Vets budget shortfall may affect health care

Benjamin Grove

Monday, June 27, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Veterans Affairs Department officials say they don't yet know how an unexpected $1 billion shortfall in the Veterans Affairs Department budget may affect the plan for a $295 million medical complex in North Las Vegas.

The shortfall, which was discovered during a department budget review, was disclosed late last week. Officials said health care costs spiraled faster than expected and created a giant gap in its budget for this year.

It's not known yet how the department will deal with the shortfall. House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer, R-Ind., last week said the department could pay its health care expenses this year by taking money from other programs, including planned construction projects.

It appears that the department has siphoned about $600 million out of its construction budget to pay for health care in the current fiscal year, Senate Veterans Affairs Committee spokesman Jeff Schrade said today.

Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson is scheduled to testify on Tuesday in the Senate and Thursday in the House to provide Congress with more budget details.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she planned to ask Nicholson for a guarantee that the money for the North Las Vegas project will be protected in order to keep it on schedule. The groundbreaking is set for next year.

"Nevada's veterans have been promised this medical complex by the Bush administration, it has been authorized by Congress and nothing is going to stop me from seeing this project through to completion," Berkley said.

Using construction money to cover the budget gap sets a dangerous precedent that could hurt the project and others nationwide, Berkley said, decrying the practice as "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

The North Las Vegas project has received $60 million for planning and contract work. It is slated to receive another $199 million in mostly construction funds in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Berkley, D-Nev., a member of the House Veteran Affairs Committee, is trying to find out whether the project is in jeopardy of losing any of the money. But since late last week committee staffers have not had much luck getting answers out of the department, Berkley spokesman David Cherry said.

"Not only are we concerned about shortfalls this year, we are concerned about shortfalls as far as the eye can see," Cherry said.

Lawmakers are furious, in part because the shortfall came to light late in this year's appropriations process. The shortfall is the result of either "deliberate misdirection or gross incompetence" by the department, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wa., said. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Id., said lawmakers wanted more exact budget figures and plans from the VA and planned to "pound them like hell" until the answers are available.

Plans for the complex at Pecos Road and the Las Vegas Beltway include a 90-bed hospital, a 120-bed nursing home and an outpatient clinic. Nevada lawmakers intensely lobbied the Veterans Affairs Department for the project. The department has shifted in recent years to more outpatient clinic care and rarely builds new hospitals. Nevada lawmakers argued that the Las Vegas Valley's rapidly growing veterans population was worth the investment.

Nevada has one of the fastest-growing populations of veterans, according to Veterans Affairs Department statistics. The veterans population in Nevada has risen 30 percent since 1990. Veterans are now roughly 16 percent of the state's adult population, according to the 2000 Census. Only Wyoming has a slightly higher rate.

The Associated Press

contributed to this story.