VA Budget Request Blasted in Hot Springs
HOT SPRINGS | Members of the Hot Springs Save the VA Committee and South Dakota's congressional delegation are outraged that a new Department of Veterans Affairs budget request includes provisions for closing the Hot Springs VA campus.
The VA is considering six options for the future of its Black Hills Health Care System. The VA wants to move facilities closer to population centers where physicians are easier to recruit, and the alternatives include expanded operations in Rapid City. A preferred option is scheduled to be identified this spring with a final decision later this year.
But the state's congressional delegates and the Save the VA Committee say the VA's proposed budget for fiscal year 2016, submitted as part of the Obama administration's broader budget proposal, exposes the VA's intent to close the Hot Springs campus.
“It’s unacceptable that the Obama administration has apparently made up its mind about Hot Springs,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., “despite numerous questions that have gone unanswered for several years and empty promises that it would work with stakeholders."
The budget request mentions the Hot Springs VA campus extensively. It includes many of the Hot Springs VA campus’ buildings as part of the VA’s enhanced-use lease program and shows a $2.45 million request to lease space for a Community Based Outpatient Clinic for Hot Springs.
Pat Russell, chairman of the Hot Springs Save the VA Committee, said the group believes the VA budget request is a violation of the omnibus spending bill approved by Congress in late 2014. That bill included a rider stating that no funds "in this or any other act" may be used to close VA facilities in the region that includes Hot Springs.
The VA is in the midst of preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding its options for the Black Hills Health Care System. Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., said the new budget request poisons the process.
“Time and time and time again, the VA has assured me that they did not enter into the EIS with a predetermined outcome,” Noem said, adding that the VA budget request "completely invalidates the assurances they’ve made to me, our veterans, and the people of Hot Springs.”
In January 2014, then-Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki ordered an environmental impact statement, which is a necessary step for any federal agency that wishes to close a facility. He announced that he planned to move forward with a 2011 proposal to reconfigure veterans health care in the region. The plan included closing the Hot Springs VA Medical Center and moving the Hot Springs Substance Abuse and PTSD Treatment programs to Rapid City.
From the announcement of the proposal in 2011, the VA administration has repeatedly denied there was a pre-determined outcome for the Hot Springs VA and has said no final decision will be rendered until the EIS is complete.
Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said those pledges sound hollow.
National and local VA officials did not respond to a request for comment from the Journal.