The Shadow
WASHINGTON (VR) – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) are urging the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to swiftly take up and reapprove the authorization of 18 major Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facility leases, including a proposed lease for an outpatient clinic in Hampton Roads.
The leases were originally authorized under the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act which Sens. Warner and Kaine strongly supported. However, updated cost estimates and rent bids triggered the VA and the General Services Administration (GSA) to seek reauthorization from four congressional committees: the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committees, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. To date, only the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and House Transportation and Infrastructure committees have put forward resolutions to reapprove the leases.
In a letter to the leaders of the EPW Committee, the senators stressed the current challenges veterans in Hampton Roads are facing when trying to access care.
“One of these impacted leases is for a new outpatient clinic in Hampton Roads, with a proposed size of 182,230 net usable square feet,” the senators wrote. “This proposed facility would serve a critical need in a high-density region that has increasing demand for VA services. Particularly for those veterans who live on the south side of Hampton Roads – home to more than 60 percent of the patient population at the Hampton VA Medical Center – this clinic would broaden care access, and provide increased services at a location more convenient to many of these veterans.”
The senators continued, “Those associated with the region are all too familiar with challenges accessing care. The VA acknowledges through its own assessment, that the Hampton VAMC faces many physical challenges, such as frequent flooding and severe access difficulties for a large portion of the veterans it serves due to heavy traffic restricting area patients’ access to the VAMC. Hiring and recruitment challenges, in a state and region that are near the top of the list nationally in terms of share of veteran population, have contributed to challenges accessing timely care over the years. Looking forward, the VA estimates that the already sizable enrollee base in the region is expected to grow by upwards of 10 to 15 percent in the coming decades, leading to a patient population that could support multiple new VA medical centers and outpatient clinics.”
Sens. Warner and Kaine have long fought to expand health care and benefits for Virginia’s nearly 700,000 veterans. Sens. Warner and Kaine began raising the alarm about the significant backlog of unapproved VA leases in 2016. After putting significant pressure on officials across the federal government, Congress unanimously passed the Providing Veterans Overdue Care Act, legislation written by Sen. Warner and supported by Sen. Kaine, to cut the backlog and get over two dozen delayed VA medical facilities’ leases approved.
A copy of the letter is available below:
Dear Chair Capito and Ranking Member Whitehouse,
We write today to urge your committee to take up and pass a resolution approving of 18 major medical facility leases for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which were originally authorized under the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022, and now await reapproval by relevant Congressional committees. This tranche of facility prospectuses includes a planned facility in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, and so we encourage timely action by your committee.
The PACT Act (P.L.117-168) included authorization and initial support funding for thirty-one veterans’ medical care and research facilities in nineteen states. In the intervening years from when the VA first calculated cost estimates for these projects, to the time they initiated conversations with local developers, the cost estimates for 18 of the facilities had increased. As such, the VA resubmitted those 18 prospectuses for their reapproval by Congressional committees.
One of these impacted leases is for a new outpatient clinic in Hampton Roads, with a proposed size of 182,230 net usable square feet. This proposed facility would serve a critical need in a high-density region that has increasing demand for VA services. Particularly for those veterans who live on the south side of Hampton Roads – home to more than 60 percent of the patient population at the Hampton VA Medical Center – this clinic would broaden care access, and provide increased services at a location more convenient to many of these veterans.
Those associated with the region are all too familiar with challenges accessing care. The VA acknowledges through its own assessment, that the Hampton VAMC faces many physical challenges, such as frequent flooding and severe access difficulties for a large portion of the veterans it serves due to heavy traffic restricting area patients’ access to the VAMC. Hiring and recruitment challenges, in a state and region that are near the top of the list nationally in terms of share of veteran population, have contributed to challenges accessing timely care over the years. Looking forward, the VA estimates that the already sizable enrollee base in the region is expected to grow by upwards of 10 to 15 percent in the coming decades, leading to a patient population that could support multiple new VA medical centers and outpatient clinics.
In recognition of the need to streamline the process whereby Congress considers VA facility approvals and remove some the hurdles and delays to their being built, the PACT Act simplified the acquisition process. Under the law, re-approval of this slate of leases would require resolutions of approval by four Committees in Congress: the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. As of our writing of this letter, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs and House Transportation and Infrastructure committees have passed resolutions of approval.
We urge your committee to quickly consider and approve these leases. As always we appreciate your attention to these matters, as well as your efforts to conduct oversight and work with the Executive Branch on important matters impacting federal infrastructure. And we share your commitment to ensuring that veterans who have earned these services and care have the facilities needed to access them in a timely manner.
Sincerely,
