I want to start by noting that the committee has been particularly supportive as the staff and the oversight investigation subcommittee for their work on this issue and their work with our agency we consider it to be a Real Partnership and we are very grateful for this committees support. We have received a number of referrals from this committee and we appreciate your confidence and ability to work with the employees that your office refers. So thats one thing. Its already happening. We are doing everything that we possibly can. Weve set up a priority system and we free allocated staff to handle the va employee claims. But as the numbers increase its a very hard to keep up. We were at capacity before. In the retaliation cases now it exceeds 130, and the number as i mentioned continues to increase pretty much daily. We are an agency that has 120 employees more or less. We have jurisdiction for the statute for the reemployment rights act and we are working now on a demonstration for the
Business quite a bit. We supported this film called dog days. Here is the trailer. Ive been doing this business almost 20 years. Sometimes i dont have money to pay for the rent. I got fired from my last job. I got a decision to make. Almost every vendor sells why is that . It a good sell food, we could make more money. The vendors are living in fear. Part of it is the fear of doing something big. I think i could do it. Ive never started a business. Ive never worked in the corporations. She was a first want to take risk on me. This is really hard. 5,000. The American Dream is a freedom. Came to this country with a suitcase and passport. Sold out. Has the ability to define you. I o is say it is going to be better every day i always say it is going to be better every day. I hope it is the same glimmer of hope i see. That film was already released. If you would like to see it, all of the thumbs are listed on mpi. Org. You good rent it on netflix, itunes. It is not a film that hits it on th
In a saying no. We showed there was bipartisan support for a number of proposals that would create a texas solution that was palatable to expand medicaid in texas. In they were ready to put some bills and amendments to give some leeway and flexibility to taxes. Ao texas. Hs he slammed the door on that opportunity and made it very clear that he would slam the budget and veto any bill that came to him. Republican legislators willing to go there with us frankly had no reason to walk the plank and put their own reelection in danger when rick perry made it very clear that he would stop that. In terms of success, we measure. T differently and our state rick perry made this calculation that he could reject the medicare expansion money and the people most impact did would know about it. We count it as a success that we commuted about Medicaid Expansion and the aca. We checked all the information in the voter files and 44,000 of them either took an action nor pledged to vote in the election com
Have a Authority Issue the rules. I think 706 has been abused. And it should be returned to the original intent we help frame years ago. So i have difficulty with that part of the equation. It makes it harder to get to the second. The fcc rules werent thrown out. I learned long ago not to try to guess what other people do in d. C. In the environment we live in. I dont have an insight what the chairman may or may not do. He articulated the authority he believes he has. The commission has and what they would like to do. So i have taken the word and see what comes from that. But i hate to guess more than that. House energy and Commerce Committee is beginning to hold hearings about a possible rewrite of the Communications Act. Im sure youve been following this closely. What advice would you give to the house energy and Commerce Committee as they look at rewriting the Communications Act. I would say first and foremost, i defer to my friend and former colleagues on the house and the senate o
Getting Senior Leadership bonuses and the same interest we put in attaching ourselves to highprofile projects is what the same amount of attention that needs to go to veterans. So i encourage you guys if nothing else, please make sure that we move to a system that has more data integrity. Require the people who come here and sit on these panels to sign off on the information they turn into congress. This way when they come back, they cant say that report was done by somebody else. Thats the only way. Hold them accountable and do it in public and while the cameras are on. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Committee come to order. And that includes the former senator from connecticut, who is sitting in the audience behind senator markey. Chris, nice to see you. I think all of us were forward thinking until you and eddie showed up. It will be a close call now. See if we cant get it through. Try to get it done. Senator markey, i dont know what kind of time frame youre on. If you can give