Sen. Leroy Garcia and Rep. Daneya Esgar, along with Rep. Phil Covarrubias, plan to introduce a resolution for the General Assembly to ask Congress to locate a Veterans Affairs Hospital in Pueblo, but Colorado Springs is OK, too.

Peter Roper of the Pueblo Chieftain was the first to report on the proposal over the weekend. The two Pueblo Democrats said they are amassing a list of bipartisan supporters, but a legislative “memorial” is little more than an official request. Covarrubias is a Republican from Adams County.

“One of the things we really need to be talking about is that effort when we say we support veterans, what does that look like?”  Garcia told KOAA 5 last weekend. “I know for so many veterans I talk to here in southern Colorado, it’s not that the V.A.’s not providing good care, it’s the distance of traveling to Denver, it’s the congestion along I-25, it’s the specialty care.”

He said there are more than 86,000 veterans in southern Colorado.

“Obviously I’m making the pitch that Pueblo is best positioned for that, but I think Colorado Springs is also,” Garcia said.

The VA has facilities across the state and a $2 billion medical center in Aurora set to open in August after controversies and hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns.