Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Madam Chair, my amendment would provide $9.5 million to acquire and construct up to four long-term care residential brain injury medical facilities.

The primary danger faced by our troops in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom comes in the form of improvised explosive devices. When an IED explodes, the blast wave can result in our servicemembers incurring catastrophic injuries including amputations, spinal cord injuries, visual and auditory impairments, traumatic brain injury, and posttraumatic stress.

Wounded warriors with these complex injuries require a high level of health care coordination with an interdisciplinary clinical support team and a wide range of specialized services. Since 2003, almost 2,000 severely injured servicemembers have received state-of-the-art care at one of the Department of Veterans Affairs four Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers.

But what happens to these heroes when they are discharged? Some of them require intensive medical care for the rest of their lives. My amendment addresses the problem of how to provide ongoing recovery for these wounded warriors.

These heroes honorably served their country. Now we have to step up to meet our obligation to them. They need a place to go that will provide for post-acute long-term care, subacute residential rehabilitation, and outpatient day rehabilitation with the dignity, respect, and honor they have earned.

Their families, who are enduring the extreme stress of having one of their own come home with catastrophic injuries, also need this long-term care facility for their loved ones.

My amendment will enable the VA to construct facilities that are specifically designed to provide ongoing recovery for wounded warriors. Such facilities will enable families to visit in an atmosphere that is conducive to the rehabilitation and the reintegration.

These facilities will be paid for with existing funds within the VA's budget and will allow the VA to select locations that are close enough to existing VA medical facilities to ensure that intensive, ongoing medical and specialist care is easily provided. At the same time, the facility can be in a location that would be natural and, importantly, family friendly.

By supporting my amendment, you will be requiring funds already available to the VA to be directed toward relieving the obvious need for long-term, ongoing recovery for our veterans suffering from TBI and other polytrauma injuries.

A properly selected and designed facility is so important, Madam Chair. My amendment will enable medical specialists from the VA to develop a special plan to allow our veterans to heal. That is so important. It should be our top priority. A doctor would be able to look in the eyes of a wounded warrior and tell him or her, This is your home, and we are going to help you participate in society and visit with your family.

The facilities my amendment would promote, Madam Chairman, would enable our young wounded warriors to focus on hope and to focus on honor and have hope for a future. We owe them that, Madam Chair. Let's give them that.

I ask my colleagues to recognize the extreme difficulty faced by our catastrophically wounded warriors. Show them your support and vote ``yes'' on the Bilirakis amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. If you would agree to work with me on this particular amendment--this is a very important project, as you know. We do have our polytrauma centers, but we need the long-term care for our heroes. And this is a top priority of mine. If you would agree to work with me on this, then I will withdraw.

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