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Rep. Jerry McNerney introduces bill to speed Veteran Affairs construction

Lodi News-Sentinel (CA) - 7/23/2014

July 23--On July 9, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, introduced a bill to the House of Representatives to speed up construction on Veteran Affairs medical facilities around the nation -- including the one in French Camp.

The Jumpstarting VA Construction Act of 2014 is designed to set up a pilot program allowing the VA to partner with counties to manage the construction of hospitals in locations where funding is already available. Michael Cavalio, a communications director for McNerney, said the bill is intended for projects where "the shovel is ready."

The French Camp hospital has been delayed by issues including cost overrun and mismanagement, Cavalio said. The VA is $1.5 billion over budget with all its building projects, and it would take over 60 years to complete all hospitals on its building list, he added, without hiring outside help.

It isn't clear how quickly construction on VA hospitals will begin if this bill is passed, but the pilot program highlighted in the bill is set to last for only 10 years, starting 2014.

Kevin Ehman, a retired Army veteran from Lodi who served in the Vietnam War, said he is not sure that building hospitals is on the government's mind.

"Right now, these guys in Washington are slamming veterans," Ehman said. "They really don't have the resources to build."

Ehman says he has been served by the VA system since 1976, and that all his doctors are in Sacramento.

Like most veterans in Lodi, he said, he's not sure whether the new VA hospital in French Camp is going to change his decision to drive to medical centers in other counties. However, veterans in the area who go to Palo Alto might be interested in the closer location, he said.

Ken Kamlich of Lodi, who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, said that the commute out of the county is bad enough, but some operations require patients to stay at the hospital overnight -- a problem that could be eased by a closer location.

The new VA hospital being built in French Camp will have a 52-acre campus, which includes a 150,000-square-foot outpatient clinic and a 150,000-square-foot, 120-bed community living center -- a nursing home attached to the hospital.

The total building cost of the new VA Hospital is estimated around $368 million.

Contact reporter James Striplin at jamess@lodinews.com.

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(c)2014 the Lodi News-Sentinel (Lodi, Calif.)

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