Getting a veterans hospital in South Texas is a battle

Treto Garza and other Rio Grande Valley veterans have fought in tough battles. They’ve fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars and in Iraq and Afghanistan.

However, one of the hardest-fought battles they’ve had is here in the homeland — getting a veterans hospital built in South Texas.

"We’ve always figured it would be a hard-fought battle," said Garza, who added he has been working on the issue since 2005.

Valley veterans claimed a victory earlier this month after Texas voters passed Proposition No. 8, which calls for the construction of a veterans hospital in South Texas.

The win is big because it will allow Texas to work with the federal government to construct and staff a full-fledged hospital for Valley veterans.

Proposition No. 8 will allow the state to provide the "brick and mortar" for the facility, while the federal government would fund the staffing.

The veterans claim to be "halfway there," but they have not yet been able to secure its establishment. They hope that with the proposition’s passage and the help of Valley congressmen they can get the attention of federal officials in the nation’s capital, said Garza, 65, of Harlingen.

The Veterans Alliance of the Rio Grande Valley met on Tuesday with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, when its members discussed what’s needed to get Washington’s attention. Garza said since Cornyn appears to be more and more influential in the nation’s capital, he should be the voice of Valley veterans.

"Their (the Veterans Administration’s) main concern is money, money, money," said Garza, co-chairman of the alliance.

The alliance estimates that there are 65,000 veterans living in the Valley and some 110,000 in 26 South Texas counties.

"We have to find a way to crack that grip" they have, on not wanting to construct a hospital in South Texas, Garza said.

Meanwhile, state officials are waiting for the federal government to fund the construction of a new veterans hospital in the Valley, said Lee Loya, chief of staff for state Rep. Kino Flores, D-Mission, who sponsored the bill that led to Proposition No. 8.

"We have been fighting year after year" to get a veterans hospital built in the South Texas area, Loya said.

The reasoning behind Proposition No. 8 was to apply a little more pressure and show the federal government that Texas is serious about caring for its veterans, Loya said.

U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, and Cornyn have sponsored legislation in the House and the Senate — known as the Far South Texas Veterans Medical Center Act of 2009 — that calls for the federal government to financially support it.

The House version of the bill has been sent to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Subcommittee on Health. The Senate version of the bill is in the hands of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

Ortiz said the passage of Proposition No. 8 will help area congressional members show the Veterans Administration that the state is serious about having a hospital built in South Texas.

"It is very important that the people went out and voted for it," Ortiz said. It’s because of their votes that "we are halfway there."

The next step is to get Valley veterans to sign up at local clinics for services, so area congressional representatives can present the numbers to the VA and show the need for a full-service hospital here, Ortiz said.

"We have been told that we once we got the numbers that they would build the hospital," Ortiz said.

For years, Valley veterans have stressed the need for a hospital in South Texas. Earlier this year, they started a petition seeking support for the hospital. They want to present the petition to federal officials in January, to show both support and need for a hospital here, Garza said.

"I commend Texans for overwhelmingly supporting Proposition 8, which sends a clear signal that the state and Valley want to ensure that veterans in South Texas have access to every benefit they were promised," Cornyn said in statement.

"To that end, I continue to push for passage of my Far South Texas Veterans Medical Center Act of 2009, which would authorize construction of a full VA hospital in Far South Texas for the 100,000 veterans there who are currently forced to drive hundreds of miles to access inpatient care."

Cornyn recently met with Valley leaders regarding a veterans hospital and all agreed "to do our respective parts on the state and federal level to bring this hospital to fruition," he said.

With more men and women returning from multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s important for them to know that their sacrifices have not been made in vain, numerous officials said.

"A hospital will give them the right to say, ‘I sacrificed for something that belongs to me,’ " Ortiz said.