that the president's budget request for the v a was the largest single budget request by any president over the last three decades and that money obviously is needed and deserved veterans a responsibility of this committee and i thank you for your leadership and all the members for their work on that chairman dave obey doesn't need an introduction is the full chair of the committee that meets in this room and he deserves one and i just want to very briefly say that the unprecedented progress we've made in the last three years and supporting financially and with new programs health care and benefits for our veterans none of that progress would have occurred committee process or making meeting with speaker pelosi and following through on her commitment to make veterans a top priority or whether it was is really important leadership role in making allocations for this subcommittee  three years of significantly increasing funding for the v a we know there are still unmet needs out there deal with those unmet needs every day i think it is vital to earn the trust american people that we not only done the right thing  increase funding for veterans but that we're working hard every single day to see that every dollar that is being spent efficiently and effectively and for the highest priorities and i think that will be vital  my one question would be on the claims backlog you referenced in your comments we know it's an enormous challenge frustrating that we started three years ago increasing funding for claims process or e pharmaceutical drug prices are about half of what medicare pays and this is a good way to save the american taxpayer money do you and the secretary of health and human services work together maybe do you give her any ideas or can you give her a ideas as to how we can maybe make something like this work  this year's budget you've got to got some money for a change in policy that relates to national cemeteries and understand it now i guess the old policy was there hundred fifty thousand veterans within seventy five mile radius radius then they would be eligible for a national cemetery are you going to change that to eighty thousand which as i understand is going to entitle of an extra half a million veterans to  close to a national cemetery and i can tell you firsthand in my community in jacksonville florida that the closest cemetery when i was first elected was about two hundred miles away  new cemetery was just opened last year and i don't think many things in congress that i've worked on have had as big an impact on me or the community that i represent as has this national to tonight one hundred thirty one thousand veterans are going to go to sleep without without a roof without a home i consider this to be america's national shame and i know you vital can you give us some specifics however as to what kind of investment you talked about new investment for homeless veterans in order to achieve the goal of eliminating homelessness among veterans and within five years tell specifically what you're proposing for this do have additional questions mr secretary so we'll stay in recess until the end of the  me ask about the scholarship program that i had the privilege of being involved and frankly probably the most humbling and gratifying privilege i've had in my time here in congress that i can think of few people in this country that are more deserving of our support and then children have lost mothers or fathers in military service and i know no one would agree with that more than you but since they will have gone one of confirmation there that we're going to get started on time and get those checks out rapidly when the program  is in two thousand and ten we have been seeing an increase year after year in the total number of veterans in the united states someone it indicated that perhaps two thousand and ten as a first year that number is level out and because of inherited which is a necessary part of delivering a big government program like benefits but the real sense as you can in your staff is making sure that there is an accountability function the money getting to the veterans particularly the disabled american veterans as it goes and they also are concerned about the box because you and i talked in my office about how certain things even with increased funding are not happening or can't happen or won't great progress at our outpatient clinic in the past and we're in line in twelve for funding for really needed and we were one of the highest service areas without a hospital immediately available that larger box in these investments in the outpatient clinic so that you get as many functions of care to the veterans as possible especially to avoid long travel to inpatient or overnight you all members of it had multiple hearings this morning but thank you for your leadership on this subcommittee and i'd like to recognize you for we've already had two or three rounds so i'd like to recognize you for whatever time you'd like to have that sectarian ask any questions you might want to ask for thanks very much mr chairman it's an honor to serve with us here i'm so proud of your leadership in this for veterans in this country and it's indeed a pleasure always that have  be in the military because of obesity and so i think that we're going to try to raise healthier children and for healthier soldiers and healthier and appreciate your leadership i just have to  discuss a lot of the questions about backlogs and how we get people off the streets we're doing a wonderful job of building in our communities locally you know paid for locally homeless shelters and we really h will do better thank you because i do appreciate what you've done to clean up the ministry of backlogs and i think you're being very management wise in that  appreciate that leadership the other areas which is really it's one that the chairman is sick and tired of me hearing area about this i think the whole committee is that's why they all left because they know i bring it up but when ford close which is the largest military training base in the united states in fact to this date the largest military base to ever close in the history of this country twenty eight thousand acres and has about thirty three thousand people and what we've tried to do is with all that land at the d o t owned it has  transferred back to the community is build a national cemetery but because the monterey peninsula which is where california government began it's where the old is proceeding or the united states still operational exist s and so we have this history of military and the airing there and to this day with a naval postgraduate school in the defense language institute and bunch of other service programs going on we've been trying to convert  base into a national cemetery because there is one over in the san joaquin valley which is within seventy miles of pro flies they're not eligible because it's a geographical restriction you have the authority to look at this seventy mile radius and suggest that we we squeeze it in making instead of a round serve or a lip service which would take in the entire coast of california and from san francisco  and certainly that's where the people are they want to come because the cemetery in the san joaquin valley is has no support services it's essentially the closest community is a truck stop not even an incorporated community  anyway it did a town hall meeting last night and one of the questions a woman is she says my husband died twelve years ago i have his ashes and in my closet i'm just wondering can i bury him in moderate because i don't want to filled the one in existence that's going to take a long long time and this properties radio replied to have this plan b the state option california as you know is not building a cemetery i wish they were i wish they were doing what your home state has nine a think a state cemetery but california's shows not to go that route regardless of who the governor is not a partisan issue they've decided that their priority is in the housing of soldiers in their retirement homes and the rest and they put their money in a lot of federal money into that initiative not into maintaining state cemetery so we're doing a plan c which was to try to raise the money locally for the please keep up that i just want to finalise one last question we have as we talked about have given unprecedented increases the last three years out of the subcommittee to the v a health care system anecdotally i sometimes hear from individual hospitals that while we were passing ten eleven twelve percent per  year increases nationally that individual hospitals allocations were only going up one two three or four percent and some of that answer if that anecdotal criminally each one of the medical center for their workload and i know that there are a number of other networks that function in that fashion there is a reserve in every network and the opportunity for medical centers to