WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced that a lease has been awarded for a new Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facility in Hampton Roads. The awarding of this lease for a new, state-of-the-art outpatient clinic will improve veterans’ access to care in this region and follows years of congressional action and advocacy by the senators.

“We are thrilled to announce the awarding of this new clinic lease in Hampton Roads,” said the senators. “The veteran population in the region continues to grow, and this facility will fill a critical gap by expanding access to high-quality, convenient care for the veterans who have served our country. Virginians need and deserve this facility, and we will do everything we can to ensure that it is properly staffed despite President Trump’s plans to eliminate 35,000 health care positions at VA facilities across America.”

While this lease was originally authorized under the PACT Act, which both senators strongly supported, updated cost estimates and rent bids prompted the VA and the General Services Administration (GSA) to seek reauthorization from four congressional committees for this proposed facility and 17 others. In June, Sens. Warner and Kaine urged the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to swiftly take up and reapprove all pending major VA medical facility leases. They subsequently pushed for the final committee, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, to put forward their approval. In late July, the senators announced that approval for the leases had cleared all committees. From there, the administration needed to award a contract for the lease.

Sens. Warner and Kaine have long fought to expand health care access and benefits for Virginia’s nearly 700,000 veterans. The senators have fought to strengthen and expand mental health care and suicide prevention efforts for veterans. Sen. Warner has been outspoken on the need to reduce the disability claim backlog at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), ensure the VA is appropriately staffed to improve access to care and benefits, strengthen the VA’s ability to increase capacity and build new medical centers, and improve women veterans’ access to health care. Sen. Kaine has called President Trump out for firing more veterans than any other president, and has introduced legislation to reinstate veterans who were fired from their federal jobs as part of the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate and mass layoff of federal employees. Sen. Kaine has also been a vocal opponent of the Trump Administration’s decision to eliminate 35,000 health care positions at VA clinics.  

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