Political Quotes

“this bill authorizes $422 million in VA major medical facility construction for fiscal year 1997. I want to thank the ranking member of the committee, my good friend, Sonny Montgomery, for his work on this measure. I also want to thank Tim Hutchinson, chairman of the Hospitals and Health Care Subcommittee, and Chet Edwards, the subcommittee's ranking member, for their bipartisan approach to this bill. Last year, a separate VA construction authorization bill was not acted on by the House. The final omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 1996 only partially funded the projects approved by the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Approximately, $200 million remained unauthorized and unappropriated after final action on the fiscal year 1996 legislation. H.R. 3376 includes that $200 million project list and adds further projects to combine the remaining portion of last year's bill into a fiscal year 1997 construction bill. I want to point out to Members that this bill does not construct new hospitals, or additional new inpatient bed capacity. The projects in this bill fall into three main categories, ambulatory care additions, patient environment improvements, and seismic corrections. These 21 projects come from the top of VA's priority list in each category. Over 200 projects were scored and evaluated by the VA for the 1997 budget cycle. The ambulatory care additions will help the VA shift more rapidly to outpatient care as the private sector has.”