There are very special interests out there who are prepared to spend huge sums of money and make a quick profit at the expense of the health and well-being of the American people.

On May 5th of this year I signed a letter along with 24 of my colleagues in the Senate and the House asking the Department of the Interior to provide emergency fiscal year 2009 funding to respond to this crisis.

This important legislation, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders, would quadruple the amount of funding for community health centers over the next 5 years.

We want to support that effort, but we also want to support the service organizations, other organizations in Vermont.

When we talk about the quality-of-life for our veterans, if somebody is immobile and forced to stay at home and can't get around their community, that is certainly a diminution of their quality-of-life.

Senator Sanders' bill enhancing the Automobile Assistance Allowance is good.

[w]e understand the importance of providing sufficient resources for vehicles or adaptive equipment to servicemembers and veterans who rely on them, but we cannot support this bill at this time.

That's wrong. That is really wrong.

It is important.

Every veteran should know what he or she is entitled to.

I think anything that supports getting veterans to know what they are entitled to, what is available to them, is essential.

What we believe very strongly is that it is terribly important to have aggressive outreach; that there are many veterans who do not know what they are entitled to.