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79R15471 SMC-F
By: Dunnam H.R. No. 1431
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, The Waco Veterans Affairs Hospital serves every
county in Texas and is the only Veterans Affairs hospital in the
state that provides psychiatric care as its principal function; and
WHEREAS, The federal government has invested significantly
in the Waco Veterans Affairs Hospital, having spent $12.4 million
to enhance a facility for acute psychiatric care and $11.3 million
to renovate and modernize a psychiatric-geriatric building; and
WHEREAS, State government also invested in the hospital by
locating a Texas Veterans Commission regional office near the
facility to provide integrated services to the large concentration
of veterans in the area; and
WHEREAS, The Waco Veterans Affairs Hospital is known as a
national referral facility for blind rehabilitation; the hospital
provides superior care for its approximately 1,800 psychiatric,
posttraumatic stress disorder, and blind rehabilitation patients
annually, as well as outstanding service for its outpatients with
medical and psychiatric conditions, whose visits number
approximately 100,000 per year; and
WHEREAS, Enjoying strong community support, the Waco
Veterans Affairs Hospital annually contributes an estimated $203
million to the local economy; it has 750 employees and directly and
indirectly accounts for approximately 2,000 jobs throughout
Central Texas; and
WHEREAS, Any proposal to close the Waco facility would
interrupt the seamless delivery of services to many Texas veterans
and do great harm to the local economy; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 79th Texas
Legislature hereby oppose any proposal to close the Waco Veterans
Affairs Hospital and urge concerned Texans and veterans to express
their support of the hospital and its retention.