Anthony J. Principi, Veterans Affairs secretary, downplays a VA role for Brooksville Regional but says a clinic expansion is near.
By ROBERT KING
Published May 31, 2003
[Times photo: Kevin White]
Anthony Principi, left, the Bush administration's secretary of Veteran's Affairs, is greeted by Wallace Taylor, 79, of Zephyrhills before a meeting held with veterans in Brooksville.
BROOKSVILLE - President Bush's top veterans affairs officer said Friday that converting Brooksville Regional Hospital into a veterans hospital is unlikely, but expansion at the existing outpatient clinic will happen this year.
Anthony J. Principi, who is secretary of Veterans Affairs, made those comments to reporters after speaking Friday to a group of more than 250 veterans at Elks Lodge 2582, which is next door to the local VA outpatient clinic.
The secretary made the appearance at the request of U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, who took every opportunity to show her support for veterans, a key constituency in her district, who number 30,000 in Hernando County alone.
Principi, whose department is second only to the Defense Department in size and budget, acknowledged what most veterans already know: that it takes too long for vets to get an appointment with their doctors and too long to get their disability claims processed.
The secretary, a Vietnam veteran, said his department is working to reduce those waits. At the start of the year, there were 450,000 outstanding disability claims, he said. Now there are 288,000. "I'm proud of the progress we're making," he said.
Taking questions from the audience, Principi was asked about the possibility of a veterans hospital being located in the Brooksville area. His response: The VA is reviewing its inventory of hospitals and looking at where needs exist. But he pointed out that there are already VA hospitals in Tampa and Gainesville.
Instead, Brown-Waite said the existing outpatient clinic will remain at the PineBrook Regional Medical Center but triple the space it now occupies.
In the past, Brown-Waite has promoted the conversion of the soon-to-be-vacant Brooksville Regional Hospital into a VA facility. But that is not likely to happen soon.
Principi told reporters that the price - he said he had heard it was $40-million - was too high and the facility too large for the local need.
Even as the visit unfolded, the Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took aim at Principi and Brown-Waite. They said the revenue devoted to recent tax cuts would have been better spent on veterans programs and that the Congressional Budget Office is warning that veterans programs will be underfunded in the future.
Additionally, the Democrats argue that Principi, Brown-Waite and other Republicans should have worked to ensure that disabled vets can receive both disability and retirement benefits simultaneously. Currently, most retired veterans get their disability payments deducted from the retirement checks.
"It's hypocrisy to say that the resources aren't there for this," said Greg Speed, press secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which wants Brown-Waite's seat to return to Democratic hands in 2004.
Asked by an audience member about the benefits issue, Principi said: "I was just waiting for the question." He said a smaller plan passed last year was "an important first step." It offers the dual benefits to retirees who were disabled by enemy fire and those who are 60 percent disabled from injuries suffered during hazardous duty.
Still, it probably doesn't go far enough, he said.
Brown-Waite told the crowd she supports a bill sponsored by Mike Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs, that calls for the full funding of both benefits. But she said that unless Congress supplies the VA with money, other veterans programs will suffer.
Both Principi and Brown-Waite told reporters that funding for veterans programs has increased more under a Republican president and Congress than with the Democrats.
Brown-Waite said the tax cuts will help veterans, like other taxpayers, and should help stimulate the economy in a way that will generate more revenue. "If we get this economy moving, we can have it all," she said.
Politics aside, Principi was applauded by local veterans for making the visit, even if some were critical of his agency.
Leo Jacobs, a member of Disabled American Veterans Chapter 67, west of Brooksville, said Principi is the "right man for the right job" because he is a veteran who understands the issues, thorny as they may be.
But John R. Kepner, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9236 in Hernando Beach, said Principi and Brown-Waite would have served their constituents better had they taken more questions and spent less time "patting themselves on the back."
"There were a lot of questions left unanswered," Kepner said.
