“I was pleased to meet with Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki this morning, who assured me that he will work hard towards completing the Orlando-VA Medical Center as soon as possible. He also pledged to travel to Orlando in the near future to meet with the contractors and other stakeholders involved in the project. Thousands of veterans are waiting for the care they so badly need and I will continue to work with the VA, the VA Secretary, and all involved stakeholders to make sure it is completed in the most efficient manner.
As a champion who has fought for veterans over the last 19 years in Congress, I have been calling on my colleagues and those in the administration to provide for greater funding for veterans’ health care programs, greater assistance with the processing of their claims, as well as fighting on behalf of homeless veterans, and working to ensure that our nation’s veterans receive the funding for college education and the training they need to survive and succeed after their military service ends.
A delay in opening this facility cannot be allowed to happen. The hundreds of jobs that are tied up in this facility and the thousands of veterans who will receive services here cannot wait for the VA to fix ‘errors and omissions in the original design, changes in medical equipment and equipment procurement delays and contractor related issues.’
At the groundbreaking for this facility, I said, ‘I look forward to the day when the first veteran can begin to receive top quality care here at the VA’. And our area veterans’ health care needs must not be postponed any further than they have been already.
As our nation’s first President, President George Washington said: ‘`the willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country.’