María Elvira Salazar: “Today Senator Allard and I are introducing a bill that will authorize full funding for a state-of-the-art veterans'…”

“Today Senator Allard and I are introducing a bill that will authorize full funding for a state-of-the-art veterans' hospital at the Fitzsimons campus in Aurora, CO. This crown jewel of our veterans' health system will serve more than 424,000 veterans who live in Colorado, and many more who live in nearby States, with the best available health care. Our veterans deserve the best, and Fitzsimons will be the best. Since the VA identified the Fitzsimons VA Hospital as one of its top medical construction projects in 2004, I have fought to move this project forward, although we've encountered some hurdles along the way. But we are making progress. I helped bring all the stakeholders together in 2005 so that supporters of the project, and advocates for veterans' health care, could speak with one voice on Fitzsimons. Thanks in part to this dialogue, in February of 2006 the VA finally reached agreement with the Fitzsimons Authority on the purchase price of 24 acres at the site. And just 2 months ago, in December, I was pleased that the omnibus veterans' bill we passed, S. 3421, included a $98 million authorization for Fitzsimons that was so desperately needed to keep the project on track.”