CONGRESSMAN BISHOP SUPPORTS APPROVAL OF BILL TO NAME ATLANTA VA MEDICAL CENTER FOR FORMER U.S. SENATOR MAX CLELAND
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November 17, 2022
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02) supported the approval of S. 3369, a bill that would designate the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Atlanta, Georgia, after former U.S. Senator Joseph Maxwell Cleland. Senator Cleland passed away in November 2021. Congressman Bishop was a cosponsor of the bipartisan companion bill in the U.S. House. The bill was passed by a vote of 359-62 and now heads to President Biden for his signature.
On Monday, Congressman Bishop spoke from the House floor during debate on the bill urging his colleagues to support its passage:
"Thank you. I thank the chairman for yielding. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to come and congratulate the chair, my colleague, Senator Warnock, and my colleague, Nikema Williams, for the naming of the V.A. Medical Center in Atlanta, Joseph Maxwell Cleland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
"Senator Cleland and I were friends. He was my friend, he was my mentor, and he was truly an inspiration. I had the opportunity to know him. He served as Secretary of State for the state of Georgia for twelve years, and during that time I was in the Georgia General Assembly. When he was elected to the United States Senate in 1996, I had the occasion to be a colleague with him as I was a member of the House of Representatives.
"He truly represented and embodied what it meant to be a veteran, through service and sacrifice. A triple amputee because of his wounds in Vietnam as a veteran.
"And of course, he was appointed by President Carter to head the V.A. and of course he served as the head of the Battle Monuments Commission and I, as a member of the Military Construction Veterans Affairs Subcommittee had to work with him in funding and making sure that these monuments were well funded and well maintained. He did a tremendous job.
"But I had to come and speak because he was my friend, he was my colleague, my inspiration, and it is very, very fitting that this facility should be named for him because of his legacy.
"Longfellow wrote, ‘Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time.'
"Senator Cleland lost both legs and an arm but the footprints that he left and is leaving as his legacy for veterans will be there forever and I am happy to urge my colleagues to support this legislation which will appropriately name this facility in his honor.
"I yield back the balance of my time."
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Issues:Veterans