In the News

KUSA - Several members of Congress agreed at a hearing on Capitol Hill that the Department of Veterans Affairs should be stripped of its power to construct hospitals, as the VA tries explain how building the new Aurora facility became a financial fiasco. "Mismanagement, cost overruns and delays are the norm of VA's construction program," Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colorado) said at a House Veterans Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing Thursday. Coffman, who is the subcommittee ch... Read more

About 190,000 Coloradans will lose access next year to health insurance plans which don't comply with the Affordable Care Act, the Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI) decided. In March of 2014, President Barack Obama decided to give states the option of allowing people on noncompliant health plans to be grandfathered in by renewing their old plans early, while problems with insurance exchanges were ironed out. Colorado insurance commissioner Marguerite Salazar opted to do that for 2015, but to... Read more

Nearly 200,000 insured Coloradans will lose their health-care plans next year under the state’s embattled Obamacare exchange, Connect for Health Colorado. State insurance commissioner Marguerite Salazar touched off an outcry Friday by confirming to news outlets that health-care policies covering 190,000 people will be dropped in 2016 because they fail to comply with the Affordable Care Act. Colorado Senate Majority Leader Bill Cadman called the action “a huge blow to another 190,000 Coloradans ... Read more

Estimated costs for the new VA hospital in Aurora are going up again. Early estimates show the project could cost taxpayers $1.3 billion, but that price tag could go even higher according to several sources. Congressional leaders were first told the cost would only be $600 million for the 184-bed facility near I-225 and East Colfax Avenue which has been plagued with numerous problems. In 2013 there were delays because of design changes, cost overruns and a heated dispute between the VA and the ... Read more

A bill that would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to permanently manage construction of the Aurora Veterans Affairs hospital and raise the hospital’s $800 million spending cap to $1.1 billion is scheduled to be heard by the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations March 19. “I am furious that the VA’s incompetence has led us down this path,” said Aurora Congressman Mike Coffman, who proposed the bill in January. The bill follows on the heels of members of Congress w... Read more

Reallocation of $43 million will stave off a potential shutdown of the Veterans Affairs Hospital construction project in Aurora this month, but will not bring it to completion. The VA says it is reprogramming, which means transferring, $43,295,000 within its Major Construction account to keep the construction project going beyond the end of March. Wednesday, members of Congress said the work on the 184-bed hospital was in danger of a second shutdown because of cost overruns. "Months after the b... Read more

Congressman Mike Coffman and Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan are scheduled to be among the well-wishers who will send a 16-person student contingent from the Community College of Aurora to the National Model United Nations Conference at a send-off ceremony March 12 at the CentreTech Student Rotunda. CCA will be one of just three community colleges participating among 400 universities from across the globe, who will wrestle with some of the toughest issues facing the world today during the March 21-27 ... Read more

On January 25, Lindsay Lowery posted a picture of herself on Facebook. The photo showed her in an Army uniform, carrying a rifle, in front of a Humvee. Below the photo she wrote about her experience leading an all-male infantry unit during her deployment in Iraq. The response was fast and furious: FAKE! Posts and personal messages to Lowery asked how she could have been in an infantry unit, which in the United States military is traditionally all male. “You can do one of two things. Prove that ... Read more

The House voted Monday to allow the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to take away performance bonuses from officials who are later discovered to be undeserving of those cash awards, and did so in a unanimous voice vote. The vote showed that both Republicans and Democrats continue to be worried about ongoing managerial problems at the VA, nearly a year after the VA was shown to be systematically failing to provide veterans with timely health care. That scandal unveiled a broken VA in which senior o... Read more

Ahead of the now controversial speech Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver to a joint session of Congress on March 3, the Intermountain Jewish News asked Colorado’s representatives and senators in Washington, DC if they plan to attend. ATTENDING: Sen. Michael Bennet (D) Sen. Cory Gardner (R): The junior senator also co-sponsored a resolution welcoming Benjamin Netanyahu to Congress. Rep. Jared Polis (D-2nd District) Rep. Scott Tipton (R-3rd District) Rep. Ken Buck (R-4th Distr... Read more