EDINBURG, RGV – Governor Greg Abbott has written to President Obama to remind him of his pledge to build a VA hospital in the Rio Grande Valley.
Obama promised to establish a VA hospital in the region while running for president in 2008. He said such a facility was long overdue while campaigning at UT-Pan American and UT-Brownsville.
Abbott’s letter to Obama is reprinted in full at the end of this story. Abbott pushed for a VA hospital for the Valley during last year’s gubernatorial campaign and reiterated his support when speaking at the Texans Veterans of Foreign Affairs (VFW) Mid-Winter Convention in Austin on Friday.
“The VA in Washington is falling short of its obligations. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the RGV. Even the President recognizes this,” Abbott told veterans at the convention.
“On a trip to the RGV in 2008, Barack Obama said, ‘we need a VA hospital right here in the Valley.’ Veterans shouldn’t have to drive 200 miles for treatment. It’s now 2015 and I’m calling on the President to keep his word. It’s time to build that VA hospital in the Rio Grande Valley. This week – as Governor – I sent a request to the President asking that he fulfill his promise to build that hospital to care for our veterans in the RGV.”
Abbott said the timing couldn’t be better for a VA hospital.
“We’re opening a new medical school and a state-of-the-art hospital at UTRGV. The co-location of a VA hospital at UTRGV would be a force multiplier, ensuring that the growing number of veterans in South Texas have access to first rate healthcare.”
Speaking to reporters after his speech at the convention, Abbott said: “I believe the president was sincere in wanting to establish a VA hospital in the Rio Grande Valley. It is essential because of the growing veteran population in the Rio Grande Valley. It is nonsensical that veterans have to drive sometimes 200 miles to access health care,” Abbott said.
The nearest VA hospital to the Valley is Audie L. Murphy in San Antonio. Veterans groups in the Valley have campaigned for decades for a fully-fledged VA hospital, including marches from the Valley to the Audie Murphy facility.
Abbott is not the only elected official in Texas to have written recently to Obama about a VA hospital for the Valley. U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, has done so also. When commenting on Obama’s State of the Union address recently, Hinojosa said: “I believe all veterans deserve the very best this country has to offer. They earned it. Making sure they receive the benefits they deserve has always been an important priority of mine. That is why I have continued to press for a full service hospital in the Rio Grande Valley. In the last few weeks I, along with some of my colleagues have sent an invitation to the new Veterans Administration Secretary Robert McDonald to come visit our veterans and our region of Deep South Texas. The hardships our veterans and their families have endured to receive comprehensive medical care must not be in vain. Just last week, I along with four Texas border congressmen, sent a letter to President Obama asking that he include the funding in his 2015 budget for a full service veterans hospital in our region. We will keep on pressing this matter and we will not give up!”
Here is Abbott’s letter to Obama:
January 30, 2015
The Honorable Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
This country owes much to its veterans. Right now, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is falling far short of its obligation to support our nation’s heroes. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. That is why I write now to ask that you renew your efforts to create an inpatient facility and urgent care center to meet the critical medical needs of veterans in the Rio Grande Valley.
According to the VA, the Rio Grande Valley is home to tens of thousands of veterans. And, yet, veterans in the Valley needing critical inpatient care must travel hundreds of miles to the closest VA inpatient facility dedicated to serving veterans. The Rio Grande Valley also lacks a VA facility dedicated to the urgent care of veterans. New, expanded facilities providing inpatient and urgent care are vital to meeting the health care needs of our veterans in the Valley.
Support for additional health care facilities for veterans in the Valley is not a partisan issue. The call for Washington to establish a full service VA hospital in the Valley echoes across the political aisle. Earlier this year, two Democratic congressmen from the Rio Grande Valley called on Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald to visit the Valley to see firsthand the desperate need for additional VA health care facilities.
Moreover, in 2008, you also recognized the need for such health facilities when, as a senator, you cosponsored a bill filed by Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) that would have provided a full-scale hospital in the Rio Grande Valley. That same year, as a presidential hopeful campaigning in the Valley, you were clear: “We need a VA hospital right here in the Valley. People don’t need to be driving 200 miles.”
The need for additional capacity is more acute now than in 2008 when you called upon the VA to establish additional facilities in the Valley. Since then, the Valley has continued to grow. That’s why Texas is moving forward with plans to open a new medical school and a state-of-the-art hospital at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. The co-location of a VA hospital in the Valley would be a force multiplier, ensuring that veterans in the Valley also have access to first-rate health care. The VA should take steps now to leverage the investments that Texas is already making.
Our veterans’ service to this country may end when they leave the battlefield, but this country’s service to our veterans cannot end there. It is time that the VA provides the necessary health facilities to serve the veterans in the Rio Grande Valley.
