Principi quitting won’t stall NLV veterans hospital

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 | 9:55 a.m.

SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Plans for the new veterans medical complex in North Las Vegas will not be affected by the Wednesday resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi, Nevada officials said.

Today President Bush nominated U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and Vietnam veteran Jim Nicholson to be Principi's successor. Cabinet secretaries are subject to Senate confirmation.

Meanwhile, the planning of Southern Nevada's new VA medical complex is well under way and in no danger, Nevada lawmakers said, despite the departure of Principi, who became a strong advocate for the facility after lobbying by Nevada lawmakers. Principi and Interior Secretary Gale Norton came to Las Vegas in September to announce plans to construct the $295 million complex.

Nevada lawmakers said they had developed a close relationship with Principi.

"He has been a true friend to veterans in Nevada and throughout the country, and I am very sorry to see him go," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said.

The medical complex and other capital improvement projects nationwide planned by the department are still subject to annual congressional spending. Lawmakers set department budgets based largely on funding requests from the department secretaries.

But Veterans Affairs Department officials have ranked the North Las Vegas project among their top priorities as part of the department's nationwide capital improvement program in the next five years.

"Nevada's veterans have no reason for concern," Ensign spokesman Jack Finn said.

The project is "well established," Tess Hafen, the spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "Sen. Reid expects it to move forward with no problems."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., also believes the project is not in danger, spokesman David Cherry said.

The project has already cleared important hurdles. Congress this year approved legislation that transferred 147 acres near the Las Vegas beltway and Pecos Road from the Bureau of Land Management to the Veterans Affairs Department. And lawmakers last year approved $25 million in planning money.

A joint venture of RTKL Associates Inc., and Las Vegas-based JMA Architecture Studios was named the project planner in April. The project is expected to be completed by 2009.

A Veterans Affairs Department spokesman was not available for comment today.

The complex would include a 90-bed hospital, a 120-bed nursing home and an outpatient clinic to serve Nevada's growing veterans population.