Political Quotes

“I, too, echo the thanks to my colleague from Colorado, Senator Bennet, for his leadership on this effort. It is time that we take the VA hospital from the thorn of the VA system to the crown of the VA system, which we know it will be once it is completed. But in the meantime, there is a tremendous amount of work we have to do. I would like to thank the chairman of the Armed Services Committee for allowing this time today on the floor. I would note that there are four Members of this body who have actually visited the facility in Denver in recent months. The Presiding Officer has witnessed this hole in the ground right now that has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars, projected to be $1.73 billion at this point. We have talked about the need to complete it and have committed to that need to finish this project, along with the chairman of the Veterans' Committee, who has joined us on the floor today, Senator Isakson, who is here today with us, who is in support of this amendment to bring more accountability to the VA system so that we can understand what went wrong when they were building not only the Aurora facility but what went wrong around the country as project after project has seen cost overruns and delays. Veterans gathered this past week in Colorado to rally to finish the darn thing.…”