DOD: House Bill Hikes Funding For Hospital Projects

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) has added funds for Dept. of Defense hospitals to a 2009 supplemental spending bill. The $94.2-billion measure, which Obey’s panel was to take up on May 7, includes $3.2 billion for military construction, $900 million more than the White House sought. Obey says most of the boost is for hospital projects. The $3.2 billion also includes the $263 million that the White House requested to speed up hospital projects in Bethesda, Md., and Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Under DOD’s base-closure plans, those facilities would replace the current Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. More than $78 billion of the bill’s total goes to DOD, primarily for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.