U.S. Rep. Shreve confident of replacement funding for Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An Indiana congressman who was just named to a key budget committee told News 8 he expects Congress will fund a replacement for the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medica l Center as requested. The comments from U.S. Rep. Jefferson Shreve, a Republican whose district includes southern Marion County, follow a hearing on military construction funding earlier this week. Shreve was named to the House Appropriations Committee on Monday. That committee plays a critical role in the federal budget process. In an interview with News 8 for Sunday’s “All INdiana Politics,” he said he believes Congress is making good headway toward funding a replacement. President Donald Trump’s proposed 2027 budget includes $1.98 billion to replace the hospital. Shreve said the hearing did not address the broader concept of a Roudebush replacement but it did get into the funding side. “I would characterize my view of the likelihood of a replacement for the Roudebush facility as optimistic and more so than I think our citizens, your viewers, might have been able to hold a year or two ago,” he said. Shreve served on the House Foreign Relations Committee until his appointment to the Appropriations Committee. He said so far, there are no plans to vote on any new authorizations for military operations against Iran, nor has the Trump administration made any supplemental budget request to fund the war effort. Shreve is also sponsoring a bill to speed up the application process for mining operations that involve critical minerals, such as aluminum, lithium and magnesium. He said the United States relies too heavily on adversary countries for those minerals, particularly China. He said he believes the current system moves too slowly and he doubts speeding up the approval process poses serious environmental risk. “We’ve got to compete and we’ve got to have access to those resources, and China is thoughtless in the way they go about extracting theirs from their part of our Earth,” he said. “All INdiana Politics” airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on WISH-TV. ...read more read less