The Atlanta Veteran’s Affairs office has a new name honoring a late U.S. senator and veteran from Georgia.
The Senator Johnny Isakson Department of Veterans Affairs Atlanta Regional Office in Decatur, Ga. was renamed Monday after a two-year process led by Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Roy Blunt (R-MO)
The U.S. Senate first passed the Senator Johnny Isakson VA Regional Office Act of 2022 in December of that year in honor of Isakson and his work to “relentlessly advocate for our nation’s veterans and service members,” a press release from Ossoff’s office stated.
In Decatur on Monday, Ossoff was on hand as members of Isakson’s family cut the ribbon in front of a new sign for the office and applauded his legacy in Congress.
John Isakson, the senator’s son, said his family is grateful for the honor.
“It’s a little overwhelming to see this much attention,” he said. “But obviously a big honor seeing Dad’s name on the building. And all the credit to the VA for efficiency.”
Isakson, an Atlanta native and Republican known for working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle, served Georgia in the U.S. Senate from 2005 to 2019. He also served as chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee from 2015 to 2019.
He spent more than four decades in Georgia political life, and was notable for his bipartisan approach, his work on a popular tax credit for first-time home buyers and his participation in the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, which led him to Africa to visit projects run by the Atlanta-based humanitarian organization CARE.
As chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, he worked to expand programs for veterans, including the extensive Isakson and Roe Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020.
Isakson died Dec. 19, 2021, at age 76 as a result of complications from Parkinson’s disease.
This article comes to Now Habersham in partnership with GPB News
