Congressman Rick Larsen's Online Office

Washington, D.C. — Today U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02) secured federal funding for Naval Station Everett as part of legislation to strengthen health care services for veterans, strengthen our national security and invest in military barracks and other construction projects that improve service members’ quality of life. The legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 415 - 3 and must also clear the Senate before it could be signed into law.

The Fiscal Year 2010 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill includes $3.81 million secured by Larsen to construct a small boat launch at Naval Station Everett. Currently, Navy and Coast Guard personnel must tow the boats to a public marina when they need to launch them for security reasons or to respond to an environmental spill.  This wastes time and fuel and hurts fleet readiness.

“Naval Station Everett is a vital asset to our community and local economy, and I am committed to supporting the base and the men and women who serve there,” said Larsen, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

With passage of this fiscal year 2010 funding bill, Congress will have increased veterans health care and benefits funding by 58 percent in the past two and a half years – an unprecedented investment. The legislation provides funding to strengthen health care for more than six million veterans including 419,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The funding bill also provides advance funds for veterans health services in 2011.  The VA has only received its budget on-time in three of the last twenty years. Providing the 2011 budget in advance will allow the VA to plan and use their resources more effectively to help ensure high-quality, consistent care for our nation’s veterans. 

“Last week, I joined local veterans and Sen. Patty Murray to celebrate the grand opening of Northwest Washington’s new veterans’ clinic which will bring veterans heath care closer to local veterans,” Larsen continued. “Our new veterans community-based outpatient clinic (CBOC) is an important milestone. Our ongoing commitment to veterans doesn’t stop with the opening of the CBOC – we must ensure that service members and veterans get the health care, educational benefits and retirement pay they need and deserve.”

To support our troops, the funding bill provides resources to construct key facilities for training and housing, addressing the unfunded backlog of barracks for young men and women entering the service. It takes additional steps to support the military families who give so much in service to this country – with military child care centers, military family housing, and additional Vets Centers, like the one that opened in Everett in 2007, which provide community-based readjustment counseling for veterans and their families.

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