Approved spending bill keeps veterans health center on track

WASHINGTON -- A spending bill that passed the Senate on Thursday contains funding to keep on track the veterans health center being built in North Las Vegas.

The bill includes $341 million to continue construction of the 90-bed hospital, clinic and 120-bed nursing home at Pecos Road and the Las Vegas Beltway.

The funding was requested by the Department of Veterans Affairs to keep pace with growing costs. The latest estimate for the complex, issued in February, was $600.4 million.

Overall, the spending bill provides $109.2 billion for the 2008 fiscal year for projects being built by the military and for programs within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Nevada projects in the bill were announced by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

A corresponding House bill that was passed earlier this summer does not single out specific projects but an aide said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has been told it contains sufficient money for the Southern Nevada project expected to open in 2011.

In the Senate-passed bill, Nellis Air Force Base was allocated $4.95 million to install six virtual training simulators to guide students at the Joint Air Ground Operations Group.

In Reno, the Nevada Air National Guard was granted $5.2 million for a vehicle maintenance garage.

The Nellis and the Air National Guard projects were earmarked at the request of Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., according to a report with the bill.

The measure also contains $11.8 million for a water treatment plant at the Hawthorne Army Depot that was requested by the Bush administration.

Another $1.4 million was inserted by Reid and Ensign for a rail siding at Wabuska to ease train shipments to and from the Hawthorne depot.