House VA chief wants heads to roll over $1.7B hospital

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) wants the VA to fire two senior executives after the agency announced it would cost $1.73 billion to build a hospital in a Denver suburb, more than five times the facility’s original $328 million price tag.

“VA’s entire construction program is a disaster and has been for years. Nearly every major VA hospital construction project is behind schedule and hundreds of millions over budget. In Colorado, a replacement VA hospital is more than $1 billion over budget and isn’t even close to completion,” Miller said in a statement on Wednesday.

He said that “no reasonable person could conclude” that Glenn Haggstrom, executive director of the VA’s Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction Principal, and Office of Construction and Facilities Management Executive Director Stella Fiotes “are doing a good job.”

“Therefore, I am calling upon VA’s leadership to fire them immediately,” Miller said, noting that the overhaul bill Congress passed last year gives VA Secretary Robert McDonald the authority to dismiss executives for poor job performance.

“It’s well past time for the department to fire Haggstrom and Fiotes or explain to America’s veterans and American taxpayers why these individuals have earned the right to continued VA employment,” he said.

The new cost estimate — based on information developed by the Army Corps of Engineers — marks the latest setback for the proposed 184-bed replacement facility in the suburb of Aurora, which has been in the works for over ten years.

“The VA couldn’t lead starving troops to a chow hall when it comes to managing a construction project,” Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), who has clashed constantly with agency leadership over the site, said Tuesday. “The VA’s mismanagement of this project is beyond belief and brings into question the competence of their leadership at every level.”

Senate VA panel leaders Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) called the hospital’s new price tag “appalling.”

“It is critical that we get detailed answers from Secretary McDonald about his plans to address the unacceptable surge in costs, delays and mismanagement of the construction at the replacement Denver VA Medical Center,” they said in a joint statement.

Last week the pair informed Colorado’s congressional delegation that their panel would conduct a site visit and hold a field hearing at the troubled facility as soon as possible.