Mr. Speaker, I rise today deeply concerned about yesterday’s reports regarding nearly ten thousand of our nation’s veterans who may have been exposed to HIV and other communicable diseases at Veteran’s Administration hospitals.  Like those veterans and their families, I am shocked and appalled that this could have happened.  Our veterans deserve better.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting with our new VA Secretary, Eric Shinseki, at the North Chicago VA Hospital to discuss improving care for our veterans.  We’ve heard a lot about change in the last several months.  Well, we have the duty to change our VA health system so reports of occurrences like we heard earlier this week never happen again.  This means taking a serious look at every option to improve our veterans’ care.
 
One option is right in my backyard.  It is actually in my good friend from Illinois Mrs. Halvorson’s district.  There is a hospital named Silver Cross that will be moving to a new location in 2012.  The facility they are leaving behind has an emergency room that was built in 2006, and a specialty care wing that is less than 7 years old. 
 
Instead of being opportunistic and selling the facility to the highest bidder, the Hospital formed a “Healthy Community Commission” whose focus is to give back to the Will County community.  Our veterans are at the top of their list, and I commend them for that.
 
I look forward to working with Secretary Shinseki, Congresswoman Halvorson and members of both sides of the aisle to explore this and other options to make sure that our veterans never again have to put up with inadequate care.
 
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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