Jeff Fortenberry: “I would like to read the language that is in this bill. It reads: Alternative Financing: The committee is concerned…”

“I would like to read the language that is in this bill. It reads: Alternative Financing: The committee is concerned about meeting the need for access to high-quality veterans' health care facilities, including in rural areas where access to facilities, including clinics and hospitals, is more limited. The committee directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to work collaboratively with other executive branch agencies with substantial construction portfolios, private sector contractors and other nongovernmental experts, together with the appropriate congressional committees, to explore the feasibility of employing new funding mechanisms to meet the need for such facilities, including but not limited to private development leaseback arrangements, and to provide a report on their conclusions to the committee no later than September 30 of this year. So it is right around the corner. We did not want this to linger any longer. A bit of a new development I should bring up as well is that the VA Secretary did appear before our committee. I laid out some of these concerns. He appeared to be open to new ideas and suggestions, but we wanted to fortify this by putting this language in the underlying bill. Hopefully, this gets us some resolution quickly.…”