Congressman McNerney Sends Letter to Veterans Bill Conferees on Expediting Construction of VA Facilities

Statement

Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-09) today sent a letter to members of the conference committee for H.R. 3230, the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act. The letter urges the conferees to include his bill, H.R. 5042, the Jumpstart VA Construction Act, in any final VA legislation passed by the House and Senate this year.

In the letter Rep. McNerney said: "This is an innovative bill intended to help reduce the VA construction backlog. It creates a pilot program at the VA that would allow the agency to partner with non-federal entities to initiate and manage the construction of facilities at sites where Congress has already allocated funding and where design work has already been completed, but construction has not yet begun. The present VA construction process has been hindered by red tape, inaccurate budget projections, and mismanagement. Our veterans are heroes and we owe it to them to provide them with the best benefits and a state of the art health care system."

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