By Hank Silverberg
CORRESPONDENT
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A new Veterans outpatient clinic in Spotsylvania County, that has taken over four years to build at the cost $376 million, could be facing a shortage of workers in some areas because of the Executive Order from President Donald Trump putting a hiring freeze on the entire federal workforce.
The 450,000 square foot clinic on U.S. route 1 has been built on 48 acres and was expected to provide more than 600 jobs to the region. It is scheduled to open in March, and when it does it will be the largest outpatient health care clinic operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
That area of Spotsylvania County has been promoted as a medical corridor, and the additional workers and visitors to the V-A facility are expected to be an economic spark.
A statement from the Department of Veterans Affairs says the V-A will ”always do what’s necessary to provide America’s Veterans with benefits and services they have earned”.
The Executive Order says “nothing in this provision shall adversely impact veterans.” And it specifically exempts doctors, nurses and 38 other medical and support staff positions from the new federal hiring freeze. But the freeze appears to apply to some staff that will be needed at the center like housekeepers, cooks, maintenance workers and other support personnel.
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine is concerned about that. He has sent a letter to President Trump requesting that he exempt all positions at the Department of Veterans Affairs from the hiring freeze Executive Order. In a statement forwarded to the Advance, Kaine says “our veterans deserve the best possible care and should not be caught up in Trump’s ridiculous push to target federal workers.”
The new V-A facility is expected to serve about 40,000 veterans in Central Virginia. It will replace three smaller V-A clinics in the Fredericksburg area.
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Remember, we in the City were supposed to get this VA facility. And run the street through the old Race Trac gas location from Rt 3 to Cowan Blvd. Where the building was to begin. We lost it. Why?We have a City Council that only spends on more new schools we can't afford and foolishly charges us for bags at the grocery. Economic Development to pay for all this? There is none. Taxpayers continue to carry the burden. SSDD. And guess what? You can't vote 'em out no matter how hard you try. Because school teachers keep voting them back in. Last time we had a physician who ran. How great is that? He lost.