I think where we are, a wage, a minimum wage, there is no question, to hire qualified people, you have to pay more than $7.25 unless it is a high school student that is just entering the labor force.

I commend you for your discussion about the community colleges. There is an enormous amount of evidence that is a relatively low-cost, very valuable way to go in getting workers new skills or skills to begin with.

the quality of care at the VA is good or better than the private sector.

if we aren't willing to take care of our veterans, we shouldn't be making them.

I implore you to be as up front as possible today and every day about the challenges you are facing.

I still have a difficulty with one or two objections.

But if you move further down this path, gutting the VA health care system for those veterans who want and need to use it, you will end up bringing down the whole boat.

He has done a great job. He took over after a problematic and a tumultuous time.

The Choice program is not perfect, but it did allow for an undeniable expansion of access and care.

In the next Congress, let's work towards having a productive relationship and open dialogue so that we can work together on behalf of the veterans we serve.

We should not be first learning about this in the press. We should be notified immediately with facts that will help us act so that we can prevent other veterans from taking their lives.

Mr. Secretary, not even 6 months ago, you came before the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, and you said you would oppose attempts to privatize the VA health care system.

That is a bad deal for our taxpayers. It is a bad deal for our veterans, who would ultimately bear the brunt of cuts to other services or benefits to cover the increased costs of community care.

the VA is moving away from the direction it was headed just 6 months ago; make no mistake about that.

We have no choice but to see to it the VA is functioning at the highest possible level.

Instead, we are here left trying to figure out why the VA decided to take things in a different direction than what I believe Congress has intended and certainly what veterans have advocated for.

It is simply wrong--simply wrong--that only $57,000 in funds Congress prioritized to address preventing veteran suicide has been sent and $6.2 million has been left on the table.

The MISSION Act is a truly transformative piece of legislation that will impact virtually every aspect of care that VA provides.

Seeing the MISSION Act signed into law took the collective effort of all of us working closely together.

We are prepared in the next 2 years to do everything we can do to continue the cooperative spirit between Republicans and Democrats.

I think that system that we have got currently is not going to be used and it is going to be rebid.

One of the things that the VA has gotten right is they named this long-term solution right. That's appropriate. It's going to take a long time to get the solution, it looks like.

We're spending--the number I have is $380,000 a week in overtime.

I know they don't have the capacity to see all those patients in addition.

We're trying to help make this better, not worse, and we can't do it unless we have accurate information.