Lane A. Evans VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Thank you, Dr. Roe, for yielding and also
for helping bring this legislation to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 2921, which would
designate the VA community-based outpatient clinic in Galesburg,
Illinois, as the Lane A. Evans VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic.

As a cosponsor of the House version of the bill, I appreciate the
work that both the House and Senate VA Committees have done and the
leadership of both Chambers to bring this bill to the floor. I
especially want to thank Senator Durbin for authorizing this important
legislation.

Mr. Speaker, for 24 years, Lane Evans served with distinction as the
Representative of Illinois' 17th Congressional District. We mourn his
tragic passing last month at the age of 63. Even as he suffered from
Parkinson's disease, Mr. Speaker, Lane Evans heroically and tenaciously
fought for veterans in the years leading up to his retirement in 2007.
When Congressman Evans retired, the Vietnam Veterans of America said:

Lane's compassion for his fellow veterans and his
commitment to do right by them has come right from the heart.

As ranking member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee during my
tenure as chairman of the committee, I saw firsthand how he turned his
knowledge, compassion, and expertise--his heart--into effective
advocacy and how he worked to make a tangible difference in the lives
of veterans and their families around the country.

Mr. Speaker, during our tenure as chair and ranking member, we were
able to craft and shepherd into law numerous bills that expanded care
and service for our Nation's veterans, including expansion of the GI
Bill and assistance to homeless veterans.

Lane's commitment to ensuring that men and women who wore the uniform
had timely access to world class medical treatment that they have
earned was, in a word, extraordinary.

Of particular interest to Lane, a Vietnam veteran himself, was health
care for veterans exposed to agent orange during their service in
Vietnam. Throughout the 1980s, it was an honor to work side by side
with Lane and others, like Congressman Tom Daschle, in an effort to
convince a highly reluctant Department of Veterans Affairs and Pentagon
that agent orange severely injured many who served in Vietnam.

In 1991, Lane introduced the Veterans' Compensation Amendments of
1991, which became part of the Agent Orange Act, to provide presumptive
service-connected disability assistance to veterans with diseases
linked to agent orange; thus the gentleman from Illinois helped ensure
that veterans received the care and the compensation they deserved,
while not being saddled with the onerous burden of proof for injuries
due to exposure to a herbicide that was laced with dioxin.

It is, therefore, highly fitting to name a community-based outpatient
clinic after a remarkable lawmaker who fought hard for veterans, health
care, and compensation during his time in Congress. I urge my
colleagues to join me and all the leadership here on the floor in
supporting S. 2921 to honor the legacy of Congressman Evans as a
remarkable veterans' advocate.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source