Military Construction, Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2007
MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, MILITARY QUALITY OF LIFE AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007
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Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, earlier this year, the VA made a priority request for $32.5 million for urgent and necessary upgrades for the spinal cord injury unit at the Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee. However, the subcommittee mark made a point of zeroing out this project. My amendment would restore the funding for this requested priority.
Mr. Chairman, I can tell you that I am new to this body, so I was very curious as to why they would do this. Clearly the Zablocki spinal cord injury unit is not a ``bridge to nowhere.'' It is one of only 23 spinal cord injury units in the country, serving more than 500 veterans as in-patients and over 10,000 patients on an outpatient basis each year.
Nationally, there are over 44,000 veterans suffering from spinal cord injuries that are now paraplegic and quadriplegic. At such a critical time when we are at war and the number of injured soldiers continues to increase, I had to ask myself, Mr. Chairman, what are they doing and why are we doing this?
So what I did as a new Member is I went to something called the committee record, I believe, and what they said here is that they did this because this was of ``relatively low priority.''
Well, I was really confused then, Mr. Chairman, because I then checked with the budget documentation submitted by the Department of Veterans Affairs and discovered that they had listed this as their number one priority for fiscal year 2007. Further, they went on to describe the spinal cord injury unit at Zablocki as having by far received the highest score under their project scoring session.
Mr. Chairman, I don't stand under this E. Pluribus Unum boring Members on and on often. I am here because I truly am trying to understand how other projects with lower priority scores were, indeed, funded.
As a matter of fact, Mr. Chairman, I will submit for the Record this corroborating evidence that this indeed is a highest priority of the fiscal year 2007 projects.
The Committee recommends an appropriation of $283,670,000 for Construction, Major Projects for fiscal year 2007. This is a decrease of $690,930,000 below the fiscal year 2006 enacted level and a decrease of $115,330,000 below the budget request. When adjusted for supplemental funding, the recommendation is $323,430,000 below the fiscal year 2006 enacted level.
The Committee recommendation does not include funding for refurbishment of operating rooms at the Columbia, Missouri VAMC, and refurbishment of the Spinal Cord Injury Center at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin VAMC, both of which are relatively low priority projects. The estimate submitted in the budget for the Capital Region Data Center project includes a contingency reserve of over 25 percent, well in excess of needs for such a project. The funding for this project is therefore reduced by $5,000,000, leaving 12.5 percent for a contingency reserve. The Committee recommendation includes no funding for the replacement hospital in Denver, Colorado. The Committee notes that less than two years ago, when original planning funds were appropriated for the Denver facility, the estimated total cost of the project was $328,000,000. The current estimate for the project is in the range of $621,000,000, almost double the previous estimate. This is not the only instance of large cost growth for construction projects of the Department, but this is a project at a stage where work can be halted before significant and irreversible financial damage is done. The Committee is concerned with the rapid escalation in the cost of building new facilities and cautions the Department that few, if any, projects will be approved in the future if such costs are not brought under control.
The Committee recommendation also includes a general provision which places restrictions on the use of funds previously appropriated for a new facility in Biloxi, Mississippi. It is the Committee's direction that no funds can be expended on a new facility unless it is a joint-use facility shared with Kessler Air Force Base.
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Mr. Chairman, I don't know what benchmarks are used with these scoring decisions, but truly it could not be based on the priorities of those valiant veterans that so readily serve our country and depend upon us for the treatments that this spinal cord injury unit provides, folks that are faced with irreversible catastrophic disabilities. This is a hard reality for these veterans and their families, and the very least we can do for them is to provide adequate facilities for them.
I can tell you, Mr. Chairman, that before I became a Member of this body, and indeed before I became a candidate for Congress, I had the opportunity to visit the Zablocki Spinal Cord Unit, and I can tell you that despite the dedication of the workers there, they are working under very, very hard conditions, outdated technology, limited space, it will not compensate for the deteriorating conditions at that facility.
Those spinal cord injury patients, Mr. Chairman, are on the tenth floor, the tenth floor, and they are lacking any adequate safety evacuation criteria. Certainly they are lacking in any ability to maximize their mobility, functionality and independence.
The Department says this is the highest priority. Veterans have said this is the highest priority. I am at a loss as to why the subcommittee believes it is such a low priority.
Before I yield back, Mr. Chairman, I just want to say that I have listened to countless hours of speeches on this floor about veterans and our love for them and our concern for them. You know, Mr. Chairman, it is time for us to do what we say.
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Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, I understand that I will have to concede to the point of order, but I can tell you that I did not perceive that I had to provide an offset for this funding because it was deemed as the highest, the highest, priority.
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