Fiscal Year 2023 Veterans Affairs Major Medical Facility Authorization Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for S. 30, the Fiscal Year 2023 Veterans Affairs Major Medical Facility Authorization Act.

I thank the chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Tester, and Ranking Member Moran for introducing this important legislation.

Every year, the Department of Veterans Affairs submits an annual budget request to Congress. Our job is to authorize and appropriate the funding VA needs to care for America's veterans and their families.

More than 9 million veterans are enrolled in VA's healthcare system, utilizing roughly 1,300 healthcare facilities across the system. Within VA's budget request are funds to replace and modernize these medical facilities.

This year's major construction request totals just over $3.7 billion and will build a new healthcare center in El Paso, Texas; construct an outpatient clinic and a national cemetery in Alameda, California; erect a new medical facility in Louisville, Kentucky; and allow for seismic upgrades and specialty care improvements in Fort Harrison, Montana, among other things.

Mr. Speaker, funding VA infrastructure remains an important and critical issue. In recent years, the committee has highlighted VA's aging infrastructure and the critical need to address that issue. Delivering 21st century healthcare using outdated facilities is far from ideal and certainly not what our veterans deserve. If the VA is to be inclusive and treat all veterans who have served, we should not delay retrofitting facilities as we strive to meet the growing and ever-changing needs of our diverse veteran community.

Last year, we passed my Honoring our PACT Act, which will significantly expand eligibility and, consequently, utilization of VA healthcare in the coming years.

Just last week, NPR published a story highlighting, once again, a Medicare survey showing VA hospitals are outperforming private hospitals in all categories of patient satisfaction. Despite outdated, antiquated facilities, VA still provides exceptional care. Imagine the levels of care VA could achieve if it had all the needed resources.

In order to serve our veterans and provide them with the care they deserve and need, we must start making serious investments in our outdated infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all my colleagues to join me in passing S. 30, the Fiscal Year 2023 Veterans Affairs Major Medical Facility Authorization Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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