Joel Hefley: “let me tell my colleagues this is a good bill. This recognizes needs that have gone unmet for in some cases seems like…”

“let me tell my colleagues this is a good bill. This recognizes needs that have gone unmet for in some cases seems like generations, and I am not going to go through and describe the bill in its totality because other speakers have done it better than I can, but let me just say an area that I am particularly interested in is the authorization for the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs to enter into a contract in the amount of $26 million for the advance planning and engineering for the VA medical facility project at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center site in Aurora, Colorado. As the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Simmons) said, the University of Colorado Hospital is moving to this new medical campus, which is really going to be something to see when it is completed, and they have cooperated with the veterans hospital over the years, and now to bring the veterans hospital out there with the savings that goes with that, it is going to be a magnificent medical facility. The VA Medical Center at Fitzsimons, with this co-location with the Colorado Health Sciences Center and University of Colorado Hospital will be a veteran-friendly, state-of-the-art medical campus providing veterans with highly specialized medical needs with easy access to the best diagnostic and treatment programs that America can provide for veterans anywhere in America.”