New VA clinic near Fort Hood aims to ease veteran care access

Veterans in Copperas Cove and Killeen who now travel to Temple, Waco or Austin for specialty care could soon have a VA outpatient clinic just five miles from Fort Hood, with federal leaders promising shorter drives, better appointment access and more care closer to home.

Congressman John Carter joined Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn on Feb. 16, 2026, to unveil the project, which is aimed at thousands of veterans across Central Texas. Carter said the clinic is expected to create more than 500 jobs, making it both a health care expansion and a local economic boost for the Fort Cavazos region.

The plan has been in motion for years. A Dec. 10, 2024 VA scoping notice proposed an outpatient clinic in the Killeen service area and identified possible sites at Robert Griffin Blvd. and Constitution Dr. in Copperas Cove or Anthem Blvd. and West FM 2410 in Killeen. The final environmental assessment, completed in December 2025, said the clinic would be built by a private entity for the VA to lease and operate.

That assessment says the building would be about 265,000 square feet, with roughly 1,350 parking spaces and a lease term of up to 20 years. It is designed to expand primary care, mental health care, specialty care and other outpatient services, while reducing trips to specialty-care facilities in Temple, Waco and Austin. The VA also says the new clinic would help relieve workload at the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center in Temple, where demand has outgrown what the current system can comfortably absorb.

For Coryell County and the surrounding military corridor, the issue is not abstract. The Central Texas Veterans Health Care System serves more than 252,000 veterans in 39 counties across about 35,000 square miles and 11 congressional districts. In 2020 alone, it treated 108,659 veterans and logged about 1.2 million outpatient visits. VA location listings still show clinics at 336 Town Square in Copperas Cove and 1001 East Veterans Memorial Blvd. in Killeen, but the new outpatient clinic is meant to add capacity for a region where many residents served at Fort Cavazos and stayed in Central Texas after leaving the Army.

The broader pressure is only expected to grow. The VA says Texas is projected to have more veterans than any other state by 2030, with that growth continuing into 2040. For veterans near Copperas Cove, Killeen and Fort Hood, the clinic is being positioned as a practical fix: less time on the road, more local access to outpatient care, and a stronger safety net for military families who have long had to leave the area for services that should be closer to home.