THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503160398
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Endangered funds for a planned $29 million veterans' outpatient clinic in Hampton have been restored by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Veterans Affairs Medical Center project, in the planning stages for 10 years, was put in jeopardy when a House subcommittee voted to cancel $200 million in previously allocated funding for veterans' programs. Those programs included clinics at Hampton and five other regional VA medical centers.
The projects were part of a $17 billion package of spending cuts in housing, environmental and other programs that was the subject of floor debate in the House on Wednesday.
On a 382-23 vote, the House restored funding for the veterans' projects by adopting an amendment offered by Reps. Robert Stump, R-Ariz.; C.W. ``Bill'' Young, R-Fla.; and Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y.
Rep. Herbert Bateman, R-Va., whose district includes much of the Peninsula, told his colleagues that the funding is essential if the Hampton center is ``to be able to continue to provide high-quality medical care to the growing veteran community in the Hampton Roads area.''
``I recognize that we need to reduce federal spending,'' Bateman said, ``but how can anyone come to this floor and say to veterans, `I know you fulfilled your promise to the government and people of the United States, but we just can't fulfill the promises we have made to you.' The veterans of our country deserve better.''
The planned clinic would replace two buildings built around 1910. The Hampton center, established in 1870 as a home for disabled soldiers, is one of the oldest VA medical centers in the country.
It provided treatment to 171,000 outpatients in 1993.
A design for the new clinic is complete, and the center staff hopes for a groundbreaking in the summer of 1996.
If the funding gains final approval and construction proceeds on schedule, the project would be completed in 1998. by CNB