They were pretty angry that their tax dollars were being used to cover the consequences of years of recklessness on Wall Street and failures of a regulatory system.

It recognizes those veterans and I want to thank you for that.

I am really pleased to see the policy changes in the VA budget providing greater access for non-disabled veterans with modest incomes.

I told you that people all across my State were hurting, and small businesses were coming to me and saying they could not meet their payroll and could not get loans.

I do want to thank you for the proposed increase, which is an acknowledgement that the Federal Government does have an obligation to clean up those sites across the nation.

Increasing the construction budget for the VA would provide construction jobs, and that is, I know, an important goal for the budget, as well.

We have a huge increasing need for, so we can't ignore that.

reducing the construction budget in particular by 15 percent is a real concern to many of us.

I look forward to that discussion. We have a lot of small businesses in my State that are really struggling with capital today.

It is going to put people to work, and it is going to help homeowners, businesses, and the environment in the future.

We have an opportunity, I think, as we put together a jobs package, to really focus on making sure that the people in this country have the capability of getting the jobs of the future that we know are coming, but they are hard to find…

Just because you come from tough socioeconomic circumstances doesn't mean that you should get an inferior education.

So I just wanted to do that.

My State, too, received a $6 million grant yesterday through the Department of Labor. We are very excited about it.

I think we are at a critical time, as many people we represent are waking again this morning worried about whether or not they are going to have a job, be able to get a job, or whether they have the training for the kinds of jobs that are…

I will share--my legislation is actually called Career Pathways to bring together local community, business, labor, education folks to start planning and working toward those skills.

So these dollars are coming at a very critical time when businesses want to think things are doing better, but they are a little bit afraid, and don't have the private investment right now.

It has helped to re-engage them with their community and teach them about the demands of the workplace.

During briefing about United States-Japan relations, Senator Patty Murray and DCM James Zumwalt discussed Embassy efforts regarding IPCA in Japan.

I am working on a proposal for a demonstration project between the Departments of Labor, Defense and Veterans Affairs called the Military Pathways Demonstration Program that will really test projects that look at the feasibility of methods…

It is having great results for the students, the veterans, the university, as well as all those communities that those trained people then go into.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for holding this really important hearing on some of the burdens that our veterans are seeing as they try to come home and get civilian employment.

One of them that I hear constantly is how do we match a veteran's skills and their experience with the needs of potential employers.

how we treat our veterans when they come home is an indication of the character of this Nation

Thank you to all of our witnesses for your excellent testimony and all the work you are doing out in the real world to help put our veterans to work and bring back the respect and dignity as you have all described.