage…

For the commissioner, you know, just anecdotally getting the information in terms of tonnage seized, hearing you describe what is involved in executing your mandate, it sounds like you are being very effective with your resources.

I have the honor of representing more than 2,500 Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas. They are a big reason why our border with Mexico is as secure as it has ever been, and they help keep El Paso the safest city in the United States; it…

The existence of threats does not increase the vulnerability that the systems might be.

I think about the 200,000 El Pasoans that I represent who are currently uninsured.

In El Paso, there are bound to be many mixed-status families amongst those 200,000 uninsured people that I represent in our community.

I want to work to make sure that we fix those problems that we have identified.

If you somehow through this system, HealthCare.gov, learn that the parent is here illegally, would you act on that information, and how would you act on that information?

I want to make sure that this law works. I think its goals and intentions are noble.

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act, thus far, has been deeply disappointing.

I want to make sure that we make this law work. It is, after all, the law of the land.

Nobody wants to kneel on gravel when they are visiting a gravesite at Fort Bliss.

I would like to follow the line of questioning initiated by Mr. Stivers.

The family made an application for him to be interred and memorialized at Fort Bliss National Cemetery. That was denied.

I want to know what we can do on an interim basis to beautify it, to make it a little bit more hospitable for visitors to the cemetery.

We still think--believe that it has served us well.