Jim Banks: “I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my legislation, H.R. 3996, the VA…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of my legislation, H.R. 3996, the VA Design-Build Construction Enhancement Act. I first want to thank Mr. Perlmutter, my colleague on the other side of the aisle, for his tireless support and advocacy for veterans in the Denver area and beyond and for cosponsoring this legislation with me. Design-build has proven itself to be an innovative and effective method for managing construction projects in the private sector and in some key Federal agencies. The most prominent application of design- build was to rebuild the Pentagon after 9/11, which was completed in less than 1 year. VA has a multibillion-dollar backlog of construction projects but has never made much use of the design-build method, despite it being available for over 20 years. Unfortunately, one of the few times the VA did use a method similar to design-build was during the troubled Aurora, Colorado, replacement medical center project that we have already heard about today. And as Dr. Roe noted, the VA only involved the construction contractor in the design decisions after the design was already complete. Design-build seems to have been given a bad name in the VA-- unfairly--as a result.…”