In his latest move to shift critical dollars to healthcare programs for the nation’s war veterans, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins on Wednesday yanked a Biden administration plan to use $77 million on 140 solar electric vehicle charging stations.
Instead, Collins said the construction funds will go to projects to fight cancer and provide physical therapy to veterans.
Under one of the many Green New Deal schemes pushed by former President Joe Biden, the General Services Administration and Veterans Affairs in 2022 announced plans to put 140 EV charging stations at 34 locations to prepare for the shift to a fleet of electric vehicles.
“In fiscal year 2023, the Biden White House forced VA to divert $77 million from its construction and technology budget to build solar powered electric vehicle charging stations at VA facilities. The Democrat-controlled Congress approved this funding diversion, but the Biden administration never spent any of the money, and not a single charging station was built,” said VA on Wednesday.
Biden’s costly infrastructure plan included $7.5 billion for 500,000 charging stations by 2030, but few were ever installed.
“In Joe Biden’s VA, the department was distracted by woke social-justice programs and green-energy boondoggles, but those days are long gone,” said Collins in a statement shared with Washington Secrets.
“VA exists to serve veterans, and we’re making sure all of our resources go toward that noble purpose,” he added.
Collins, in recent months, has touted plans to shift more spending into healthcare for veterans, and the department listed a handful of those set to get some of the unspent $77 million. Those include:
— $10 million will be redirected to upgrading the VA’s Friendship House compensated work therapy residence in Oklahoma City.
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— $21.3 million will be used to expand and renovate the MRI ward at the Providence, Rhode Island, VA Medical Center.
— $13.8 million to upgrade the radiation oncology unit at the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VAMC in Jackson, Mississippi.
The department said that the 42-day government shutdown allowed it to shift the $77 million back to its construction and technology budget. “Collins exercised that authority Nov. 6, after deciding the money would be better spent on critical health care construction projects,” said the department.