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Delegation Wants Hot Springs VA Proposal Out Of Obama Budget

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota’s congressional delegation is urging Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald to withdraw plans to reconfigure the VA Black Hills Health Care System from President Barack Obama’s budget proposal.

Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds and Rep. Kristi Noem say the administration’s budget request proposes measures to close the Hot Springs VA facility. They say that’s despite previous assurances that the VA wouldn’t act before thoroughly studying the matter.

The VA has served veterans in Hot Springs for more than a century but now wants to move some services to Rapid City. The Hot Springs VA hospital is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but could be shuttered. An opposition group called Save the VA is fighting that.