Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank you for coming, Rear Admiral Smith. I think you were here as a presenter at my first sit-in on this committee. It's nice to see you again.
Mr. Hillier, your reputation for trying to get your department working as well as it can for veterans is well known, and I commend you on all of the changes you've been able to quarterback and get into the system. There's no such thing as a perfect system and never will be, but I know that your committee works exceptionally hard to assist in reaching a level of perfection when we're dealing with veterans in various forms of need, in order to make life as easy as we can for them. Thank you for that.
Does your committee actually look for and seek out new opportunities for cooperation between the departments, or is it the other way around: are the ideas brought to you for consideration? How exactly does the interaction between the departments and your committees work?