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DEMOCRATIC PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday January 30, 2007

NEWS FROM....CONGRESSMAN BOB FILNER

CHAIRMAN
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Room 335 Cannon HOB For more information contact:
Washington, DC 20515 Geoffrey Collver @ 202/225-9756

FY 2007 Funding Bill Keeps Faith with Veterans -- $3.6 Billion More!

Washington, D.C. - The bill that funds the government, including the Department of Veterans Affairs for the remainder of the fiscal year, provides $32.3 billion for veterans' health care, an increase of $3.6 billion over FY 2006 levels. The funding measure was made necessary by the inability of the Republican Congress to pass a veterans' funding bill last year.

"I am grateful that Chairman Obey, Chairman Edwards, and the Democratic Leadership listened to my pleas, and the pleas of veterans, to provide the funding that veterans' needed. I especially appreciate them doing all they could for veterans in the tight fiscal climate we now face. I think it shows that where veterans are concerned Democrats will do the job."

VA has been forced to operate at prior year funding levels since the new fiscal year started on October 1, 2006.

The Bush Administration is scheduled to release its FY 2008 budget on February 5, 2007, and the Committee on Veterans' Affairs will hold a hearing on that budget submission on February 8, 2007.

"As we are celebrating finally getting adequate VA funding in place for this year, we will now turn our attention to the Bush Administration's budget request for the coming year. I am deeply concerned that this Administration will fail to request the budget levels it needs to provide timely, quality health care to veterans and to improve the intolerable delays and backlogs faced by veterans seeking benefits they have earned."

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Larry Scott

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