The U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Robert Wilkie Jr. as the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs could be particularly meaningful for St. Lucie Country
On Monday, workers at the western end of Tradition Parkway were digging water-management ponds and using the dirt to build up other parts of the property. They’re preparing the ground for the long-awaited Ardie R. Copas State Veterans Nursing Home – a $40 million project that many started to doubt would even happen, because of a decision in Washington, D.C.
When opened in about two years, the 121,000-square-foot facility will employ more than 150 and add about $20 million a year to the local economy.
Wayne Teegardin, who manages St. Lucie County’s Veterans Services, is keeping close tabs on the home’s progress and checking in with the project manager for reports. “They said probably around (Sept. 1) they’ll do the foundation work,” Teegardin said.
About 1,000 miles away that day, the U.S. Senate made a decision that can affect how quickly the Copas home is built and opened – it confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the VA.
A previous secretary, Robert McDonald, led the VA into pressing states receiving grants for building veterans nursing homes into using new design standards. At the time Florida had already done a lot of the design work for the Copas home using older standards. The VA said to start over with the new standards. The state cried foul and that started an almost two-year spat between Tallahassee and the VA that painfully delayed the home’s construction.
Not long after Dr. David Shulkin took the helm at the VA last year as the most recent secretary, he quickly signed off on the state using the older design standards it had started with. A little more than a year later there was a ceremonial groundbreaking at Copas.
That’s just one way a VA secretary can affect the community from 1,000 miles away. The VA is the largest healthcare provider in the nation, and it’s going through a legislated shift in how much of that healthcare is delivered. The doors are opening wider for more veterans to use doctors outside the VA.
“According to the latest facts, there’s 24,866 (veterans in St. Lucie) that are receiving benefits,” Teegardin said. “The number is actually higher, because not all veterans are receiving benefits from the VA.”
While the changes are legislated by Congress, Wilkie will have a lot of say in how they’re implemented. Teegardin said what happens at the Veterans Health Administration and the Veterans Benefits Administration shows up on St. Lucie’s streets. Remember those 24,866 St. Lucie veterans receiving benefits? “For 2017, the total federal benefits distributions were ($212.9 million),” Teegardin said. “Medical care was $93 million. Compensations and pensions were almost $107 million.”
Other benefits accounted for about $2 million.
St. Lucie’s Congressman Brian Mast joined the House Veterans Affairs Committee earlier this year. The committee oversees the VA. Mast didn’t vote on the Wilkie nomination because Cabinet confirmation votes are done in the Senate. But Mast counts Wilkie as a personal friend.
“I’ve known Robert Wilkie for a couple years. I know him to be a good man personally,” Mast said in a phone interview a couple of weeks before the Senate confirmation vote. “He’s a hard worker. Very knowledgeable.”