Sen. Collins good afternoon. I welcome all of you, veterans, caregivers, and advocates, especially my former colleague, senator Elizabeth Dole, who is an extraordinary advocate for our military caregivers. Our military families, heroes in plain clothing, are serving in American Cities and towns every single day. The effects of military Service Often do not end with a tour of duty. For many veterans and their families, the journey sometimes extends for a lifetime. For some with both visible and invisible scars, the transition home is not easy. Recovery, too, can take decades. Along the way, mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and other family members and friends, step in to serve. Today, we will focus on those who care for americas veterans. In the united states, there are 5. 5 million military caregivers. These family members and loved ones provide care on a constant and routine basis to veterans. They are often vital in assisting veterans to make the transition all the way home. Milita
Bush institute. This is an hour. [applause] mr. Bush thank you, all. Thank you. It is nice to be back in washington. [laughter] its nice to be back in washington. Albeit briefly. Laura and i are honored you all came. I want to thank the chamber for opening up this beautiful building and for their concerns about our vets. I want to thank David Shulkin for being here. Hes the secretary of Veterans Affairs. Its really good you are here, mr. Secretary. Especially since in a couple hours, you will be across the street in the white house for a bill signing. Passed by republicans and democrats that President Trump will sign the bill which will give you some tools to reform the va. If anybody can reform the va, you can. You are a strong leader. And were lucky to have your service for our country. [ applause ] you know, a lot of times you hear people gripe about the va. And im sure there are some flaws in the system. But its important for our citizens and our vets to know the vast majority of p
Krn about our vets. I want to thank David Shulkin for being here. Hes the secretary of Veterans Affairs. Its really good youre here, mr. Secretary. Especially since in a couple hours youll be across the street in the white house for a bill signing passed by both republicans and democrats that President Trump will sign the bill which will give you some tools to reform the v. A. And if anybody can reform the v. A. You can. Youre a strong leader and were lucky to have your service for our country. [applause] you know, a lot of times you hear people gripe about the v. A. And im sure there are some flaws in the system, but its important for our citizens and our vets to know the vast majority of people who work for the Veterans Administration care deeply about helping our vets transition. I want to thank people from our team, ken and holly and miguel for being here and putting on this conference. With us today are three educators from three parts of the country. Ken from Syracuse University
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our program. Thank you for sharing our commitment to holocaust remembrance. [applause] [america the beautiful] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you can watch this event again later today on our website, www. Cspan. Org. This will mark the anniversary of the 1943 were soft ghetto uprising to protest deportations of jews who were there. Our road to the white house coverage continues today. Donald trump is in West Virginia and he will attend a rally in charleston, the state capital thislds its primary coming tuesday and we will have live coverage. Madam secretary, we proudly toe 72 of our delegate votes the next president of the United States. Former utah senator bob bennett passed away wednesday night. He was 82 years old. He had been fighting pancreatic cancer vermonts and he served three te
Michael your question is important. I leave the legislating to the congress they determine the best time to update the law. They have expressed in updating the statute since 1996. I leave it in their capable hands. The calendar has gotten away from them. But there is appetite to change some of the statute. I do find that the statute does provide a number of problems for the commission. We are taking advantage, the majority is, taking advantage of provisions in the statute interpreting them in ways that werent intended, reading words in or out that should not be done. So i have trouble with how the commission is interpreting the law and whether they are actually following the law. I dont believe they do and i have expressed my views on that point. Beyond that, i do think that modernizing the statute would be appropriate, but thats for congress to decide. Peter michaela llo riley, one of two republicans on the commission. And howard buskirk. [captions Copyright National cable satellite c