JaBraun and Courtney were in the home stretch. He'd be home soon, in a few weeks. Instead, they called her out of class and sent her home to find two soldiers in their Class A uniforms.The chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs said last week on Capitol Hill that military veterans “want their claims decided faster, their health care taken care of and their aging facilities upgraded.”
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., will see one of those facilities today when he visits Fort Wayne.
Miller and a Hoosier member of his committee, Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd, are scheduled to tour the VA Northern Indiana Health Care System’s medical center at Lake Avenue and Randallia Drive this morning. The medical center opened in 1950.
“We’re looking forward to sharing with them all the good and significant things we’re doing here in Fort Wayne and the care that we’re offering for the veterans,” Jennifer Baran-Prall, public affairs officer for the regional health care system, said Monday.
She said VA officials will talk to Miller and Stutzman about projects for “refurbishing and renovating and modernizing” the center and its 26-bed hospital.
“It is an older facility; we definitely recognize that,” Baran-Prall said. “We are making strides to improve it. We look forward to sharing what our thoughts are to do that.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced in 2009 that it would replace the 198,000-square-foot medical center with a larger complex. The VA later abandoned the plan and decided it will rent a 27,000-square-foot building where mental health treatment will be provided to outpatients.
Charlotte Weybright, director of a local group called Veterans for Better Health Care, isn’t encouraged by Miller’s visit.
“After years of ups and downs and broken promises when it comes to our local VA hospital and services to our area veterans, I do not believe Representative Miller will add anything new to the discussion,” Weybright said in an email.
Stutzman and Miller will conduct a public forum at 1 p.m. today at Classic Café on Hillegas Road to discuss the medical center in addition to issues and legislation related to veterans’ benefits, education and training.
President Obama has proposed a 10.5 percent spending increase for VA in his budget request for fiscal year 2013. VA appropriations would top $140 billion under the proposal.
