Good morning, everyone. The committee will come to order. I welcome our witnesses in person and those that are appearing distancely. We look forward to their testimony and getting a better understanding of where the department of Veterans Affairs and the Third Party Administrators are in administering the mission act. Im also very interested in hearing more today about the caregivers implementation, as well. Almost every member of our committee, though not physically present at the moment, some are joining us in person and others will be joining us, almost every member of our committee will be participating and is expected in todays hearing. The focus of todays hearing is the implementation of title 1 under the mission act by the department of Veterans Affairs related to Veterans Community care programs and the program of comprehensive assistance to family caregivers. I scheduled this hearing because of my dissatisfaction with the pace of mission implementation. While va officials were
Partnership with the new england journal of massachusetts. Here we are days away from the close of 2020 and we are at an inflection point. While the news around vaccines are promising the daytoday headlines are as grim as they have ever been. An american is dying of covid19 every 90 seconds and we have recorded 4 million new covid19 cases in november and more than 1 million cases in december just nine days into this month. Covid19 has just passed Heart Disease as the number one killer of americans. As of this morning more than 286,000 americans have died due to covid19 and in just one day, just one day yesterday, we lost 2600 of our fellow americans to covid19. To put those numbers into context we are experiencing a tragedy on the scale of pearl harbor every single day, right here at home. From an Economic Security standpoint we are facing the greatest threat to Value Creation since world war ii. If there were ever any doubt about the seriousness of this virus these facts should cast t
Republican committee as many of you know has been an influential center of conservative thinking and policies for years. Scholars often work with the committee on major issues. I intensified for the committee and size them on issues concerning Food Security and policy and weve had our china scholars. The emerging young leadership of the conservative movement in the United States and we are very pleased to have the outgoing chairman mike johnson of louisiana and incoming chairman of indiana. Mike johnson from louisiana and jim banks from indiana. Im going to do a quick introduction of them and ask questions but we will take questions from the audience. We will put them up on the chat box although i do have a bunch of my own questions as well the chairman elect and representative is in his second term representing the Third District of indiana covering the Northeast Corner of the state including fort wayne. Representative banks serves on the Armed Services committee, the Labor Committee
2021 index of u. S. Military strength. This is the seventh edition of the index and the index has come one of the flagship publications. Our goal has been unchanged. It is to provide both the leaders of this country and the American Public a premiere open source and author tatetive of Armed Services and their ability to protect the nation. I think we have not only achieved that goal but continued with this effort. And this years edition is the best ever. In addition to our usual subjects, it includes National Security concerns and one of these is the emergent of the new space force. We have a new chapter on the subject of space this year and look more hearing from the editor of the new index in his presentation later. Today as part of our launch, we welcome a speaker with decades of matters, representative Mac Thornberry. He was the first elected to congress in 1994 and has supported a Strong National defense since. He is currently the Ranking Member of the house Armed Services committ
Lost teeth, School Concerts and junior high dances. Sore throats and first moments. Thank you to my incredible staff, many in the chamber today who are in colorado and washington who made so many great things happen and whose difference will be felt for generations to come. You leave a mark on the country far beyond the etching of a signature. Signature, desk, and the floor. Thank you to my colleagues and senator bennet. Thank you for the honor of serving along your side and commitment to our nation, capitol police, the staff, support staff in the senate who make it all possible. Above all, most importantly and most importantly, thank you to this great and extraordinary nation for all that it means and represents. The hope and optimism that for over two centuries has led people around the globe to give up everything they had just to be here, to be a part of this nation, to then turn around and fight through political strife and pandemics, to go to war to save the union, to know how luc