Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And I thank you both, Chairman Akaka and Chairman Filner, for holding this joint hearing for the second session of the 110th Congress.  I am always encouraged to see the two chambers unite for the single goal of providing the highest attention and respect to those who have served to protect our nation.

I also would like to thank Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States’ Commander George Lisicki for coming to testify before this Joint Committee, today.  His service to our nation’s veterans is truly remarkable.

Throughout the country, and in my district, the VFW serves as one of the strongest advocates for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans.  They are doing this with their expansive network of Vietnam, Korea, and even World War II veterans.  VFW members and those chosen to represent them nationally and in Washington are well aware of what it takes to welcome veterans and servicemembers home from overseas.

Thanks to improved field medicine and rapid transport, many more of our servicemembers are returning home today than compared to previous wars.  They are returning with new and complicated injuries, like Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  These injuries require a new approach to welcoming home our veterans, and I am happy to see that we are all starting to agree on how to do that.

As a former teacher, I know that education is a powerful tool for empowering people.  I have also heard from a lot of student veterans that the university environment is helpful in reintegrating back into civilian life.  Unfortunately, the rising cost of higher education is making it more difficult for veterans to go to college.

We promised a higher education to our servicemembers when they joined and it is our responsibility to see that they get it when they become veterans.

This is not the case, right now.  When a veteran applies for financial aid using the FAFSA, their G.I. Bill benefits are considered resources, which are then counted against the amount of aid they can receive.  I introduced H.R. 5474, the Student Veteran Financial Aid Fairness Act of 2008, to fix that problem and ensure that the G.I. Bill is used as intended, a benefit for military service, as opposed to a means to reduce the amount of student aid our veterans can receive.

This will be helpful, but we must not lose sight of the ultimate goal of reforming the G.I. Bill so that Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans are given the same opportunities of those that served in previous foreign wars.

In addition to assuring an affordable education, we need to make sure adequate medical care is available to our veterans.  Too many veterans are waiting too long for health care. That needs to change.

Last December, the Health and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittees of the House Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing to look into what we can do to shorten outpatient waiting times.

Resource constraints have forced the VA to delay appointments and exclude thousands from even being eligible for care.  Even worse, the VA is not prepared to handle the large influx of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan War.  We have a responsibility to make sure that every VA Medical Center has the resources it needs to serve all veterans in a timely way.

Finally, the disability claims system is broken, and its failures are hurting veterans.  The disability claims backlog must be fixed before it grows larger. The backlog of more than 400,000 disability claims is only going to increase as hundreds of thousands of veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year, we passed the largest budget increase in the 77-year history of the VA.  We increased the health care budget by $11.8 billion throughout the course of the year, including a 17 percent increase in Prosthetics and Medical Research.  The budget also provided resources to hire 3,100 new claims processors in Fiscal Year 2008.

This is a good start, but I believe we can, and will, do better.

Our nation’s veterans served honorably to protect us and our country.  The least we can do is fight for them when they come home.

I yield back the balance of my time.