The department continues to fail to schedule veterans in a timely manner and Kirkpatrick said the agency needs to accelerate the hiring process and update its technology. She said she had hoped to develop a system that could interface with the military, so that when someone left military service their records automatically got transferred to the VA.

Kirkpatrick said it also was a struggle to see continued declines in education program funding that affected Arizona schools. Cuts to programs like Impact Aid, Secure Rural Schools, Payments in Lieu of Taxes and Head Start have all had a disproportionate impact on Arizona because of its large swaths of public and tribal lands, she said.

ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

While aligning on healthcare and immigration reform, Kirkpatrick and O'Halleran split when it came to their perspectives on the Clean Power Plan. Kirkpatrick was unequivocal in her support of keeping the emissions reduction rule, saying what should be added are federal incentives for coal-fired power plants to transition to using natural gas, wind or solar. She tried to push an idea like that, but said it got nowhere in the Ways and Means Committee, chaired by House Speaker Paul Ryan.

“I couldn’t get anyone involved in even talking about it,” Kirkpatrick said.