April 5, 2006
Media contact: Jeff Schrade (202)224-9093

(Washington, DC) ? This Thursday, April 6, at 2 p.m. Eastern in room 418 of the Russell Senate Office Building, the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs will hold a hearing on "The Construction and Lease Authorization Needs" of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Several VA major construction projects and leases are in need of immediate Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 authorization. In addition, authorizations on a number of other projects will expire at the end of Fiscal Year 2006, thus requiring further authorization.

Thursday's hearing will be webcast live, and archived for viewing later, at http://veterans.senate.gov. The hearing may also be audiocast ? during the hearing only ? on C-SPAN's hearings website, located at http://www.capitolhearings.org .

• Witnesses

  The Honorable Wayne Allard, United States Senator, Colorado

• The Honorable Mel Martinez, United States Senator, Florida
• The Honorable Bill Nelson, United States Senator, Florida
• The Honorable Dr. Jonathan Perlin, Undersecretary for Health, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, accompanied by:

-- Tim McClain, General Counsel

-- Robert Henke, Assistant Secretary for Management

-- William Feeley, Deputy Undersecretary of Health for Operations and Management

--  James M. Sullivan, Deputy Director, Office of Asset Enterprise Management

• Dennis Cullinan, Director, National Legislative Service, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States

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