Department of Veterans Affairs Major Medical Facility Lease Authorization Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3521, and I urge all my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation that will allow the VA to move forward with these 27 leases in order to better serve the veterans, our true American heroes, across the country.

The veterans in and around the Tampa Bay area will be particularly served by this legislation. The VA recently approved a plan that would take the currently strained five existing clinics that are spread out over a large area and consolidate them into a convenient one-stop facility. This would allow the VA to better meet the growing needs of the veterans community with diverse health status. However, because of the technical issues we are solving today, this project had not been able to move forward.

By passing this bill, the House will allow for not only the consolidation of our five medical clinics in my congressional district into one property, but for 26 other equally important projects to move forward across the country improving access for our heroes. This would not have been done, Mr. Speaker, without our great chairman here, Mr. Miller, and our ranking member, Mr. Michaud, so thank you so very much. I know that our true American heroes, our veterans, appreciate it very much.

I urge passage of this bill.

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