March 15, 2012 – Today, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson continued to fight for the renovation of the aging Omaha VA Medical Center and development of the national veterans’ cemetery in Eastern Nebraska, as he received updates on those projects from U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and other top VA officials. “Nebraska’s veterans are very interested in knowing the site for the veterans’ cemetery in eastern Nebraska. They ask me, when they come in to see me, where it is going to be. It’s been a little awkward to say, ‘I know it is, I just don’t know where it is.’ I’m glad the location will soon be fully disclosed,” Senator Nelson said today during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the Department of Veterans Affairs budget request for Fiscal Year 2013.
In response to Nelson’s request for an update on the veterans’ cemetery, VA Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs Steve Muro said a site has been selected and it will be publicly revealed by the end of this month. He said the location could not yet be publicly identified because the VA is still working out a final purchase price for the land. Once that is done, the VA will be able to publicly announce the site selection.
“It’s a beautiful site. I have been on it. It will well serve our veterans there for many years,” Muro said.
Senator Nelson has been working to establish a veterans’ cemetery in eastern Nebraska since 2007, when he began working with the Sarpy County Board and Omaha City Council to build federal support for the project. He introduced legislation to authorize the cemetery in 2009, and money to fund its design was appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget.
“Establishing this national veterans’ cemetery in eastern Nebraska will ensure that the 172,000 veterans in the region will get the recognition they deserve and the honor of a final resting place in a national veterans cemetery,” Nelson said. “I am glad this project is moving forward and veterans will soon know the cemetery’s location.”
Nelson also asked VA officials about progress being made towards the renovation of the aging Omaha VA Medical Center.
“I’ve often said that we need to be as good at taking care of our veterans as we are at creating them, and the commitment to improving the Omaha VA Hospital is another example that caring for America’s veterans remains one of the nation’s highest priorities,” Nelson said.
Secretary Shinseki repeated that the project is a priority and that much of the Omaha Medical Center Campus will be replaced. He acknowledged that aging heating, electrical, air conditioning and plumbing systems create safety hazards at the existing facilities.
“This is a major project that we are committed to in terms of assuring that veterans in Nebraska and in the region have access to safe and high-quality health care,” Shinseki said.
VA Undersecretary for Health Robert Petzel said the design of the new Omaha VA Medical Center facilities will be completed in 2013 and, assuming there is money in the budget, construction could begin in Fiscal Year 2014.
Currently, the VA is using $56 million of its existing major construction funding to perform planning and design work for the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System hospital in Omaha.
The VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System serves veterans in Nebraska, western Iowa and sections of Kansas and Missouri. The Omaha VA Medical Center offers both inpatient and outpatient primary and specialty care services. It has dual affiliations with the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Creighton University.
Since 2008, Nelson has led bipartisan efforts to address the needs at the Omaha VA Medical Center, working with the Nebraska congressional delegation and two presidential administrations.
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