Bennet Urges VA to Swiftly Present Funding Plan to Congress for Aurora Hospital Completion

Press Release

Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet sent a letter to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson demanding that the VA swiftly present a comprehensive funding plan to Congress for completing the long-awaited VA medical facility in Aurora by identifying savings, efficiencies, and other accountability initiatives within the VA. This could include ruling out bonuses until the project is completed. The VA will also have to develop a plan that provides certainty that all options will be exhausted to complete the project. The letter comes in response to Deputy Secretary Gibson's announcement that the VA will submit a legislative plan for the hospital to Congress.

In the letter to Deputy Secretary Gibson, Bennet wrote:

"...the plan must focus on identifying funds from existing monies appropriated to your agency and I urge to you include funds identified through savings, efficiencies, and other reform initiatives. It is critically important that the VA work to exhaust all options to find funding for the facility's completion -especially those where excess can be trimmed, reforms implemented, and efficiency exercised. Importantly, Congress must receive a detailed breakdown of planned spending of these funds in order to carry out its oversight function as a steward of taxpayer dollars."

Bennet also expressed support for provisions in Senator Gardner's VA hospital Construction, Accountability, and Reform Act which aims to aid completion of the hospital and implement further reforms to the VA construction process.

Source