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Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon to urge all of my colleagues to join me in voting to confirm Joshua Jacobs to serve as Under Secretary for Benefits at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mr. Jacobs is an exceptionally qualified pick to fill this role, who will work day in and day out to make sure our Nation lives up to its obligation to take care of its veterans. I should know because that is exactly what he did when he worked in my office.

Joshua came to work every day focused on Washington State veterans and their families and helped to prepare the VA for an influx of veterans, to expand clinics and facilities, and to ensure veterans had the services they needed to transition to civilian life, especially when it comes to employment. That track record is why I was thrilled to have him return to work for me as deputy staff director on the Veterans Affairs Committee later, when I became chair, and why I was so excited to join my colleagues on the committee earlier this year to advance this nomination in a bipartisan way.

When I was chair, Mr. Jacobs helped lead the efforts to get veterans more mental health services, expand and support services for women veterans, and ensure veterans had a seamless transition from the DOD to the VA, where too often our servicemembers and veterans faced too much redtape and the VA faced too little accountability.

Given his drive back then, it is no surprise to me that the work he has done since shows his deep commitment to serving those who served our Nation and why he is such a strong fit and trusted choice for this role.

When Mr. Jacobs was a Senior Advisor to the Office of the VA Secretary under President Obama, he was awarded the Secretary's Meritorious Service Award. When President Biden was elected, he was chosen to serve on the incoming administration's VA transition team. After Mr. Jacobs returned to the Department as a Senior Advisor in 2021, he improved its decision-making process by establishing and leading the new Evidence-based Policy Council and developing a new interagency policy development process to coordinate and implement more than 50 interagency policy efforts.

As a Senior Advisor for Policy who carried out the responsibilities of the Under Secretary for Benefits, Mr. Jacobs has taken on the enormous task of coordinating a team of 25,000 people and 56 regional offices, processing centers, and headquarters as they worked to manage over $100 billion in benefits and to make good on our promise to millions of veterans and their families.

He knows full well how important a smoothly functioning VA is to the Americans who are relying on the benefits our Nation promised them. I have no doubt he will go to work every day determined to make sure our Nation lives up to those promises.

I know Mr. Jacobs, who is a Washington State native and graduate of the University of Washington, will do great work for America's veterans as Under Secretary for benefits.

I am proud to support his nomination. I look forward to working with him once he is confirmed.

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