Communities Helping Invest Through Property and Improvements Needed for Veterans Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. FORTENBERRY. Mr. Speaker, as we are about to conclude this legislative session, I hope everyone here realizes the magnitude of what this bill before us does.

Yes, we have got a lot going on. We are distracted. We are eager to finish up business and start a transition period. But, as Congressman Takano just said, this is transformative. This creates a blueprint of the architecture for a 21st century VA. And why? As Congressman Roe pointed out, we have had extreme difficulties and complexities and problems in the VA with service delivery as well as budgetary cost overruns.

We have had for a very long time an aging hospital in Omaha. We have had a community that is very eager to find a new innovative way out of this problem. We have a pot of money that has been sitting here for a very long time and will continue to sit here for a very long time unless we become innovative, unless we do something different.

That is what Congressman Ashford has done with the rest of the Federal delegation from Nebraska, including Senator Fischer. He has come up with an innovative transformative model that will create a new center of excellence based on a public-private partnership, using existing Federal moneys, using a base of community support that has already come forward looking to help the VA better integrate with the private facilities that already exist in the community of Omaha, which are quite extraordinary. As Congressman Takano said, this is a win-win- win.

I want to congratulate my friend and colleague, Congressman Ashford, for his extraordinary leadership and vision in this regard as well as the integrity to stay with it until the very end. We have had some complexities along the way, but it is my hope, Mr. Chairman, particularly as you take over the reins of the entire committee, that you will help us implement this rapidly, as I know you will, because it is a transformative mechanism by which we are going to deliver the highest and best possible care for our veterans back home.

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