The U.S. House passed a bill to rename the San Jose VA Clinic at 5855 Silver Creek Valley Place after Pat Tillman, the Fremont-born NFL player and Army Ranger killed in Afghanistan in 2004. The bill now moves to the Senate.

The building at 5855 Silver Creek Valley Place has been the San Jose VA Clinic since 2018 — a three-story outpatient facility on the southeast edge of the city where veterans receive primary care, cardiology, audiology, and PTSD services, administered by the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would give it a new name: Pat Tillman's.

Tillman was born in Fremont and grew up in the San Jose area before becoming an NFL star with the Arizona Cardinals. He turned down a three-year, $3.6 million contract extension in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks to enlist as an Army Ranger. He was killed by friendly fire on April 22, 2004, in eastern Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense.

Bay City News reporter Adam Sutro, writing for Local News Matters, names Rep. Jimmy Panetta and Sen. Adam Schiff in connection with the legislation. The bill now heads to the Senate before it can reach the president's desk.

The clinic — leased from Easterly Government Properties through February 2038, with the San Jose Vet Center sharing its third floor — would see no change in services or location if the renaming advances. What changes is the name on the building: from a geographic marker to the name of a soldier the Bay Area sent.