Good Afternoon,

The Veterans’ Affairs Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee Legislative Hearing will now come to order.

I would ask everyone to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance – flags are located in the front of the room.

I would first like to thank the witnesses for coming today to appear before the Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs’ Subcommittee for our fifth legislative hearing.  Today we will examine 11 bills which I will identify by bill number for the sake of brevity: H.R. 1197, H.R. 3008, H.R. 3795, H.R. 4274, H.R. 5155, H.R. 5448, H.R. 5454, H.R. 5709, H.R. 5954, H.R. 5985 and H.R. 6032.

As a preliminary, I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Filner, Mr. Brown and Mr. Space be invited to sit on the dais for today’s hearing.  Without objection, so ordered. 

I know the issues addressed in these bills are of utmost importance to many of you in attendance today, who like me, have constituents or loved ones who are directly impacted by the problems they seek to solve.

The subjects of the bills range from establishing presumptions of service-connection for certain diseases to loan forgiveness for veterans who die in combat.  I look forward to hearing the informed testimony of our invited witnesses today.

Speaking of invited witnesses, I must express my disappointment that the DoD did not find it “efficient” to provide a witness to testify, particularly on legislation that has clear DoD implications.  Moreover, this notice came late last week after testimony was due and after the DoD originally indicated that it intended to provide a witness.  I hope to avoid this unnecessary wrangling in the future.  Our veterans should be important to every implicated federal agency. The nexus between the DoD and VA are undeniable and should not be rebuffed by the DoD when we are attempting to examine issues that overlap on jurisdiction and responsibility. 

I note that yesterday the DoD did provide a written statement for the record.  This fact aside, this Congress deserves the right to question the appropriate DoD personnel in person, not just in writing.  Not to mention that our men and women who have given their all in service to our country deserve the right to have their elected representatives question the executive branch.  This is how our system of checks and balances must work to ensure our democratic way of governing remains intact.

As I know that many of you in attendance are eager to ask questions of, or to hear answers from our knowledgeable witnesses, I will reserve the rest of my time for questioning.  Since we have eleven bills under consideration today, I’ll let everyone know how I intend to proceed.   After Mr. Lamborn gives his opening statement, I will recognize Members of the Committee who have legislation pending before the Subcommittee today. I ask that other members of the Subcommittee that do not have legislation pending to please submit your statements for the record. 

We will then proceed to Panel I to receive testimony from our colleagues who have sponsored legislation pending before the DAMA Subcommittee.  We will then proceed to panels II, III and IV each to follow by a round of questions where each member on the dais will be offered five minutes to ask questions of the witnesses on that panel, in order according to the Rules of the House.  

I now recognize, Ranking Member Lamborn for his Opening Statement.