WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, released the following opening remarks, as prepared, at an oversight hearing of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). 

U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, thanked Disabled American Veterans’ (DAV) members from Arkansas and across the nation for their work on behalf of veterans and highlighted their shared priority to expand the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) capacity to deliver high quality health care.

Boozman delivers brief remarks on the VA Clinician Appreciation, Recruitment, Education, Expansion, and Retention Support (CAREERS) Act. This is bipartisan legislation introduced by Boozman and Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT) that would provide the VA with more tools to compete for highly qualified medical personnel, support training for current and future VA clinicians to ensure veterans receive the highest quality of care, and provide more oversight and public transparency on VA’s efforts to address vacancies.

In a Senate Environment and Publics Works Committee hearing, U.S. Senator John Boozman promoted the use of drones to help inspect infrastructure. The senator promoted legislation he helped introduce in August that would authorize $100 million in competitive grants to use American-made drones to perform critical infrastructure inspection, maintenance or construction projects. This bipartisan bill would also authorize $100 million in grants for workforce training and education to prepare the next generation of workers in this field.