Schumer: I'll go to White House to keep VA open

Sen. Chuck Schumer on Monday vowed to take the fight against cuts at the Northport VA Hospital all the way to the White House and stress to President Joe Biden that Long Island’s geography and large veteran population make the services offered there essential.

A report released by the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this month proposed shuttering the hospital’s emergency room, shifting medical and surgical services to local hospitals and transitioning its residential rehabilitation program to Southeast Queens.

VA officials have said that any changes to veterans’ health care are years away and that potential modifications are dependent on approval from Congress and the president.

Schumer, flanked by Long Island elected officials and dozens of veterans, held a news conference outside the hospital on Monday outlining what he will do to fight the proposed cuts.

“I don't want to close veterans’ hospitals anywhere,” Schumer told Newsday shortly after the news conference. “But Long Island has a huge number of veterans, and we have only one hospital.”

The proposal, outlined in an 82-page report on the Northeast by the VA's Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission, would eliminate most of the care currently provided at the Northport VA Medical Center campus, Long Island's only hospital dedicated to serving the approximately 100,000 veterans living in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Schumer’s plan calls for circulating a petition among local VFW members and supporters that he would deliver directly to VA officials. He will ask the review commission members to meet with Long Island veterans and he also plans to submit testimony from local hospitals regarding the demand for service on Long Island.

If that fails, the Senate majority leader says he will appeal directly to the president.

The nationwide hospital review was mandated by the 2018 Mission Act.

Under the law, the nine-member Asset and Infrastructure Review Committee — appointed by the president and awaiting Senate approval — will conduct public hearings and make recommendations to the White House. President Biden then can either approve the recommendations and send them to Congress or reject them.

Congress would then have to accept all the recommendations or none of them.

The VA would have to start acting on those recommendations by March 2026, according to information provided by Schumer’s office. The timeline could be extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“AIR recommendations could impact VHA facilities and staff, but it’s too early to know exactly what or where those impacts might be,” VA spokesman Terrence Hayes said in a statement last week. The agency did not release new information on Monday.

Veterans at the news conference, some in walkers and motorized scooters, said a drive to Queens would be burdensome for Suffolk County residents and civilian hospitals sometimes do not understand veteran issues like a VA hospital can.

Sabrina Lacy, VFW District 1 chaplain and a Central Islip resident, said she received treatment for PTSD at the Northport facility and said it “held me together since 1992.”

“To be honest with you, I wouldn’t be here,” if not for the care offered in Northport, she said.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.