Sen. Kaine visits Fort Belvoir to discuss budget cuts, sequester

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, traveled to Fort Belvoir on Monday to visit the hospital, participate in a roundtable with wounded warriors, and tour the base.

“The Fort Belvoir Community Hospital is a great example of the care our returning warriors deserve,” said Kaine. “I was honored to meet with wounded warriors and members of their families today to discuss their concerns and to ask for their advice as I take on this new role. These servicemen and women deserve nothing less than our complete support and I look forward to working with them to improve services that will ease their transition home.”

The Fort Belvoir Community Hospital opened in the fall of 2011 and serves more than 1,350 patients each day. The hospital is one of only two joint military hospitals in the country and is the largest LEED Gold certified medical facility in the world.

During his visit, Kaine spoke with members of the military about budget uncertainty, including looming sequester cuts and a quickly expiring continuing resolution, and its potential impact on the base. Fort Belvoir supports more than 143,251 military and civilian personnel and more than 140 partner organizations.

“I continue to hear from members of the military, their families, defense contractors, and other civilian employees, that looming sequester cuts and budget uncertainty harm their ability to plan and do their jobs effectively,” said Kaine. “The only way to make strategic decisions about our military and national defense is through an orderly budget process. I will continue to advocate alternatives to sequester cuts instead of one-off gimmicks that are bad for national security, bad for our budget and bad for essential priorities like education and health care.”

As part of his ongoing listening tour throughout the state, Kaine has met with defense contractors and federal employees to discuss the impacts of the March 1 sequestration cuts. Throughout these discussions, Kaine has advocated a realignment of fiscal deadlines to allow an orderly budget process to take effect.