A bill to authorize a major medical facility project to modernize inpatient wards at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Madam Speaker, as a young man, I came to believe that it was simply my duty as a citizen to serve in our Nation's Armed Forces. So, it was just a natural thing for me to volunteer for service back in the early 60s. I joined the Marines, later also served as a medical officer in the Navy, and finally took a billet in the Georgia Air National Guard.

My military experiences, I believe, helped make me a better man. It certainly gave me an understanding of military life, and first-hand knowledge of the needs facing military personnel, military families, and our veterans. Those insights guide me as the Congressman for Georgia's 10th Congressional District.

The Federal Government must fulfill its promises to our veterans. We must give them the very best quality health care that is available anywhere in this country. It's important not only to the current veterans but also to the troops that are on active duty today, as well as the volunteers that we need to recruit to serve their country in the military.

As a medical student in Augusta, GA, and during my residency training, I worked in a number of VA hospitals. This experience gives me a unique perspective toward the veterans' needs, which most Members of Congress are not privileged to have. Consequently I have a tremendous desire to get the Federal Government to fulfill the promises it has broken to our

national heroes, the veterans. This bill is a step in that direction.

It is critical that the VA facilities in our Nation are modern, best equipped, and able to give the kind of care that our veterans deserve.

This bill will help to do that by giving veterans in Georgia and the Southeast a modem, up-to-date facility.

I am very sure that keeping the United States the freest Nation in the history of the world means that we must maintain the most powerful military on Earth.

As a member of Congress my priorities regarding military issues are these:

1. Provide our troops with the best training and the best technology.

2. Provide adequate compensation and benefits.

3. Do everything I can to help promote high morale and espirit de corps.

4. Support the spouses and children of military personnel.

5. Improve medical care for our wounded warriors and our veterans.

6. Keep the commitments made to our veterans regarding benefits.

I want to take just a moment of your time to provide you with an update on what I have done since I won the Special Election and was sworn into office last July:

1. Co-sponsored H.R. 3793 Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act of 2007 requiring the secretary of Defense to continue to pay to a member of the armed forces who is retired or separated from the armed forces due to a combat-related injury certain bonuses that the member was entitled to before the retirement or separation and would continue to be entitled to if the member was not retired or separated.

2. Co-sponsored H.R. 1110 amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow federal civilian and military retirees to pay health insurance premiums on a pretax basis and to allow a deduction for TRICARE supplemental premiums.

3. Co-sponsored H. Res. 111 establishing a Select POW and MIA Affairs Committee.

4. Co-sponsored H.J. Res. 67 supporting a base defense budget that at the very minimum matches four percent of gross domestic product.

5. Co-sponsored H. Res. 784 recognizing and honoring, in community post offices, the service of men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces deployed overseas.

6. Co-sponsored H.R. 1808 designating the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta, GA, as the `Charlie Norwood Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.'

7. Supported and spoke in favor of this bill S. 1396 to authorize a major medical facility project to modernize inpatient wards at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia

I encourage all of my colleagues to support this bill as well as any future bills that will give veterans the kind of health care they deserve.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the Senate bill (S. 1396) to authorize a major medical facility project to modernize inpatient wards at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.

I want to thank all the Congress colleagues from Georgia, especially my Atlanta colleagues Mr. Johnson and Mr. Lewis, and especially the Senator from Georgia, Senator Isakson, for making sure this is on the floor today.

The poor state of a lot of the infrastructure of the Veterans Affairs is well-known.

Through what we call the CARES process, the Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services, the department found that the existing inpatient wards at the Atlanta VA Medical Center are far below community standards.

This renovation project will go a long way to address the American with Disabilities Act accessibility requirements, the needs of women veterans, particularly as they relate to privacy issues, and the improvements in efficient functional design.

These deficiency corrections are long overdue, and we think they will be met

here. These infrastructure improvements to utility systems will include the plumbing, electrical, fire and safety concerns on the inpatient floors.

With the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is even more important that the VA is able to provide the best health care available in the most updated and modern facilities.

In fiscal year 2005, this project received $20.5 million, and S. 1396 provides the reauthorization of this project to move forward.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I want to thank the ranking member, Mr. Buyer, for his cooperation. I know that he has great respect for the CARES process and would like to consider all of the facilities in one construction bill. We are pledged to do that early next year, but I think this is an obvious need at this moment, and I look forward to working with the ranking member to make sure we meet the needs of VA infrastructure across the whole country, and we intend to work together and do that early next year.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I'm prepared to yield back when the gentleman from Indiana yields back.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 1396.

