House OKs bill with $45 million for new VA hospital
By James R. Carroll
WASHINGTON -- The House passed a spending bill yesterday that contains $45 million for a new Louisville veterans hospital.
The measure, which contains $118.7 billion for military construction projects and the Department of Veterans Affairs, was approved 409-4.
The money for the Louisville hospital was inserted by Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District.
"It's huge because it's funding we didn't anticipate getting until the 2010 budget," Yarmuth said in an interview.
The impetus for the change was the VA's project priority list, which is reviewed annually to assess veterans' health-care needs nationwide.
The first time Yarmuth discussed the Louisville hospital with the VA, in early 2007, the project was listed as third in priority, he said.
After a later review, the Louisville facility had slipped to seventh, Yarmuth said.
He then approached House leaders about adding the Louisville hospital to this year's spending bill.
"I explained to them that this was something the community was very much interested in," he said.
The $45 million would be used to buy land and prepare the site for the $700 million hospital, which would serve an estimated 100,000 veterans in the Louisville area.
Scheduled to open in 2013, the hospital would replace the 57-year-old VA facility on Zorn Avenue.
A Senate bill contains the $45 million, plus an additional $30 million for design of the hospital. That additional money was secured by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The differences in amounts in the House and Senate bills will have to be worked out during a final conference when Congress returns next month after its August recess.
If given final approval, the spending for the Louisville facility would keep it from slipping on the VA's priority list, Yarmuth said.
Democratic Rep. Baron Hill, of Indiana's 9th District, secured $6 million in the bill for additional buildings at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Southern Indiana.
The money will allow the facility to expand its capability for emergency-response and urban-warfare training.
"This project has been consistently supported in Congress -- a true reflection of its merits," Hill said in a statement.
The White House has raised concerns about the overall spending bill.
A letter earlier this week from the White House 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," the OMB said.
But the House vote was by a veto-proof margin, and the legislation is believed to have equally broad support in the Senate.
8/2/2008
Powered by