A bill to designate the community based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs located at 310 Home Boulevard in Galesburg, Illinois, as the "Lane A. Evans VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic".

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of bipartisan legislation that I introduced last month to name the Galesburg VA community-based outpatient clinic in honor of former Congressman Lane Evans, who passed away just last month. Lane served the 17th Congressional District of Illinois, the district I now have the honor and privilege of representing. He served it with honor, humility, and hard work for more than two decades.

A Marine Corps veteran himself, Lane was a steadfast champion for our men and women in uniform. A veteran of the Vietnam war era, he served on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee from his arrival in Washington to his position as the committee's ranking member, a post he held for more than 10 years.

Lane Evans' record on behalf of veterans earned him the praise and respect from veterans service organizations and his colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring the life and legacy of former Congressman Lane Evans by designating the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic located in Galesburg, Illinois, as the Lane A. Evans Community Based Outpatient Clinic.

I first got to know Lane when I was a young newspaper reporter covering our region. Lane was always warm, accessible, and friendly to me. I interviewed him many times about a number of different topics.

While he was young, with his trademark boyish haircut, his quiet courage and drive made him seem much older than his age. Through my interactions with him over the years and with those who worked with him and those who he touched through his service, I learned a lot about the man and what he stood for.

A proud native of Rock Island, the son of a firefighter and a nurse, and an Alleman High School and Augustana College graduate, Lane truly represented everything that is right about public service. He will be sorely missed by all those he touched, and the legacy of service that he provided will never be forgotten.

The dedication of a veterans' facility in the heart of the district he represented is a fitting tribute and acknowledgment of his career- long fight to ensure that all veterans get the care and the benefits that they have earned and deserve.

I would like to thank the entire Illinois delegation and the many Members who served with Lane for supporting this effort. In particular, I would like to thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member Michaud of the Veterans' Affairs Committee here in the House and their counterparts in the Senate, Chairman Sanders and Ranking Member Burr, for bringing this forward. I would also like to thank Senators Kirk and Durbin from Illinois for shepherding this bill through the Senate.

By renaming this VA clinic, we can ensure that Lane Evans' strong legacy of service to our men and women in uniform lives on in a facility that serves them today. I urge my colleagues to join with me in supporting this bipartisan legislation in honor of the memory of Lane Evans.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting S. 2921 in honoring the life of our former friend and colleague, Lane Evans, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you, Dr. Roe, for yielding and also for helping bring this legislation to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 2921, which would designate the VA community-based outpatient clinic in Galesburg, Illinois, as the Lane A. Evans VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic.

As a cosponsor of the House version of the bill, I appreciate the work that both the House and Senate VA Committees have done and the leadership of both Chambers to bring this bill to the floor. I especially want to thank Senator Durbin for authorizing this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, for 24 years, Lane Evans served with distinction as the Representative of Illinois' 17th Congressional District. We mourn his tragic

passing last month at the age of 63. Even as he suffered from Parkinson's disease, Mr. Speaker, Lane Evans heroically and tenaciously fought for veterans in the years leading up to his retirement in 2007.

When Congressman Evans retired, the Vietnam Veterans of America said:

Lane's compassion for his fellow veterans and his

commitment to do right by them has come right from the heart.

As ranking member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee during my tenure as chairman of the committee, I saw firsthand how he turned his knowledge, compassion, and expertise--his heart--into effective advocacy and how he worked to make a tangible difference in the lives of veterans and their families around the country.

Mr. Speaker, during our tenure as chair and ranking member, we were able to craft and shepherd into law numerous bills that expanded care and service for our Nation's veterans, including expansion of the GI Bill and assistance to homeless veterans.

Lane's commitment to ensuring that men and women who wore the uniform had timely access to world class medical treatment that they have earned was, in a word, extraordinary.

Of particular interest to Lane, a Vietnam veteran himself, was health care for veterans exposed to agent orange during their service in Vietnam. Throughout the 1980s, it was an honor to work side by side with Lane and others, like Congressman Tom Daschle, in an effort to convince a highly reluctant Department of Veterans Affairs and Pentagon that agent orange severely injured many who served in Vietnam.

In 1991, Lane introduced the Veterans' Compensation Amendments of 1991, which became part of the Agent Orange Act, to provide presumptive service-connected disability assistance to veterans with diseases linked to agent orange; thus the gentleman from Illinois helped ensure that veterans received the care and the compensation they deserved, while not being saddled with the onerous burden of proof for injuries due to exposure to a herbicide that was laced with dioxin.

It is, therefore, highly fitting to name a community-based outpatient clinic after a remarkable lawmaker who fought hard for veterans, health care, and compensation during his time in Congress. I urge my colleagues to join me and all the leadership here on the floor in supporting S. 2921 to honor the legacy of Congressman Evans as a remarkable veterans' advocate.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 2921) to designate the community based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs located at 310 Home Boulevard in Galesburg, Illinois, as the ``Lane A. Evans VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic''.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on S. 2921.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 2921, which would name the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic at 310 Home Boulevard, Galesburg, Illinois, as the Lane A. Evans VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic.

We are here today to honor the life and service of the late Congressman Lane Evans by naming the new VA community-based outpatient clinic in Illinois after him. Congressman Evans represented Illinois' 17th District for more than 20 years, was a champion of veterans' issues throughout his time in Congress, and served as the ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee for a decade.

Congressman Evans passed away this year, at the age of 63, following a long battle with Parkinson's disease. One way to honor Congressman Evans is to recognize his legacy of service to veterans in the community. It is in that thought that we believe naming this facility after him is a fitting tribute.

It is my pleasure to support S. 2921, and I am grateful for the leadership and support of Chairman Miller, Ranking Member Michaud, Senator Durbin, and the entire Illinois delegation. I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring this great public servant by supporting this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to my good friend, Chris Smith from New Jersey.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I encourage all Members to support S. 2921.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Veterans Affairs' Committee be discharged from the consideration of and the Senate proceed to the consideration of the following measures, which are VA facility-naming bills, en bloc: H.R. 3682, H.R. 3375, S. 2921, and S. 229.

I ask unanimous consent that the bills be read a third time and passed, en bloc, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, en bloc, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.