U.S. VA Secretary Tours Chillicothe Medical Center

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Denis McDonough, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, joined U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman Friday to visit the Chillicothe V.A. Medical Center in light of recommendations by the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission to close the century old site.

Litter Media’s Mike Smith asked the Secretary about the “all or nothing” choice the Congress will have when they eventually get the AIR Commission’s final recommendations on all V.A. facilities through the nation. Secretary McDonough explained how that works, while both U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman stated there can be some changes to the recommendations before they reach Congress.

Secretary McDonough says “The statute itself, which was agreed (to) in 2018 and signed by then President Trump, then saw the recommendations published in March (2022), will go to the Commission. The Commission then can ask that they be changed and thus send them back to V.A., or forward them on to the President. At which point- the President will either ask them to be changed, terminate the process, or send them on to the House and Senate. If it goes to the House and Senate, they have only one option. To accept it in total or disapprove it in total. They can’t take out individual pieces of it. The whole process at this time has stopped, because the Commission has not yet been appointed.”

Regardless of the outcome, Secretary McDonough said the Congress is working to approve more pay for V.A. nurses impacting this region, and promised- “What will not happen, is us losing attention on our veterans and insuring we maintain this world class health care.” 

Senator’s Brown and Portman made it very clear that they do not like the recommendations released by the V.A., and want changes to be made to keep the Chillicothe V.A. Medical Center open, yet realizing improvements need to be made to the 100 year old site.

Senator Brown re-addressed that question as to what he and Senator Portman believe should happen with the recommendations to the AIR Commission.

“The data they looked at, because it began in ’18 (2018), most of it was pre-pandemic data. They just don’t have enough information for which they based their report, which they handed to the incoming Secretary, who had very little to do with it. So we want to make sure that he’s equipped, the V.A.’s equipped, and that only the Air Commission has the information about how crucial this is to the community and these veterans.”  

Senator Portman said- “We don’t like the recommendation. Speaking for myself, to set up a new facility outside of this campus makes no sense to me. We have this incredible campus here that dates back to the days of Fort (Camp) Sherman in World War I recruitment and has since provided a century of incredible care here. We think there are some interesting opportunities, and I think the Secretary was very impressed with what he heard today, because there is a growing mental health issue here and maybe some new ways to treat mental health that are more creative, more innovative, some mid-level care longer term residential care, other things this facility could well be equipped for. That’s the discussion that needs to take place in my view. How do we change that recommendation should the process go forward.”

Secretary McDonough did not know at this point, when the AIR Commission members would be selected to consider the nationwide physical structure of the Veterans Affairs System.