Trump VA pulls $77M from Biden ‘boondoggle,’ but is still assessing where to put it all
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is scrapping a previous administration's $77 million mandate to install electric-vehicle charging stations at VA facilities and is redirecting those funds toward critical health-care infrastructure for veterans instead.
Under the policy revision, the VA said that while "the Biden White House forced VA to divert $77 million from its construction and technology budget to build solar powered electric vehicle charging stations" — not a single charger was built .
The VA's current leadership, under Doug Collins, restored the funds to the agency's construction budget as of Nov. 6.
"After deciding the money would be better spent on critical health care construction projects," the agency began reallocating the funds to facility upgrades and medical-care improvements.
So far, the first wave of reallocated spending is slated for:
-
$10 million to upgrade the "Friendship House" — a compensated-work therapy residence in Oklahoma City.
-
$21.3 million to expand and renovate the MRI ward at the Providence VA Medical Center in Rhode Island.
-
$13.8 million to upgrade the radiation-oncology unit at the Montgomery VA Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi.
"In Joe Biden's VA, the department was distracted by woke social-justice programs and green-energy boondoggles, but those days are long gone," VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a blunt statement .
"VA exists to serve Veterans, and we're making sure all of our resources go toward that noble purpose."
The VA has not yet disclosed the full breakdown of how the rest of the $77 million will be spent.
The department says it is "still assessing how to reallocate all of the funding."
More Business News
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
