The U.S. Senate has approved a stop-gap plan to avoid a shutdown of construction on the overdue, over-budget VA medical center project in Aurora.
The plan calls for $150 million to keep construction on the project going until the end of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The U.S. House must still pass the temporary funding fix.
Congress has not yet weighed in on a long-term plan offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs last week.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo, released a statement saying that “patchwork funding is not the right way” to finish the project, but a shutdown would be worse and more expensive.
The hospital is now set to cost $1 billion more than originally estimated, and is now years overdue. Without new funding, construction will halt this coming Monday.
