I would like to state that the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States and the Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification have asked to submit written statements for the hearing record.  If there is no objection, I ask for unanimous consent that their statements be entered for the record.  Hearing no objection, so entered.

During the 110th Congress, we held a series of hearings that focused on employment opportunities for veterans.  These hearings included the VR&E programs that seek to assist our injured servicemembers and help veterans obtain employment after their military service.  As a result of those productive hearings, we were able to expand the VR&E programs by:

• Authorizing the VA Secretary to provide waivers for severely injured veterans seeking to participate in the Independent Living Program;
• Increasing the cap for participation in the Independent Living Program;
• Requiring the VA to report to Congress on the measures to assist veterans participating in VR&E; and
• Authorizing a multi-year longitudinal study on VR&E.

Today’s hearing will allow us to learn more about what the Administration is doing to implement these new changes and to address the concerns raised over the past year.  These include the need to:

• Reduce case management and workload for counselors;
• Conduct more outreach to qualified veterans;
• Streamline information provided to DVOP, LVER and VA staff; and
• Implement the new National Acquisition Strategy.