American Legion presses for
urgent VA construction funds
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 /U.S.
Newswire/ -- The U.S. Senate's unanimous approval this week of a
bipartisan bill to fund more than $2 billion in overdue VA
construction projects is a "significant step forward in a game of
fiscal catch-up by Congress," American Legion National Commander
Paul A. Morin said today. "Members of the House and Senate must now
work urgently for the good of America's veterans, and for those now
serving in harm's way, and build a VA health-care system for the
21st century, rather than get by in a system built 50 years ago."
Through the Capital Asset
Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES) process completed in 2004,
VA identified what it called "urgent" construction needs for
outdated VA hospitals and clinics across the nation. Years of work
and numerous hearings went into the process, which laid out what
former VA Secretary Anthony Principi called a "well-reasoned
roadmap" for the future of veterans' health care in America. "The VA
secretary then said Congress would have to commit $1 billion a year
for a half-dozen years for CARES to succeed. The American Legion has
included the $1 billion a year figure in every budget recommendation
since CARES. But Congress has not come through. The VA major
construction budget for 2007 was about one-third of that."
New VA medical centers in Las
Vegas, Nev., Denver, Colo., and Orlando, Fla., along with 156 new
community-based outpatient clinics were among the top priorities of
CARES. Since then, Hurricane Katrina destroyed VA facilities in New
Orleans, La., and in Gulfport, Miss., adding to the need.
The Senate and House must now work
out compromise legislation and get the money appropriated, Morin
said. "Urgent, to me, means now -- before the end of the 109th
Congress," Morin said. "This is too important to have to start over
next year. Veterans can't keep waiting and waiting and waiting."
The American Legion, with 2.7
million members, is the nation's largest veterans service
organization.