House to vote on Louisville VA hospital funding
By James R. Carroll
WASHINGTON - The House is scheduled to vote today on a Veterans Affairs and military construction bill that contains $45 million for a new Louisville VA hospital.
The money for the Louisville facility was inserted by Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District.
The $45 million would be used to buy land and prepare the site for the $700 million hospital.
The Louisville appropriation is part of a $118.7 billion spending measure for the Department of Veterans Affairs and construction of military facilities.
The White House, while not directly threatening a veto, has raised concerns about the spending bill.
A letter from the White House's Office of Management and Budget said the measure "fails to ... focus spending on need. The bill is laden with costly earmarks and contains overall excessive spending."
Scheduled to open in 2013, the new hospital would replace the 57-year-old VA hospital on Zorn Avenue.
A Senate bill contains the $45 million plus an additional $30 million for design of the new hospital. That additional spending was secured by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The differences between the House and Senate bills would have to be worked out during a conference committee.
7/31/2008
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