Thank you Mr. Chairman for yielding and I thank you and your staff for holding this hearing today. 

This afternoon, we are considering several pieces of legislation, all of which are of interest and potential value. 

While I do have some policy concerns regarding a number of the provisions, I am primarily struck by the mandatory offsets that would be necessary to pass many of these bills under PAYGO rules. 

Mr. Chairman as you know from the PAYGO problems with H.R. 5892, it is always a challenge to find offsets within our jurisdiction and that is something we need to keep in mind as we examine these bills today.

The main policy concern I wish to express is that some of the provisions before us are similar to section 101 of H.R. 5892, in that they would redefine combat with the enemy as it pertains to section 1154 of title 38.

Mr. Chairman, my concerns with these type of provisions are not new to you or other members of the committee and I will not reiterate them here, except to point out that a loose definition of combat would diminish the immeasurable sacrifice and service of those who actually did face combat.

While I understand and appreciate the effort to address problems regarding the VA claims backlog, I believe that they generally result from procedural issues and we should address the problems accordingly.

On another note, I look forward to the testimony of the representatives from the Institute of Medicine who will hopefully enlighten the subcommittee about the process involved in establishing a presumption of service-connection for certain illnesses and disabilities. 

Experts at VA and IOM have years of experience in dealing with these issues, and I think it is important for Congress to avail itself to their expertise whenever possible.

Mr. Chairman I extend my thanks to you and your staff for holding this hearing and I look forward to hearing the testimony of our colleagues and the other witnesses today. I yield back.