Thank you for being here today, mr. Secretary. Thank you for coming today. Bringing you cast of thousands. Youve got a lot of support here today. Big budget, big support. Were proud to have secretary mcdonald be here today. We were proud to have in order danny, doctor, thanks. Ronald waters. Laverne counsel. Ed murray. We appreciate all of you. With all that support, mr. Secretary, im sure youre going to do a great job. Ill make my Opening Statement and then turn to blumenthal then to your testimony. I dont want you to feel compelled by any fiveminute light. I want you to say what youve got to say. I understand the average Attention Span of the United States senator is about nine minutes. After that we all start blinking. Speaking for myself. Thats selfimposed limitation. Thank you very much, mr. Secretary, for being here today. Were looking forward to discussing the 182 billion budgetary appropriation. It would be an 8. 9 increase. Should it be adopted, medical funding would increase
Wednesday morning a house subcommittee hears from attorney general Loretta Lynch on the justice departments 2017 budget request. Thats live at 10 30 a. M. On cspan 3. Homeland security secretary jeh johnson returns to capitol hill to talk about his departments Budget Proposal for the 2017 year and the Senate Homeland security subcommittee hearing live tomorrow on cspan 3 at 2 15 p. M. Eastern. I am trying still to decide which candidate to support. Im trying to decide between the governors who have executive experience or some of the other candidates like ted cruz and marco rubio. The most important issue to me is national service. There are more than 5 million Young Americans that are ready to step forward and serve t country for a year with americans like the peace corps and youth build. Veterans affair secretary Robert Mcdonald will testify outcan loined the budget request for his department. He was followed by a panel of veteran Services Organization representatives with their take
Other health professionals, how do we bring those people into our system . Health care is certainly a major issue, but that is not the only challenge that our new secretary will face. We have the Veterans Benefits administration, which is now in the midst of one of the largest transformations in modern history. That is going from a paper system to a paperless system. In my view they have done a good job, but problems remain. We want to make sure that in that transformation, as we bring down the wait times for benefits claims, that we do it in an accurate way. That is a challenge that you are going to have to face. Scandals in the modern history of this country has been the number of Homeless Veterans that we have seen all over the country. In recent years, general general general this,ki played a role in that number has gone down. That is another challenge that you are going to face. Let me close by suggesting that i think that mr. Mcdonald brings to us two very important qualities. He
States just this year, entered without permission in the Immigration Court system. What happens to these guys . The new people would have a status. When thed send back to United States government did ins in vietnam, in haiti, parts of africa. Remove people from a situation that is dangerous, unsafe in a variety of ways, whether it is politics, country conditions, or some other capacity, but if you open all of those other questions, in addition to el salvador and guatemala. There are two other countries at play here who also have tens of thousands of citizens in the United States who also have temporary protective status from years ago. Ballsis a lot of sort of in the air and which one you pick up will determine the future potentially for one small group or a larger group, but not necessarily the whole group, if that makes sense. You are addressing a piece of the puzzle, but it could potentially create another wave in a different capacity. It is so unknown, i think, at this point, you w
Support hamas strategy and the to en thetion set conflict. For years, we warned community that hezbollah was amassing tens of thousands of rockets and missiles. Mit with silence. Will you continue to remain silent . That hamase told you was building a terrorist strong hold in gaza and we called on the International Community to condemn the rocket fire. Silence. Et with for years we warned of the impending escalation and you ignored us. The hardest thing to see is what eyes. Front of your israel is in the front line of radicallistgainst islamist terrorism. The buyer civilized world has a the outcome, so it must support israels right to defend citizens. Israels fight against terrorism today will determine how we live tomorrow. Do nothing and to say nothing, to support our efforts the tyranny and terror is to invite tyranny and terror into our own back yard. The International Community must stand together and speak soether and prevail together that all people everywhere can live in freedo