Derrick Van Orden

This approach will require the input, expertise, and hard work of every person in this room.

The rate of veteran homelessness in San Diego County has dropped by nearly 30 percent over the last 4 years.

I hope that you know our commitment to doing that on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about how they believe what works, what needs to be improved.

There is a program under Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that is specifically designed to help with formerly incarcerated folks getting job training to make sure that they break that cycle of recidivism.

That is unacceptable. We are going to work on that.

I am a retired Navy SEAL.

Outstanding. Well, thank you very much for coming.

I want to talk to you about this because----

I also know that it is my responsibility to make things better to the best of my ability.

I found the Department of Defense to be obstructionist when it comes to allowing us to access our Transition Assistance Program.

We must take a multifaceted approach to address the underlying specific needs of each individual veteran.

If you are eligible for veterans' educational benefits and you fail to meet your obligation, ... they cannot be held financially accountable.

I would like to highlight a fellow veteran, Senior Chief Mike Day, former Navy Seal, Navy Cross recipient.

I just think this is a winning program and I would like to see it come to fruition permanently.

We want to make sure that we can do whatever we can for these veterans to fulfill that, but we still also have to uphold our duty to protect the taxpayers from rampant spending.

I think that is just the right thing to do.

I believe the proposals we have here today, including VET-TEC, are incredibly important to ensuring veterans continue to use the benefits that they have earned.

I also want to talk about the Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses (VET-TEC) bill, which I think is awesome.

What this does is it allows members of the Department of Labor to interact with our servicemembers during the Transition Assistance Program.

I believe the proposals we have here today... are incredibly important to ensuring veterans continue to use the benefits that they have earned.

Where is the rest of the money?

VET-TEC, you kidding me? It is working. Let us do more of that.

If you are concerned about turbulence, you ought to be concerned about climate change, because everybody tells me that is going to be making it worse.

My number one legislative priority on the subcommittee is the transition from active duty to veterans.