Bob Beauprez: “I also am proud to speak today in strong support of H.R. 1720, the Veterans Health Care Facilities Capital Improvement…”

“I also am proud to speak today in strong support of H.R. 1720, the Veterans Health Care Facilities Capital Improvement Act. Many facilities in the VA health care system are run-down, decrepit buildings that are not conducive to providing quality health care to our veterans. The Denver Veterans Medical Center in Colorado was constructed approximately 50 years ago to provide fairly low-volume inpatient care to our veteran population. In Colorado today, as my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley) just outlined, we have an opportunity to provide health care in a much more efficient manner. The Denver Veterans Medical Center is in decaying state. It is faced with two main alternatives with regard to this facility. The first alternative is to invest in renovation of this facility and make it capable of handling the medical needs of our current veteran population and the changing needs of that population over the next 20 or so years. After such a renovation, not only would the VA still be left with a 50-year-old building, but as the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley) pointed out, it would also be an orphaned medical center. The second alternative is to relocate the building to the new Fitzsimons campus. Such a relocation would allow for a modern facility to deliver modern health care on a state-of-the-art medical campus, one that we think will be a standard for the whole Nation.”