[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1457]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK BETTER

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, our charge in Congress is to be very 
careful and frugal and honest with the people's money that they send 
via their hard-earned tax dollars.
  Today we have an opportunity to make good on part of that with our 
commitment to making the government work better for the people it 
serves, control spending, and work at finally getting down the national 
debt.
  The VA medical facility construction process is broken and highly in 
need of major reform. For example, in Colorado, the VA spent at least 
triple, probably quadruple, even quintuple, what it was expected to 
spend on the construction of a replacement hospital due to 
mismanagement and lack of accountability.
  The GAO found in 2013 that the VA's four largest medical construction 
projects were experiencing significant delays and massive cost 
increases. In my district, the VA plans to build two replacement 
clinics, in Redding and in Chico, which the VA says will take 5 years.
  In order to streamline and improve the VA's medical facility 
construction process, the House will vote on H.R. 3106 today, which is 
sponsored by Chairman Jeff Miller of the Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs.
  The bill includes commonsense reforms that will require the VA to use 
industry standards for medical facility construction projects and 
increase congressional oversight.
  I am proud to support this bill and to continue to work to be 
accountable to the American people, especially our veterans, who need 
and deserve clear access, present access, and timely access to the 
health care they deserve.

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