Murtha ready for battle over Walter Reed

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) has tucked language into the defense-spending bill that would delay closing Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Murtha’s latest move to salvage the hospital could set the stage for a fight with the White House and individual senators over what is likely to be the only spending bill Congress takes up before President Bush leaves office.

{mosads}The powerful chairman of the Appropriations Defense panel has made it known that he doesn’t want to see the historic military facility shutter its doors as part of a congressionally mandated plan to realign and close military bases around the country.

To that end, he has worked to delay the closing of the hospital as well as the new construction of facilities at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland and Fort Belvoir, Va., first by including the language in the defense policy bill and now with the spending bill.

Murtha wants the Pentagon to satisfy a litany of conditions regarding the new construction and the costs associated with it.

Murtha has won the backing of Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), who represents Fort Belvoir and risks delaying construction of a hospital that would be a boon to his district.

Moran initially intended to introduce legislation on the House floor repealing Murtha’s provision in the defense authorization bill. But he said he withdrew that language after Murtha convinced him of his concerns.

“I do not think we have a concern about Fort Belvoir. I did not even have a concern about Bethesda, but once I understood what Jack’s intent was, I was not going to stop that,” he said in a recent interview.

At the heart of his move, Murtha told The Hill, is his fear that the new facilities won’t provide the same world-class health services under current plans.

Earlier this year, the White House issued a statement of administration policy threatening to veto the defense authorization bill for containing the language that would delay construction at the two new facilities. But when the House passed the bill without any changes, the White House did not reissue its threats.

The House Appropriations Committee has yet to consider the defense appropriations bill, which has similar language in it.

However, a couple weeks ago, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England called Murtha to ask how the Pentagon can satisfy his concerns, according to a source familiar with the discussion.

{mospagebreak}Murtha asked England to keep Walter Reed open, but England told the lawmaker that could not be done, according to the source. By law, Walter Reed has to close in 2011.

In his latest attempt, as part of the 2009 defense appropriations, Murtha is delaying the closure of Walter Reed and the construction until the design for the new facility is certified as at least 90 percent complete by an engineer or architect registered in Maryland.

{mosads}Murtha has also suggested that the construction contractor not have sole discretion over the design, but that it also be considered by the Pentagon, representatives from other healthcare facilities and current and former patients at military medical facilities.

Murtha is also asking for an independent cost estimate and a complete schedule outlining the closure, design, construction and transition of operations from Walter Reed to the new facilities.

“We must make certain that the medical needs of our servicemen and -women, active and retired, and their families are addressed,” Murtha said in a statement. “We owe it to them to ensure that what we build, at the end of the day, are in fact ‘world-class’ medical facilities.”

Delaying the closure could rankle lawmakers in the House and Senate, who believe the facility should close after having read stories in The Washington Post about its failure to provide adequate care for military servicemen. Murtha will likely have a strong opponent on the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee: Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), whose state will house the new facility at Bethesda.

A spokesman for Mikulski said she has “significant concerns” about the impact Murtha’s proposal would have on the cost and schedule for the new facility in Bethesda.

“It has to be done right. I want a gold standard,” Murtha said in an interview earlier this summer. He noted that doctors at the facility cautioned that the same standard of care found at Walter Reed’s specialty centers might not be available at the new facilities.

“They say the centers of excellence won’t be available, breast cancer, lung cancer, the amputee center,” said Murtha. “We are going to make sure that they go to Fort Belvoir and Bethesda.”

Murtha pointed out that it took nine years to build a biomedical research laboratory at Walter Reed.

Now the Pentagon wants to rush and build world-class facilities in a little over three years.

The estimated costs for the expansion in Bethesda, which will be renamed Walter Reed, have increased to $940 million today from $201 million in May 2005, according to Murtha.

But his move to delay the construction can drive up the costs even more, said several sources familiar with this issue. At Bethesda, it would take up to 18 months and cost the taxpayers about $150 million until the Pentagon is able to complete Murtha’s requests in the bill, according to an industry source.

Moran, who admitted that he has heard some concerns from his district about the legislation, did not comment by press time on the most recent language in the spending bill.

Meanwhile, the Senate defense panel is considering the spending bill on Wednesday, while the Senate is taking up the defense authorization bill this week. Efforts to overturn the House language are likely on that bill, according to congressional sources.