(U.S. Senate) – Continuing their push to improve the quality of veterans’ health care, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) recently led a group of their colleagues in introducing bipartisan legislation to authorize several Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) construction projects across the nation.

The Senators’ Fiscal Year 2024 Veterans Affairs Major Medical Facility Authorization Act would authorize 11 VA construction projects in Washington, Texas, Maryland, Oregon, Nevada, California, Puerto Rico, Missouri, and Connecticut.

“Delivering veterans the quality care and benefits they earned starts with ensuring VA has top-notch facilities in place to serve them,” said Chairman Tester. “Our bipartisan bill will help us deliver VA construction projects across the country—expanding veterans’ access to quality health care nationwide and creating jobs in local economies in the process.”  

“Providing veterans with quality care requires renovation of older facilities and construction of new ones to meet veterans’ changing and increasing needs,” said Ranking Member Moran. “The VA Major Medical Facility Authorization Act will make certain VA can continue to bring high-quality services to veterans through new and updated VA medical centers and facilities around the country, and I look forward to its passage.”

The Fiscal Year 2024 Veterans Affairs Major Medical Facility Authorization Act is also cosponsored by Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.).

This legislation builds upon historic infrastructure investments in the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act. The PACT Act invested in VA’s infrastructure workforce through new recruitment and retention incentives, provides funding for 31 new facilities in 19 states, and delivers additional tools to build clinics more efficiently in the future including with the Department of Defense and academic hospitals. The legislation also gave VA expanded authority to repurpose or lease out unused or vacant Department buildings benefiting veterans and saving taxpayer funds in the process.