Mark Kirk: “I thank the chairman. As a member of the subcommittee, I strongly support this bipartisan bill, and it contains a key…”

“I thank the chairman. As a member of the subcommittee, I strongly support this bipartisan bill, and it contains a key reform to ensure that Americans in uniform, veterans, sailors, and their families, will join together in a new joint VA-Navy Hospital to be built in north Chicago, Illinois. I have worked on this for 5 years. In 2000, the previous administration announced plans to close the north Chicago VA, saying that veterans in northern Illinois could easily get to downtown Chicago in just 30 minutes. Only a Washington consultant with a map and a string would think that. We knew that we could do much better; that we could dramatically improve health care for veterans who wore green, who wore white, who wore blue, and their families, at a joint Navy-VA facility. This bill begins the funding of that hospital. It includes $23 million for the first joint VA-Navy Hospital in the country. Already, we have moved many Navy services into the north Chicago VA, and this summer we will open several state-of-the-art rooms. But this embraces the new vision of a brand-new facility taking care of Americans in uniform, veterans, and their families.”