Press Releases

This week, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), delivered the following remarks as the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4136, a bill to name the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) community-based outpatient clinic in Plano, Texas, as the “U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson Memorial VA Clinic,” to memorialize the life, work, and legacy of former Prisoner of War, decorated war hero, congressman, and statesman, Sam Johnson.

Excerpts from Chairman Bost’s remarks on the House Floor can be read below: “At the age of 20, Sam began a 29-year decorated career in the U.S. Air Force. Retiring as a Colonel.

He flew nearly 100 combat missions with the Thunderbird demonstration team, as a fighter pilot in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and as a commander of a tactical fighter wing.

Later, Sam Johnson went on to serve as the director of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School.

On his 25th combat mission over Vietnam, Sam’s plane was shot down and he was captured by North Vietnamese forces.

Sam would then go on to spend the next seven grueling years as a prisoner of war – more than three years of that time in solitary confinement.

But as Sam put it, the solitary confinement did not shake his fighting spirit.

And Sam wasn’t done yet.

His fight for freedom and defending individual liberties never wavered and American families are better off today because of Sam’s service [to our great nation].

Congressman Johnson served honorably as a pilot, a decorated war hero, and a statesman.

It goes without saying that there is no one more fitting to name this VA clinic in Texas after than Congressman Sam Johnson.”

The following bills were passed out of the House this week in addition to H.R. 4316:

H.R. 7333 – To name the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in West Palm Beach, Florida, as the “Thomas H. Corey VA Medical Center” (Rep. Mast)
S. 3249 – A bill to designate the outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas, as the “Captain Elwin Shopteese VA Clinic” (Sen. Moran)
S. 3285 – A bill to rename the community-based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Butte, Montana, as the “Charlie Dowd VA Clinic” (Sen. Daines)