I do think that VA, as the largest employer of nurses and the largest health system in the country, often does become a place where we can demonstrate advances in medical practice.

We are a system where I can tell you that nobody is doing more for behavioral health care in this country than the VA.

I don't believe that the problems in the VA are necessarily about money. When I look back over the problems of the VA over the past decade, this is fundamentally a system that hasn't kept up with modernization in the way that the rest of health care in the private sector has.

VA is a unique national resource that is worth saving, and I am committed to doing just that.

Fort Smith, being the place of my longest stay, was the scene of my largest medical practice.

America's doctors, nurses and medical researchers are the best in the world, but our health care system is broken.