WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, released the following statement after Senate passage of H.R. 2496, which allows the construction of the Denver VA Medical Center to continue in the short term:

“To date, the VA has failed to demonstrate any leadership or hold accountable those responsible for the nearly $1 billion-over-budget Denver VA project – the biggest construction failure in VA history. We have given the VA every opportunity to produce in good faith a long-term plan to move forward and complete the construction of the new Denver VA medical center. For that reason, we cannot and will not ask the taxpayers to bail out the VA for the remainder of the Denver project.

“As it stands today, we are caught between a rock and a hard place.  Construction would have stopped on May 24th, and the cost of stopping and restarting construction could be as high as an additional $200 million for the American taxpayer.  This modest extension of the project passed by the Senate today allows VA to use resources it already has to keep construction crews on the job in the short-term.

“We expect the VA and the Obama administration to accept responsibility for what this is – an outright financial and management disaster of catastrophic proportions – and to return immediately to the critical task of developing a workable plan to fully fund and complete the Denver VA medical center.

“This bill would also reform the Veterans Choice Program, which Congress passed last year to give veterans better and faster access to health care, to include veterans who do not live within 40 miles of a VA health care facility that offers the services needed. This change will ensure veterans can receive care outside of the VA health care system if they face geographic or travel burdens, have a medical condition that would impact their ability to travel or for other factors that may be determined by the VA.”

This afternoon, Senator Isakson spoke about this legislation on the Senate floor. Click here to view his remarks online.

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The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is chaired by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in the 114th Congress.

Isakson is a veteran himself – having served in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966-1972 – and has been a member of the Senate VA Committee since he joined the Senate in 2005. Isakson’s home state of Georgia is home to more than a dozen military installations representing each branch of the military as well as more than 750,000 veterans.