Thomas Patrick Baer passed away at the Gundersen Lutheran hospital in La Crosse, Wisconsin, after being transported from the facility at the Tomah VA.

I remain concerned that budget cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act has put medical research at risk.

absolute transparency is so critical here.

Jacob Ward also passed away of a drug overdose after he left the Tomah facility.

It is apparent to me that the VHA lacks clear and appropriate system-wide policies and protocols, as well as suffers from inadequate oversight of individual facilities.

When Senator Baldwin's office contacted the OIG about a similar issue, we communicated to her office that the OIG had performed an inspection.

We want to make sure that you are in a capacity to get everyone's attention system-wide, so as we work on the appropriations subcommittee marks, I want to be in communication on that.

Mr. President, I thank Senator Whitehouse for his commitment to addressing the threats that climate change poses globally, to our country, and to our States. I thank him for highlighting some of those threats to my home State of Wisconsin…

Mr. President, as President Obama has noted in his State of the Union, the American economy is growing again. We are creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999, and unemployment is lower than before the financial crisis. American…

We can't separate the two. You are absolutely correct that the prescription drug abuse has led to a heroin epidemic.

I do want to applaud the administration's recent WTO challenge to China's Export Subsidy program, which provides $1 billion in illegal subsidies over 3 years.