Major Medical Facility Authorization Act of 2021

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1910) to authorize major medical facility projects of the Department of Veterans Affairs for fiscal year 2021.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on S. 1910.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Senator Tester's S. 1910, the Major Medical Facility Authorization Act of 2021. I also thank my good friend and a valued member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Representative Colin Allred, for introducing the House companion to this vital and important piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, each year, the Department of Veterans Affairs submits an annual budget request to Congress, and then it is our job to authorize and appropriate the funding that VA needs to care for America's veterans and their families. Within that larger funding request is VA's request for funds to replace and modernize its medical facilities.

This year's major construction request totals just over $2 billion and will build a much-needed spinal cord injury center in Dallas, Texas; erect a community living center and renovate domiciliary and outpatient facilities in Canandaigua, New York; construct an outpatient clinic and a national cemetery in Alameda, California; and allow for the construction of a new specialty care building in American Lake, Washington, among other things.

Mr. Speaker, this Congress, our committee has highlighted VA's aging infrastructure. It might surprise some Members to learn the median age of VA medical centers is 58 years old. In the private sector, it is about 11 years.

Delivering 21st century healthcare in buildings that were built during the latter half of the 19th century is far from ideal and certainly not what our veterans deserve.

Despite outdated facilities, RAND and other academic entities have found VA provides better care than private options, in most cases. That is right. The VA provides better care even though it is working from outdated facilities. Imagine what those findings would look like if VA was competing with a modern infrastructure.

During our oversight efforts, the committee has learned that in order to fully recapitalize the Department's portfolio, VA would need roughly $100 billion. The Biden administration's $18 billion proposal to enhance VA's physical infrastructure is a downpayment in ensuring veterans have access to the most advanced healthcare and most robust infrastructure that we can provide.

My colleagues across the aisle may argue that potentially spending $18 billion on VA's infrastructure is premature because it fails to consider existing reform efforts already underway, alluding to the AIR Commission. They will argue that we should wait for the Commission's findings. Given the severity of underfunding as it relates to VA's capital assets, we cannot afford to

wait until the AIR Commission provides recommendations to Congress and the White House.

Life safety and seismic issues across the portfolio must be addressed now. Regular maintenance should not be delayed because of budgetary concerns, nor should we delay retrofitting facilities to meet the needs of VA's fastest growing population--women veterans--or delay addressing the lessons learned from this Nation's first pandemic in more than 100 years.

If we are going to build back better, if we are going to build back trust in VA, we have to start making serious investments in the outdated infrastructure meant to serve them, and nearly three-fourths of Americans agree.

Mr. Speaker, that is why I support S. 1910, and I thank Senator Tester, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, for prioritizing and passing this legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Allred), my good friend and a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, where he is an active member of the Subcommittee on Health.

(Mr. ALLRED asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I ask all my colleagues to join me in passing S. 1910, the Major Medical Facility Authorization Act of 2021, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bipartisan bill, the fiscal year 2021 Major Medical Facility Authorization Act.

As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq come to an end, as a Nation, we are reminded of our profound and sacred commitment to ensure that each and every one of our veterans gets the support, services, and care they need when they return home.

We owe this commitment to every generation of veterans who have served. I know this from when I visited Afghanistan in 2019 as a member of this committee.

Whether it is exposure to toxic air, coping with the stress and mental toll of their service, or trying to find a good job as they transition back to civilian life, we must do all we can to support our veterans who have served us so well.

That is why I was proud to lead this bipartisan bill in the House. This bill would create jobs by authorizing the construction of several major VA medical facilities across the country, including a spinal cord injury center in Dallas, my hometown and just outside of my district.

The Dallas project, currently underway, will construct a 30-bed, long-term care spinal cord injury center with the capacity to expand to 60 beds. These funds will ensure this center has all the tools it needs to best serve veterans in its care, including a warehouse administration building, parking garage, and central plant improvements.

In addition to providing long-term care for the medical complications of spinal cord injuries and disorders, the center will provide a residential setting in which highly dependent or medically complex veterans could live on a long-term basis, receiving the specialized environment, staff skills, and equipment that they require.

In 2020, I worked with folks in both parties to help secure a new VA hospital in Garland, in my district. This was a vacant hospital that we were able to get donated to the VA system. It took months and months of meetings and calls, but we were able to get it done. It has now been up and running for over a year, and the folks there are doing extraordinary work. It proves that when we provide the VA with the resources it needs, the hardworking folks there will go above and beyond to serve our veterans.

The facility is expected to eventually create 5,000 jobs and is helping us to better serve 174,000 veterans in north Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I am so honored to keep building on this work with the passage of this bill because, like our veterans' service and sacrifice, our commitment to them must be sacred.

I thank my House cosponsors, Representatives Derek Kilmer, Kim Schrier, and Mike Levin. I also thank Chairman Takano and Ranking Member Bost for their leadership on this bill. I thank the Senate leads, Senator Jon Tester, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and Senator Jerry Moran as well.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this measure.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 1910, the Major Medical Facility Authorization Act of 2021.

This bill would authorize the VA's major medical facilities construction projects in California, Washington, New York, and Texas. Those projects include outpatient clinics, a specialty care building, a spinal cord injury center, two community living centers, and more.

These projects are formally requested by the VA in the most recent budget submission. They would benefit hundreds, if not thousands, of veterans.

This bill is sponsored by Senator Jon Tester, chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. I thank him for introducing it, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it today.

The VA healthcare system has a massive capital assets profile. It is comprised of medical facilities that are, on average, more than five times older than private-sector medical facilities.

In 2018, Congress passed the Asset and Infrastructure Review Act, or the AIR Act, to bring the VA healthcare system into the 21st century. It would lay the foundation to modernize the VA medical facilities to better serve the veterans.

I am proud to support this bill to help deliver updated medical facilities to the veterans in these four States, but we have much more to do to deliver modern medical care to our veterans across this country.

Mr. Speaker, I hope that we can pass this bill today and then continue working together to ensure the AIR Act lives up to the immense promises that it has for the veterans.

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

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on Roll Call No. 219 on the motion to table, I am not recorded because I was fulfilling my Congressional duties at Fort Benning, Georgia. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY.

On Roll Call No. 220 on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 1664, I am not recorded because I was fulfilling my Congressional duties at Fort Benning, Georgia. Had I been present, I would have voted

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 1910.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.