November 8, 2005
Contact: Jeff Schrade (202)224-9093

(Washington, DC) On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs will hold a hearing concerning how much money, time and effort will be required to rebuild VA's assets and resume services for veterans along the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

The Gulfport, Mississippi, VA hospital was completely destroyed, while the VA hospital in New Orleans had to be evacuated due to flooding. Other facilities also incurred damage.

The hearing, to be held Thursday, November 10, will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern and probably run about 2 hours. To accommodate anticipated public interest, the hearing will be held in a larger committee room ? room 138 Dirksen Senate Office Building.  The event will be webcast live on the Veterans' Committee website and available for viewing later at http://veterans.senate.gov. It may also be audiocast ? during the hearing only ? on C-SPAN's hearings website, located at http://www.capitolhearings.org.

Although not members of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Mississippi Senators Trent Lott and Thad Cochran and Louisiana Senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter have been invited to attend.

WITNESS LIST

? The Honorable James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans of Affairs, accompanied by

- The Honorable Jonathan B. Perlin, M.D., Ph.D., VA Under Secretary for Health

- The Honorable Tim S. McClain, VA General Counsel

- Dr. Robert Lynch, M.D., Director, Veterans Integrated Service Network 16.  VISN 16, is the largest VISN within the Veterans Health Administration, as measured by the numbers of veterans treated at its health care facilities (approximately 500,000 over a three-year period); veteran population available (1.7 million in 2001) or budget (1.5 billion in FY 2002). The Network covers 170,000 square miles providing health care to veterans in all of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and parts of Texas, Missouri, Alabama and Florida.

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