Amputee Center Being Built at Walter Reed By BRETT ZONGKER, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jan 17, 1:58 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Construction is expected to begin this spring on a state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility for amputee soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center even though the venerable military hospital is scheduled to close in five years.
The $10 million Military Amputee Training Center — originally expected to open last month — was caught in limbo during the Pentagon's base closing process. Ground was broken in 2004, but construction had not yet begun last May when the Army ordered a hold on all projects that could be affected by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission
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"Only the Defense Department could really have done this," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., who argued for months that the long-needed amputee center was a good reason to keep Walter Reed open. "This kind of cosmic change would stop any other agency from moving forward."
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"Congress is not going to appropriate money when it already has a working hospital," she said, adding that the expanded amputee center is needed now. "We are simply talking about the need to accommodate many more seriously wounded Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers than anybody contemplated."
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060117/ap_on_he_me/amputee_soldiers