Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.WASHINGTON — A new Omaha veterans hospital remains on track despite the lack of construction funding in President Barack Obama’s budget proposal, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki told Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., on Tuesday.
“This is just too important to get done for the veterans in western Iowa and Nebraska and Missouri and some parts of Kansas not to be completed,” Nelson told The World-Herald after a meeting with Shinseki on Capitol Hill. “Secretary Shinseki knows that.”
Nelson said Shinseki told him that construction documents will be drawn up this fall that can be used as the basis for including additional funding in next year’s budget request. The VA is already using $56 million in previously approved funding to design the building.
Nelson said they also discussed the overall budget proposal for the VA. Nelson said the country will have about a million more veterans to look after in the next five years, a statistic that highlights the need for a modern medical facility in Omaha.
Nelson, along with Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., have pushed to replace the aging hospital.
Shinseki also told Nelson that the site for a new national veterans cemetery in Nebraska will be announced later this spring or in early summer, although the secretary did not provide any hints as to where the department is looking.
Contact the writer:
202-630-4823, joe.morton@owh.com
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