Senate backs quick patch for VA’s Denver hospital

The Senate on Friday passed a stopgap measure allowing construction to continue on a beleaguered Veterans Affairs hospital outside Denver. 

The legislation, approved by unanimous consent, comes one day after House members hammered out a deal that lifts the $800 million authorization ceiling for the 184-bed replacement hospital in Aurora, Colo., to $900 million.

The project, which started over a decade ago and was recently estimated to cost more than five times its original $328 million price tag, would have run out of money Sunday without the three-week patch.

{mosads}“As it stands today, we are caught between a rock and a hard place. Construction would have stopped on May 24th, and the cost of stopping and restarting construction could be as high as an additional $200 million for the American taxpayer,” Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said in a statement.

He said that the “modest extension” allows the department to “use resources it already has to keep construction crews on the job in the short-term.”

“We expect the VA and the Obama administration to accept responsibility for what this is — an outright financial and management disaster of catastrophic proportions — and to return immediately to the critical task of developing a workable plan to fully fund and complete the Denver VA medical center,” Isakson added.

The bill also puts into law a tweak to the $16 billion VA revamp bill Congress passed last year that will allow patients to receive private healthcare if they are unable to schedule an appointment at a VA clinic within 40 miles of their home within 30 days.

Under the agreement, the 40-mile limit will be recalculated by driving distance, instead of a straight line, or “as the crow flies.” The VA endorsed the change last month.