The costs have been high not just in the loss, the tragic loss, of life that we have experienced.

We are losing about 22 veterans every single day as a result of suicide.

the cost of war is a lot heavier and more tragic than many people realize.

This is a mammoth issue, the number of veterans that are suffering.

I think the average American would be shocked that we are losing more people to suicide than to armed combat.

Thank you, Senator Tester.

Mental health is a different issue, and it is a much more complicated issue, whether it is in the private sector or within the military and the VA.

I think it is fair to say that both VA and DOD, have a very good reputation for treating the wounds of war in terms of prosthetics, in terms of how we take care of amputees.

This is an issue. That is just a huge number; and it gives us an indication of the enormity of the problem.

We need your ideas, as I indicated earlier, and your advice as to how legislatively and in other ways we can be effective in expediting the process and improving accuracy.

I want to thank General Shinseki and the VA for doing this--making certain that Vietnam veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and became ill as a result of that exposure, finally after years and years of delay, get the benefits that…

I think we can all agree that that is a very, very ambitious goal.

I suspect there is more that you are thinking about. I think this is an issue that we should explore together.

the goal of the VA--the very significant step forward in terms of accuracy and processing claims in a rapid way by 2015--is a very, very ambitious goal.

The goal is a strong goal and I support that ambitious timeline.

I think we all understand that the year 2013 in the 21st century there is no choice but to go forward into a paperless system.

I was sitting next to Senator Murkowski and both of us were paying a lot of attention to that.

There are over 10,000 megawatts, enough for 3.4 million homes of renewable energy projects including 18 utility scale solar facilities.

Do you believe that global warming is an issue of urgency which the U.S. Government, including the Department of the Interior, should act upon? Is it urgent?

Will you give us a pledge that you will make that effort to find those vendors?

If we do not get our act together and cut back substantially on greenhouse gas emissions, it is altogether likely that the temperature of this planet will rise by 8 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century causing cataclysmic problems…

I thank the Senator from Alabama for yielding. I also intend to vote against Jack Lew to be our next Secretary of the Treasury but, in fact, for very different reasons than my colleague from Alabama. Let me begin by stating that I have had…

I thank my friend from Alabama, and with that, I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican whip.

I say to my friend that he is right when he said that I oppose the Lew nomination also. I oppose his nomination for different reasons than he does, and I will speak later on that issue. From my perspective, at a time when the middle class…

Let me conclude by simply saying we are losing $100 billion a year from tax havens in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere. There are ways to do deficit reduction without hurting the most vulnerable people in this society. I yield the floor…