Improving Nursing Home Facilities Under The Jurisdiction Including The Joliet, Illinois

loc.gov, Sep 16, 2005

The construction, major projects appropriation provides for constructing, altering, extending, and improving any of the facilities under the jurisdiction or for the use of VA, including planning, architectural and engineering services, and site acquisition where the estimated cost of a project is $3,000,000 or more. Emphasis is placed on correction of life/safety code deficiencies in existing VA medical facilities. Funds again are requested for the design fund which would develop construction documents for projects planned for the following budget year.

A program of $513,755,000 is requested for construction, major projects, in fiscal year 1996. The bill includes $183,455,000 for the construction of major projects, a decrease of $170,839,000 below the current level and $330,300,000 below the budget request.

The changes from the budget request are as follows:

-$154,700,000 requested for a new medical center in Brevard County, Florida. The Committee recognizes the critical need for access to healthcare that has existed for over ten years among veterans in the southeast. Florida has the highest percentage of veterans 65 years of age and older in the Nation and the numbers are increasing daily. The unmet need for these services was addressed in the 1996 budget request for full funding of a new hospital and nursing home in Brevard County, Florida. However, the overriding requirements for budgetary savings will not allow for full funding of the Brevard County facility in fiscal year 1996. In the event that significant additional appropriations are not provided for the phased construction of the Brevard County hospital in the 1996 appropriations process, the fiscal year 1995 appropriation of $17,200,000 shall be used for the design and construction of a comprehensive medical outpatient clinic which shall serve as the first phase of the Brevard County medical facility.

-$188,500,000 requested for the VA/Air Force Joint Venture at Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, California. The Committee has made this recommendation solely because of the budgetary situation--both present and anticipated in the future. It is the Committee's intention that an outpatient clinic be constructed at Travis. The VA is directed to develop a cost estimate for such an outpatient clinic in time that those funds may be included at the conference stage on this bill.

+$1,000,000 for design of a new national cemetery in Albany, New York area.

+$5,000,000 for design of an ambulatory care addition and patient environmental improvements project at the Wilkes-Barre VA Medical Center.

+$4,000,000 for the relocation of medical school functions at the Mountain Home VA Medical Center. This is a continuation of the project funded in previous years.

+$1,500,000 for design of an ambulatory care addition project at the Asheville, NC, VA Medical Center.

+$1,400,000 for design of a new national cemetery in the Joliet (Chicago), Illinois area.

The specific amounts recommended by the Committee are as follows:
This program provides grants to assist States to construct State home facilities for furnishing domiciliary or nursing home care to veterans, and to expand, remodel or alter existing buildings for furnishing domiciliary, nursing home or hospital care to veterans in State homes. A grant may not exceed 65 percent of the total cost of the project. Grants for State nursing facilities may not provide for more than four beds per thousand veterans in any State.

The Committee recommends $47,397,000 for grants for construction of State extended care facilities in fiscal year 1996. This amount represents the current funding level The Department of Veterans Affairs is the third largest Federal agency in terms of employment with an average employment of approximately 230,000. It administers benefits for 26,000,000 veterans, and 44,000,000 family members of living veterans and survivors of deceased veterans. Thus, 70,000,000 people, comprising about 27 percent of the total population of the United States, are potential recipients of veterans benefits provided by the Federal Government.

A total of $37,649,060,000 in new budget authority is recommended by the Committee for the Department of Veterans Affairs programs in fiscal year 1996. The funds recommended provide for compensation payments to 2,549,678 veterans and survivors of deceased veterans with service-connected disabilities; pension payments for 743,500 non-service-connected disabled veterans, widows and children in need of financial assistance; educational training and vocational assistance to 519,899 veterans, servicepersons, and reservists, and 39,160 eligible dependents of deceased or seriously disabled veterans; housing credit assistance in the form of 325,595 guaranteed loans provided to veterans and servicepersons; administration or supervision of life insurance programs with 5,398,882 policies for veterans and active duty servicepersons providing coverage of $449,956,000,000; inpatient care and treatment of beneficiaries in 173 hospitals, 39 domiciliaries, and 136 nursing homes; outpatient care in 376 clinics which includes independent, satellite, community-based, and rural outreach clinics involving 26,300,000 visits; and the administration of the National Cemetery System for burial of eligible veterans, servicepersons and their survivors