Madam Speaker, again, I thank Mr. Buyer for his comments. Putting this bill on the floor as quickly as we did shows what can happen when we work together. I'm looking forward to that mutual discussion of priorities. We are pledged to deal with this aging infrastructure of the VA. It has got to be remedied as quickly as possible, and we're both committed to working to do that.

So I urge my colleagues to support S. 1396.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I also want to thank our committee chairman, Mr. Filner, for working with me in a true bipartisan manner to expeditiously bring S. 1396 to the floor before we adjourn this year. I'd also like to thank the leadership of both parties for bringing this to the floor before we adjourn.

This bill would authorize $20.5 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs to carry out a major medical facility project to modernize patient wards at the VA Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

The President's budget submission for VA for fiscal year 2008 identified this project as the Department's number one major construction authorization request. Without this authorization, the VA would be unable to move forward with this needed project to update and improve patient services for veterans at the Atlanta VA Medical Center.

I also want to thank Senator Johnny Isakson for his efforts to pass this legislation in the Senate, and for the efforts of Senator Saxby Chambliss, who I've also personally spoken with. Both of these Senators have an interest in this project. I'd also like to recognize my good friends, Phil Gingrey and Tom Price, who both introduced a companion bill earlier this year, and for their work and advocacy on this legislation, to also include my colleagues Nathan Deal, Jack Kingston, John Linder and Paul Broun.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price).

Madam Speaker, I also would like to mention the work of Lynn Westmoreland, also of Georgia, and once again, I think the clashes over the years between Mr. Filner and myself are legend.

We had a very good discussion yesterday. So I want all of our colleagues to know that Mr. Filner and I sat down. We had a good lunch. We had very good substantive discussions about a way forward, and we've come to the floor with this bill in a bipartisan manner.

We both recognize as we go into next year that the construction bill will be one of the top priorities for both of us to work together. It is very unusual to sever any construction projects out of a bill. I don't care whether it's the MilCon bill or out of the VA construction bill; this is highly unusual what we're doing here today.

But Mr. Filner and I are going to work together in a bipartisan manner for the greater interests of veterans in this country, and we're going to use this bill as a springboard to greater things.

In the end, I also want to reiterate my comments. Senators Chambliss and Isakson are strong supporters of our men and women in uniform and our Nation's veterans during their distinguished careers both in the House and the Senate.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

General Leave

Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding and for his leadership, and I want to thank the chairman as well for his leadership, commend my colleagues in the United States Senate, Senator Isakson and Senator Chambliss, for their assistance on this as well, and thank my physician colleague from Georgia, Congressman Gingrey, for assisting in moving this forward, also.

As a physician, I clearly understand and appreciate the need for facility improvements at the facility in Decatur, in Atlanta, Georgia. I recognized that during my training, Madam Speaker, when I did some of my training at the VA hospital in Decatur, and that was nearly 30 years ago, so it's high time that we finally get around to providing the resources to improve the infrastructure within the VA facility in Atlanta, in Decatur.

I had the opportunity, Madam Speaker, to visit the VA hospital last week and delivered some Christmas cards, holiday cards to our veterans who were there, had a wonderful tour of the facility, and some of it had undergone significant refurbishment and improvement. Some of it had not.

There are many wonderful men and women who are working diligently there to provide the highest quality care for our veterans. That will be facilitated by the work that this bill will allow, and so I'm pleased to stand with my colleagues in support of this bill and urge its adoption.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I also want to thank Chairman Filner and Mr. Buyer, Senators Isakson and Chambliss, but also my Democratic colleagues. The chairman mentioned those, John Lewis, Hank Johnson, David Scott and others, but Tom Price and I introduced this bill, H.R. 4143, many months ago, but we had unanimous support of the Georgia delegation on both sides of the aisle, and as we should, Madam Speaker, because this is the VA's number one priority for authorization in fiscal year 2008 veterans budget. So I am very pleased.

I know this is the 11th hour, but thank goodness, because of the leadership on both sides of the aisle and in both bodies, this is coming to fruition.

As Chairman Filner pointed out, there are ADA requirement issues. There are patient privacy issues. There are female veterans issues. So this is a hugely important project, and I thank my colleagues for making this happen.