"I want to thank everyone involved with moving this critical legislation successfully through the House today. The establishment, development and successful nurturing of these Parkinson's disease and MS centers has been a personal goal of mine. More importantly however, they will assist tens of thousands of veterans as they battle these diseases," said Evans.

The bill would permanently authorize six VA Parkinson's disease Research, Education and Clinical Care Centers, as well as two Multiple Sclerosis Centers of Excellence currently operating within the VA. According to VA data these centers have already benefited more than 80,000 veterans across the nation and have conducted innovative research into the diseases.

"It is my hope that the VA will continue to develop and support these wonderful facilities," said Evans. "They are staffed with talented and hard working professionals, whose work and research may include key elements that could help VA improve its delivery of care to veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury and other chronic diseases," continued Evans.

The existing six Parkinson's disease centers are based at the VA medical centers in Houston, West Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland-Seattle, Richmond and San Francisco. VA has two Multiple Sclerosis Centers of Excellence, one is co-located in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon, and the other is in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition, the VA has developed a network of 47 affiliated MS regional clinics that have provided care to nearly 8,000 veterans with multiple sclerosis.