STATEMENT OF HONORABLE LANE EVANS RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER HOUSE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS FULL COMMITTEE MARKUP APRIL 1, 1998 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to support the recommendation from the Subcommittee on Health to authorize VA’s Major Medical Construction projects for fiscal year 1999 to the House. I commend you, Mr. Chairman for supporting a completely bipartisan process, allowing the projects identified as VA’s highest priorities to determine those that were funded for the next fiscal year. I believe the bill will allow VA to fund projects that are consistent with VA’s efforts to ensure patient safety and to accommodate more care on an outpatient basis. I also want to briefly address a widely held misperception that because VA is downsizing, merging facilities, and moving care out of hospital beds, it no longer requires major construction funds. Major construction funds are not just used to build new facilities. The VA health care system contains many old facilities—some are older than their useful lives. While VA has significantly reduced its reliance on bed care, VA providers will continue in the foreseeable future to need beds in a variety of settings. Remaining beds must be housed in modern, safe and accessible facilities. We have been cautious stewards, and the projects authorized in this bill really are of vital importance for VA and the veterans that rely upon it for health care—two projects redress systemic, seismic problems in the San Juan, Puerto Rico and Long Beach, California facilities and both were requested by the Administration. Other selected projects allow VA to continue moving more expensive hospital bed care to outpatient care settings. Some projects consolidate VA’s activities and allow it to become more cost effective. [We are also recommending a project that our Committee has twice before authorized to build new spinal cord injury beds in Tampa, Florida.] In addition, the Committee is authorizing funds for three major leases for outpatient facilities. These leases will allow VA to take advantage of the community’s excess capacity and become more accessible to its users. These projects are not only consistent with recent trends in VA health care, they are consistent with the direction of modern medicine. I hope others on the Committee will join me in supporting the major medical construction projects contained in this bill. Thank you Mr. Chairman. |