WASHINGTON — Itap been nearly three months since the VA announced the cost of a new hospital in Aurora had ballooned to $1.73 billion. But even now, itap been difficult to discern how — and why — the cost got so out of control.
On Wednesday, Colorado’s two U.S. senators, Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner, took a step to try and answer those questions by introducing legislation that would direct the Government Accountability Office to open an investigation into the Aurora facility, as well as other troubled VA projects in locations such as Orlando, New Orleans and Las Vegas.
Their request was put forward as amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016; a vote was expected Thursday.
The GAO report would be in addition to ongoing efforts by Congress and the VA to understand what happened.
“This amendment will help us discover how this project became a catastrophe and how we can prevent these problems from occurring on future projects,” said Gardner in a statement.
Added Bennet: “As we continue to move forward with construction of the Denver Medical Facility, we need more clarity and accountability on what went wrong, how, and when.”
