A vote to keep Walter Reed open

The House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a measure that barred the closure of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, an action that supporters said would reverse plans to shut the hospital in 2011.

Walter Reed was selected in 2005 to be closed by the Department of Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The recommendation, which Congress approved and President Bush signed into law, calls for the Army hospital to be consolidated with the National Naval Medical Center.

Removing a base that has been chosen for closure would be unprecedented. But revelations about problems with the long-term care of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed have sparked calls in Congress and elsewhere to reverse the decision.