Florida Republican Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House committee, said Wednesday that $200 million of the VA’s proposed transfers could hurt medical care and delay other projects.
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He and other members of Colorado’s congressional delegation have been trying for months to engineer a deal to finish the hospital, which is now expected to cost nearly $1.7 billion – almost triple the estimate of a year ago.
The Senate approved a measure Wednesday that would allow the Veterans Affairs Department to shift the $625 million it needs to finish the hospital from other accounts within its budget. He was so adamant about this approach that on Tuesday he successfully blocked the Senate bill from going forward in the House. Coffman said that bill is still up for consideration.
But that didn’t mean he went quietly.
Miller was additionally sad the VA’s plan does not promise that staff liable for the issues can be held accountable. Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman, two Colorado Republicans who sit on the House veterans committee with Miller. “It actually lights up”.
“All options remain on the table”, Miller said. The VA is investigating and says one senior executive on the project retired a day after he was questioned under oath. “It does the whole thing”, Coffman said.
“Under the leadership of (VA) Secretary (Robert) McDonald and Deputy Secretary (Sloan) Gibson, the VA has admitted their mistakes on this project and they are both personally involved in completion of this facility”.
FILE – In this April 18, 2015, file photo, a construction crew… The deal requires the division to submit particulars to the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees.
The uncertainty has caused no end of frustration for a few Colorado lawmakers.
Included in the Senate measure are several reforms, including a provision that would put the Army Corps of Engineers in charge of any VA project expected to cost $100 million or more.
“In spite of the incredible mismanagement of this project by the VA and a shocking lack of accountability for those responsible for that mismanagement, completing the hospital in Aurora has been my number one legislative priority”, Coffman said.
As recently as last week, it appeared as if Congress would give the VA the money it needed without incident.
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“It’s huge because it doesn’t do the piecemeal funding that we’ve done in the past”.
