Supporting America's Veterans

On Sunday, I joined Congressman Ed Perlmutter, Aurora Mayor Ed Tauer, and a large group of Colorado’s military veterans near the State Capitol to urge the Department of Veterans Affairs to move ahead with a long-awaited plan to build a state-of-the-art, stand alone Veterans Medical Center at the Fitzsimons Campus in Aurora. Our veterans deserve nothing less.

The plan to build a hospital at Fitzsimons has been in the works for four years, but at every step, the VA has dragged its feet. Most recently, we discovered that the VA completed a master plan for the hospital and then, unbeknownst to anyone, shelved it in January. We agree that delays to the project have caused the estimated cost for the hospital, as presented in the master plan, to rise to an alarming level, but we also believe the VA can and should find a way to bring the price of the hospital in line with what other hospitals in Colorado have cost. Unfortunately, rather than work with us and veterans on the consensus vision for a stand-alone hospital that was four years in the making, the VA chose to hide the master plan for the hospital from view and, in an attempt to cut costs, tried to sell Colorado’s veterans on a scaled-down version.

It is time to get back on track toward fulfilling the promise of a stand-alone hospital at Fitzsimons for Colorado’s veterans. As they made clear on Sunday, Colorado’s veterans are ready for the VA to start turning dirt. With $168 million already available, the VA can and should immediately move toward construction. With almost 500,000 veterans in Colorado, and with over 1.6 million new veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan nationwide, we cannot wait any longer.

The VA needs to join us and Colorado’s veterans in our commitment to getting this project done.

Sincerely,

Ken Salazar
United States Senator

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Senator Ken Salazar's DC office is located at 702 Hart Senate office building, Washington, DC 20510. He has Colorado regional offices in Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Ft. Morgan, Pueblo, Durango, Grand Junction and Alamosa. For contact and mailing info, click here.