From Senator Nelson's Office:

Today, Nebraska's Senator Ben Nelson's spokesman Jake Thompson released this statement in response to an article in The Washington Times headlined "Health-vote ally Nelson to get new VA hospital for Nebraska."

"Here we go again, another partisan lie cooked up in a desperate attempt to derail health reform," Thompson said. "Last time, they fabricated the idea that, first, Senate leaders, then the White House, was going to close Offutt Air Force Base in the next round of military base closings if Senator Nelson didn't support health reform. Jeopardize national security to get a vote? That's laughable. Now they have a new fact-free insinuation equally as far-fetched as it is false."

"Here are the facts: addressing the substantial problems with the Omaha VA hospital has been a project in the works for several years, has received bipartisan congressional support, has received broad community backing and is based on the needs study conducted by the VA and released last summer. The VA's own study found numerous functional deficiencies - among them a deteriorating building, space shortages in 42 of 52 departments and a heating and cooling system rated C or D in 81% of the hospital. The study outlined five separate options, including largely new construction estimated to cost $550 million."

"In his many discussions with House and Senate colleagues and administration officials over the last year about health care reform, Senator Nelson never discussed the Omaha VA hospital. Period. If those who want to derail health care reform want to attack funding for the VA hospital, they should do so based on merit, not politics."

Also today, The Omaha World-Herald, which had been examining the Omaha VA hospital project in recent weeks, published a story on the issue headlined: "Hospital predates Nelson vote."

The article states that, "VA officials were signaling a new hospital was likely to be funded months before the critical health care votes in the Senate."

The article presented a chronology of efforts by Nelson, and Rep. Lee Terry and Sen. Mike Johanns, both Nebraska Republicans, and VA officials to address conditions at the hospital, and details of the consultant's findings.