Open Letter to Chairwoman Senator Patty Murray via her chief of staff

Greetings; Mr. Mark Spahn, I approach you as Chief of Staff for Senator Patty Murray, as Chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committe, with the hope that you can relay this message to him.  I do not have her email or for that matter do not know if members of Congress can be contacted directly via email. Please help me with this. Recently Senator Richard Burr's bill on setting a day aside to formally welcome home our veterans that served in Vietnam passed.  Nowhere has it been received highly than our Rio Grande Valley in south Texas.  Thank you Congress and Senator Burr. The best gift that our government can bestow our Vietnam Veterans is a Full Medical Service Center.  This will avoid having to travel up to 250 miles for acute care at the nearest VA hospital.  It will avoid having to be transferred from the VA Out Patient clinic to a local hospital. Along this line, veterans in south Texas would really appreciate if SB 396 filed by his colleague Senator John Cornyn, is passed.  Most of the veterans in our area are Vietnam Veterans.  Our WW II and Korea War veterans numbers are dwindling due to many passing away because of age, but also due to health problems. The bill calls for an expansion to an existing VA facility in the city of Harlingen, TX.  There is the Ambulatory Surgery And Out Patient Specialty Center that has 120,000 square feet, and adjacent 5 story garage, and another building with in the proximity that takes daily intake of veterans.  Our local Congressional delegation supports the idea of the expansion as well as most of the local governmental bodies, the medical community, the community in general and most of all the Veterans.  Its the most common sense solution to a request that local veterans have made to VA for the past 4 decades. Would Senator Murray consider placing SB 396 on the Committee's agenda and call for a vote? I do not know if this is proper protocol, but it would be great for local veterans.  We need to know where we stand. I sincerely hope that she does so.  In the meantime, local veterans continue their quest for a Full Service Medical Center to serve its 117,000 veterans. For God and Country. Semper Fi, Arturo Treto Garza Vietnam Veteran 2722 Calle Condesa Harlingen, TX 7852