thank you very much. >> mr. reyes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i apologize for being late. as you know, we have competing hearings taking place. in the regard of -- in fort bliss we have the wounded warrior transition center, and one of the -- one of the questions that i get asked is the research and development that is going on in the area of prosthetics. can any of you comment on what kind of r&d is going on? because i know just seeing the kinds of prosthetics that are being used today, from my viewpoint, it's phenomenal, but i'm not sure that i understand where that r&d's taking place for prosthetics. >> sir, i apologize, i don't know the answer to that in detail that you need. i could get it for you. again, dr. beck may be able to, the next panel, explain what vha is actually funding and how they're dealing with that. i can't give you a good view of that, sir. >> the other question i have, there have been many concerns expressed about the proposed changes to the procurement. i'm not sure i understood the issue and the concern from veterans that there might be a further

i recognize the gentleman from texas, mr. reyes. >> thank you, madam chair. dr. beck, you mentioned the center of excellence. where is that located and how much of the work being done there is medical research as it pertains to prosthetics? >> the center of excellence that i spoke about is a joint va/dod center of excellence for extremity care. that actually will be a virtual center or is a virtual center. it will have locations in san antonio, texas and in washington, d.c. staff will be distributed across our system so that some of our staff will be in various centers, both va and dod centers around the country so that we are collaborating, coordinating our efforts and i think you mentioned research earlier, sir, and one of the things that we talked about that we will be able to do by leveraging the capability with dod and va is that we will be able to do clinical trial type of evaluations at a number of different centers at the same time and that is one of the missions of this joint va/dod center of excellence is research coordination and studying and reporting

on the battlefield, you have about a 95% chance now of surviving that injury as opposed to when mr. reyes was in vietnam, which was a lot less than that, i can tell you. so we are going to have to deal with these issues going forward and we should, and i guess the question i have for you is do you agree with what captain pruden said a moment ago about if the va changes its procurement and so forth, this will be detrimental, in other words, should we just keep doing what we're doing and tighten up on what miss halliday said. walmart can tell you when a tube of toothpaste went out the door and replace it so we should be able to do that. the va, it sounds like by 2015, that should be implemented. do you agree? >> well, sir, i didn't look at the business practices by which these prosthetics are determined which is appropriate and procured. we simply in this report looked at the populations that existed and tried to understand who they were and what was going on with them. similarly to the gentleman on the second panel, we didn't look at the effectiveness of one prosthetic over another or, you

. >> mr. reyes, do you have any additional questions? >> just, i think, a couple of brief points. of the 600 vendors that you mentioned, are those -- the contact with our veterans, are they independent of the va or are they through the va, is it like sometimes happens that a patient will be contacted outside of the system and be convinced that maybe this product is something they ought to try? how do those 600 vendors have contact with our -- with our wounded warriors? >> yes, sir. the 600 contracted vendors are our community partners. so they're active within our own va facilities. they attend clinics, and they help in the prescription rationale of that item for that veteran. so they are involved extensively with us in the care. >> so they would not have independent contact with the vet raps themselves? >> yes, sir, they would, if the vendor was selected to provide that limb, the veteran then would typically go to their private facility and have that prog thesis designed for them independent of what's going on at the va medical center. >> okay. and do those vendors, are they just

mr. reyes: thank you, mr. speaker. as a parent and a grandparent, i rise today with a heavy heart to take time to remember brandon, a young man who left us 2 1/2 weeks ago. in our community he will always be remembered for his smile, his personality and his desire to serve as an inspiration to others. brandon, like over 11 million people in this country, was gay, and like so many of his peers, was being harassed and bullied until he took his own life on june 2, after being threatened with being shot and buried alive. his last message echoed his infinity love for his family and his a-- infinite love for his family and his apologies for not being strong enough. his final words said, my name is brandon, joseph, and i couldn't make it. i love you guys with all my heart. high school should be an exciting time with an array of new experiences and challenges, but one thing it should not be is an environment where young people worry about being bullied. children in high school should be focused on their education, pure and sim

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas, mr. reyes, is recognized. mr. reyes: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank my colleague and co-chair, fellow co-chair, for the army caucus, judge carter, for yielding me the time to honor the united states army on its 237th birthday. the army as my colleague has said dates back to 1775. it has always stood tall, both in peacetime and in times of war and times of conflict or police actions which means that our men and women, our proud men and women in the army, have stood in harm's way to benefit freedom, not just for our country but throughout the world. the army has been at war now for over 10 years. today it is battle tested and proven itself once again. our army is over one million strong, composed of some of america's most dedicated and outstanding individuals. so today i'm proud to stand with my co-chair to take a moment to recognize the men and women who selflessly serve our army for the past 237 years. . we pause to thank our soldiers for their families and their commitment which remains steadfast. from th

mr. reyes: thank you, mr. speaker. it is indeed a sad day today. as an fer that spent 26 1/2 years wearing the united states border patrol uniform, it is regrettable for me today that we're here under these circumstances. i want to acknowledge and thank the chairman and the ranking member for inviting me to go to -- with them to mexico city and visit at the u.s. embassy about the circumstances around -- what led to the investigation of fast and furious. and to me it's regrettable because we are here discussing the death of a border patrol agent. i went to the memorial service for agent brian terry. i visited with his mom and his family that day. i went there because as a former border patrol agent i wanted to express sympathy and support as i did so many times as a chief for agents that were killed in the line of duty. so for me it is particularly troubling that we're here politicizing the death of a united states border patrol agent. we ought to be about getting to the circumstances of the investigation led under a u.s. attorney under osedef. both

mr. reyes, i would like to congratulate you as -- as a veteran. as a veteran, i used to serve in fort bliss, texas. it was amazing to see the traveling through to mexico, traveling with white soldiers, the closing the border they asked for my identification. it is hard to believe that even as a soldier i would be discriminated against. thank you for your service. host: carlos, what did you think about the supreme court decision yesterday? caller: it is awful to see how americans truly feel about hispanics. the mexican community plays such a huge part in the city. guest: thank you, carlos. first and foremost, thank you for your service. i always like to point out that when president bush sent us into iraq was an immigrant military. tthe i would also like to point out that when we talk about the dream kids, the kids that have been brought to this country through no fault of their own by their parents, their parents -- in many cases, they have never known any country other than this country. that is why the president by executive order passed the two

mr. romney. you see 31% at "n" 2008, and 38% in 2010 and then today. raul reyes vote for mitt romney right now. >> don't look at me, brother. [laughing] i think what it comes down to latinos have been following this election cycle very closely, not just in the mainstream media but spanish language television which focuses on immigration. mitt romney's support among latinos tends to be among cubans and the evangelicals and christian crowd. the interesting thing about the cuban-americans who support mitt romney benefit from amnesty because they or their parents or grandparents were exiles, which mitt romney is against. and they benefit from genius government benefits and government assistance when they came from cuba which mitt romney is against. i think they're being swayed by some of the message of social issues but i found it interesting on the same-sex marriage issue, more latinos agree with same-sex marriage than the general public. >> michael: and in florida the hispanic voters in florida are republicans. that may shoot them in the foot. gentlemen, scott blak