Wilson Opening Statement for Joint Hearing on Medical Infrastructure

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2009

Congressman Joe Wilson (SC-02), Ranking Member of the Military Personnel Subcommittee, released the following prepared remarks for today’s hearing of the House Armed Services Subcommittees on Readiness and Military Personnel entitled, “Medical Infrastructure: Are Health Affairs/TRICARE Management Activity Priorities Aligned With Service Requirements?”

“Thank you Chairwoman Davis. I appreciate joining our good friends on the Readiness subcommittee today, led by Chairman Solomon Ortiz and Ranking Member Randy Forbes, for our hearing on military medical construction. I welcome the distinguished members of our witness panel.

“I believe that there is nothing more important than providing the outstanding members of our military, their families and our retirees with world class health care delivered in world class medical facilities. There is no question in my mind that they deserve nothing less. Our family has experienced the quality service with two grandsons born at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center and a granddaughter born at Portsmouth Naval Hospital.

“With that being said, I understand that there are a number of military treatment facilities that are thirty or more years old. In the district I represent in South Carolina, Moncrief Army Community Hospital at Fort Jackson was built in 1972 and the Navy Hospital at Beaufort was built in 1947.

“I know that the outstanding medical personnel in each of these facilities provide excellent care to our troops and their families. On personal tours of each facility, I have been very impressed by the dedicated and competent professional personnel I have met. I also know that as a medical facility gets older it is more challenging to keep up with advances in medicine.

“As I prepared for the hearing today, I was reminded that the planning process for military medical construction is very different than for other types of construction within the Department of Defense. I am interested to hear from our panel why medical construction is unique within the Department.

“To that end, today I hope to hear from our witnesses how the Department and the military services plan to spend medical construction dollars to either replace or modernize our military hospitals. The members of our armed forces deserve the best.

“With that, I would like to thank our witnesses for participating in the hearing today. I look forward to your testimony.”

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