Congress may keep Walter Reed open past 2011 - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Congress may keep Walter Reed open past 2011

The House Appropriations Committee is expected to vote Thursday to keep open Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the duration of the global war on terrorism, a move that would reverse a 2005 base-closing commission recommendation and add one more reason for the Bush administration to oppose a wartime supplemental spending bill.

Walter Reed, the Army’s flagship hospital, is slated to shut down by 2011 under the recommendations of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission. It would be replaced by an expanded national military hospital in Bethesda, Md., on the current campus of the National Naval Medical Center, and by a new regional medical center to be built at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Closing a major military hospital while the nation is at war was controversial when first suggested, and opponents of such a move have gained new influence since the scandal erupted at Walter Reed over the poor living conditions for some outpatients because of deferred maintenance. Some critics have said the inadequate housing is a symptom of a military mindset that did not want to spend money on the upkeep of a facility selected for closure.

One of those who want the hospital to remain open is Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., the former House Appropriations Committee chairman who is now the senior Republican on the House defense appropriations subcommittee. Young and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the subcommittee, have convinced a majority of the full appropriations committee to support them, said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.

The only question, Moran said, is whether a separate vote will be held on keeping Walter Reed open, as Young has suggested, or whether the provision will be included in the $124 billion war supplemental appropriations bill drafted by Democrats, which would not require a separate vote.

The Senate also is considering voting to keep Walter Reed open, although the Bush administration has warned lawmakers that it does not like the idea of setting a precedent of tinkering with individual recommendations on the larger base-closing lists, which traditionally have been all-or-nothing propositions.

At a hearing last week before the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee, the military services’ surgeons general were asked about reversing the consolidation of medical facilities approved in the 2005 recommendations.

Vice Adm. Donald Arthur, the Navy surgeon general, said the merger had already begun, and that a complete halt would be unwise. “The plans are for a very robust, modern and state-of-the-art facility. We could certainly change that, but there is a lot of advantage to combining the facilities, combining the staffs, and having a single DoD mission at a joint command,” he said.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, a former Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, said he never liked the idea of closing Walter Reed and can see why the Army has been reluctant to keep spending money to modernize a facility that will close. The Senate Appropriation Committee will begin writing its version of the supplemental spending bill on Tuesday, with either Stevens or Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., expected to offer an amendment to keep Walter Reed open.

“I really hope that it's looked at again in terms of the timing,” Stevens said. “It is a wonderful vision when the war is over, but right now I think our first call ought to be to put all the money we can find in treating these people properly and getting them home.”