Instead of building a Taj Mahal of waiting lists, start providing medical care.
Via KSWO
Construction crews are returning to work at the veterans hospital outside Denver after a last-minute deal with congressional leaders avoided a shutdown of the half-finished project.
But the really heavy lifting will be done 1,500 miles away in Washington.
The U.S. Senate agreed Friday to raise the project’s spending cap by $100 million, enough to continue work for three weeks. The House approved the measure Thursday.
Congress and the Veterans Affairs Department still must find up to $830 million to finish the vastly over-budget hospital without taking services away from veterans elsewhere and possibly scale back the project.
“Much hard work remains to be done,” Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said after the Senate acted.
The VA also must convince skeptical lawmakers that it’s serious about punishing those responsible for the problems and making internal changes to avoid a repeat.
“They’ve been offering us crumbs of reform,” said Tyler Sandberg, a spokesman for Colorado Republican Rep. Mike Coffman. “We want the whole loaf.”
The hospital in suburban Aurora is expected to cost $1.73 billion, nearly three times the estimate the VA gave last year. The VA said Monday that it was nearing the $800 million spending cap Congress put on the project and work would have to stop next week if Congress didn’t act.
Contractor Kiewit-Turner said winding down the work and then cranking it up again would add up to $200 million to the cost.
The deal approved this week doesn’t give the VA any additional money but allows it to spend funds it has on hand.