[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 40 (Thursday, March 8, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E496-E497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      TO PRESERVE THE WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER ACT OF 2007

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 8, 2007

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, at the Committee on Oversight and 
Government Reform hearing on March 5, 2007 at Walter Reed Army 
Hospital, I asked the top brass who testified whether designating 
Walter Reed for closing in the midst of a war had contributed to any 
instability of personnel at the Walter Reed Hospital Garrison. Each of 
them responded unequivocally that the Base Realignment and Closure 
(BRAC) closing for Walter Reed had had a destabilizing effect on the 
hospital. Army Vice Chief of Staff General Richard Cody testified, 
``You're trying to get the best people to come here to work, and they 
know in three years that this place will close down and they're not 
sure whether they will be afforded the opportunity to move to the new 
Walter Reed National Military Center . . . that causes some issues.'' 
This and other testimony, as well as recent Washington Post 
revelations, have contributed directly to my introduction today of the 
``Preserve Walter Reed Army Medical Center Act of 2007.'' Several 
senior leaders of the relevant committees have since agreed that Walter 
Reed should be taken off the BRAC list and should remain open.
  There have been no complaints about the hospital's world-class 
treatment or the hospital itself, which was built only in 1977, but the 
hearing laid bare a broken military health care outpatient system and 
bureaucracy in need of both long term and short term remedies. The 
epicenter of this system is its ``crown jewel,'' Walter Reed Hospital, 
whose physical and administrative outpatient care have rapidly become a 
potent symbol of a national breakdown that will require systemic 
remedies for military and veteran hospitals across the country. 
However, because the problems are both deep and wide, we must find 
immediate solutions at each facility while the military outpatient 
systems are freed from knotted bureaucratic tangles.
  A first step to take to stop the proverbial bleeding of staff and 
talent is to reverse the madness of closing the nation's best and most 
vital military hospital in the middle of a shooting war and the war on 
terrorism. This bill to reverse the closing of the Walter Reed base 
will help stabilize personnel who, as the generals testified, scatter 
once they believe a base will close. At a time when Walter Reed is 
receiving large numbers of injured soldiers and a military surge may 
mean many more, closing the Nation's premier military hospital should 
be unthinkable.

  Moreover, leaving Walter Reed on the BRAC list has become 
increasingly untenable because closing the hospital carries with it a 
promise and an intention to build a new hospital by 2011. In the 
foreseeable future, no one expects the administration or Congress to 
come forward with the required $2 billion to construct the proposed new 
Walter Reed in Bethesda, Maryland, and much more for moving costs and 
new equipment, given a huge and mounting deficit, and certainly not in 
the middle of a war, when funds must be committed to soldiers, their 
families, veterans and the war itself. Nevertheless, a repeal bill is 
necessary because, if Walter Reed continues to be listed for closing, 
Congress will continue to send a signal to personnel to make their 
career decisions accordingly. As is already occurring, Walter Reed will 
find it increasingly difficult to retain and hire personnel, including 
vital civilian clinical and medical personnel, particularly the very 
best; who the Nation expects will work at Walter Reed to attend to the 
most seriously injured military men and women.
  Further, Walter Reed is an essential and integral component of the 
Emergency Preparedness Plan for the Nation's Capital. The hospital is 
located just 5\1/2\ miles from the White House, 6\1/2\ miles from the 
Capitol and 6 miles from the Washington Convention Center. Its location 
in the city is strategically important. If moved to Bethesda, traffic 
and distance would place Walter Reed outside of the homeland security 
system here that has been developed specifically to take account of the 
location of the top-tier Federal presence, officials and employees. 
Because of the location here Walter Reed is essential to treat mass 
casualties in the case of a terrorist attack. The hospital is part of 
the Emergency Preparedness Plan for the District, a system for 
treatment of acute illness or trauma of people requiring 
hospitalization from a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or 
explosive incident. The specialized needs are above the District's 
hospital capacity. Thus, the District needs Walter Reed's available 
resources in order to comply with this Department of Homeland Security 
mandate.
  I fully recognize that reversing a BRAC decision is and should be 
rare. However, particularly after what we have learned about unmet 
needs for injured members of the military returning home from Iraq and 
Afghanistan, this step is minimally necessary to stabilize operations 
at the Nation's most important hospital base for caring for our most 
seriously injured members of the military. Far from establishing a 
precedent, no other military facility stands on the same footing or has 
so central a mission. The question should not be can we take Walter 
Reed off the closing list but, why was this hospital scheduled to close 
in the first place, as our soldiers were engaged in a shooting

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war with no end in sight? Another question should be do we truly intend 
to spend billions of dollars on bricks and mortar for a new hospital 
instead of on our soldiers and their facilities?
  Walter Reed, like other military hospitals, will not be what it 
should be immediately. However, we can immediately demonstrate that 
Congress means business by moving to stabilize the Nation's premier 
military medical hospital and then getting on with the rest of the job.

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