Jeff Fortenberry: “As we are about to conclude this legislative session, I hope everyone here realizes the magnitude of what this bill…”

“As we are about to conclude this legislative session, I hope everyone here realizes the magnitude of what this bill before us does. Yes, we have got a lot going on. We are distracted. We are eager to finish up business and start a transition period. But, as Congressman Takano just said, this is transformative. This creates a blueprint of the architecture for a 21st century VA. And why? As Congressman Roe pointed out, we have had extreme difficulties and complexities and problems in the VA with service delivery as well as budgetary cost overruns. {time} 1430 We have had for a very long time an aging hospital in Omaha. We have had a community that is very eager to find a new innovative way out of this problem. We have a pot of money that has been sitting here for a very long time and will continue to sit here for a very long time unless we become innovative, unless we do something different. That is what Congressman Ashford has done with the rest of the Federal delegation from Nebraska, including Senator Fischer. He has come up with an innovative transformative model that will create a new center of excellence based on a public-private partnership, using existing Federal moneys, using a base of community support that has already come forward looking to help the VA better integrate with the private facilities that already exist in the community of Omaha, which are quite extraordinary. As Congressman Takano said, this is a win-win- win.…”