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THE FISCAL YEAR 2008 VA BUDGET -- Who's saying what

and a closer look at the numbers.

 

 

The 2008 budget proposal is out from the White House.

There are not many happy campers.

Let's take a closer look at the VA portion of this budget.

First, here is a link to the 2008 VA budget...
http://www.va.gov/budget/summary/index.htm

Every year, the Independent Budget VSOs put out their idea of the VA budget.  You can find their budget here...
http://es3.pva.org/independentbudget/index.htm

Now that you've read all of that :-) , here's what people are saying.

First is a news article...then reaction from both sides of the House and Senate Vets' Committees.  You can pick your favorite.  As you will see, their is a partisan divide here...Democrats think the budget is too small...and Republicans think it's fine.

New story here... http://washdateline.mgnetwork.com/index.cfm
?SiteID=wsh&PackageID=46&fuseaction
=article.main&ArticleID=9370&GroupID=213

News story below:

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Veterans, Congress say VA budget needs more money

By JAMES W. CRAWLEY
Media General News Service

WASHINGTON - The good news for veterans is President Bush wants to spend more next year on veterans than ever before.

The bad news, say veterans groups and many in Congress, is it's not enough during wartime.

Also, the president is trying to revive proposals that Congress rejected previously to boost prescription drug costs and to require some veterans to begin paying enrollment fees for VA medical care.

At $87 billion for fiscal 2008, the Bush budget request for the Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest in history and 77 percent higher than 2001. About $45 billion would go to mandatory benefits and pensions, the rest for healthcare, construction and other programs.

Health care, cemeteries, education benefits and construction would receive an 8 percent increase in discretionary spending.

VA Secretary James Nicholson called it a "landmark budget" when he testified before Congress last week. On Tuesday, Nicholson lobbied the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on the spending plan.

But any optimism the VA budget would pass muster was quickly dispelled.

Proposals to boost prescription drug co-payments for some veterans from $8 to $15 for a 30-day supply of medicine and charge medical enrollment fees, up to $750 annually, for wealthier veterans without service-connected disabilities met stiff opposition.

"I think it's dead on arrival," declared House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif.

While noting that the budget calls for a spending increase for medical care, Filner said, "I strongly believe that more resources are needed to properly fund the VA."

He and veterans groups want more money for mental health services, assistance to military personnel leaving the armed forces and research.

"It's a really good step in the right direction, but there are some shortfalls," said Dennis Cullinan, Veterans of Foreign Wars' legislative director. "It continues to fall behind veterans' needs."

Four veterans organizations -- the VFW, AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans and the Paralyzed Veterans of America -- produce an annual "Independent Budget" for the VA.

As in past years, the organizations' substitute budget is higher than the White House version -- for 2008 by $3.7 billion.

Under that plan, health care would get an extra $2 billion and another billion dollars would go for new hospitals and clinics. Cemeteries, benefits processing and other accounts also would be boosted.

With an aging veteran population from the Vietnam War, along with new veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, the VA has seen a ballooning backlog in benefits claims. Last year, the VA received more than 806,000 claims. The Bush budget seeks to add 457 more claims personnel in hopes of lowering the average processing time from 177 days to 145.

House VA committee member Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said, "They are addressing the (claims) backlog."

"It may not be enough, but it's a start," he said.

James W. Crawley is a national correspondent in Media General's Washington Bureau. E-mail Crawley at jcrawley@mediageneral.com

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Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, doesn't like it.

Filner's comments here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/hcva07/hcva021507-2.htm

Comments below:

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DEMOCRATIC PRESS RELEASE

February 15, 2007

Contact: Kristal DeKleer
202/225-9756

 

Statement from the Chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee Bob Filner (D-CA) regarding the President's proposed budget for FY 2008:

 

"We have inherited many years of neglect in funding the needs of our country's veterans.  The magnitude cannot be corrected overnight but we must begin to address the serious shortfalls that exist. 

"We have recommended to the House Committee on Budget that improving health care for veterans must be a priority.  We must fully fund the health care needs.  Mental health and post-traumatic stress disorders are serious problems facing our returning service members and are an ongoing issue facing veterans from our previous conflicts.  I reject the fees proposed by the Administration, which are nothing more than a tax on our veterans.

 "If we can pay for the war, we must be prepared to pay for the warriors.  Caring for our veterans is a cost of war and a continuing cost of our national defense."

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Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), Ranking Minority Member on the House Vets' Committee, thinks it's a strong budget.

Buyer's comments here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/hcva07/hcva020807-1.htm

Comments below:

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REPUBLICAN PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Buyer says strong veterans’ budget reflects VA secretary’s leadership



Washington D.C. — Praising the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) for his leadership in getting America’s veterans a strong fiscal year 2008 budget proposal, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Ranking Member Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), heard testimony today from VA and veterans groups on the president’s annual budget request. The $86.75 billion budget, which drew acclaim but also some concern, is an increase of about 8 percent over the request for FY 2007, the largest amount ever requested by VA.

“I commend you for yet again embracing the challenge of improving VA’s budgeting process,” Buyer said. “Building on last year’s progress, improving the integrity of the process has borne fruit with this budget.”

“There are significant changes and challenges facing our veterans as they return from the war on terror. This budget will allow them to receive the care they need and lead full lives,” Buyer said, noting that much of the federal government received a 2.2 percent increase in the president’s request, due to the need to reduce the national debt.

Buyer commended Nicholson’s decision to embrace the idea of centralizing its information technology under VA’s chief information officer. “This innovation will be seen as part of your legacy to the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

The committee also heard testimony from representatives of the Independent Budget, the American Legion and Vietnam Veterans of America, although in contrast to proceedings last year, the majority of veterans groups will not be permitted to testify until after the budget has been developed.

“This input is important, but these groups here do not represent all veterans. We’ll get other input later, when veterans are in town for their conventions, but that will be after the budget is done,” Buyer said, expressing disappointment that in calling for “joint” hearings in the spring, some veterans’ service organizations (VSOs) have chosen “theater” over substance. “I set up a process to let veterans into the budget process and now they are being relegated to the back bench, silenced.”

Buyer, noting that no military service organizations (MSOs) have been asked to share their budgetary views, has asked Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-Calif.) to convene a meeting of VSOs and MSOs to hear their views before the budget is written.

The administration’s budget request includes $36.6 billion for veterans’ medical care, including $740 million for medical facilities construction. These facilities will include new hospitals – some authorized last year – in Las Vegas, Nev., Denver, Colo., and Orlando, Fla., a spinal cord injury center for Syracuse, N.Y., and an outpatient clinic in Lee County, Fla. This year’s major and minor medical construction request is more than a 60 percent increase over the FY 2007 request.

“The building of these facilities is long overdue and I am pleased to see that the funding for these projects is included in this request,” Buyer said.

The budget also includes record funding of $44.7 billion for the veterans benefit administration. The funds will in part hire an additional 457 claims adjudicators. Buyer expects VA to explore innovative ways to reduce an unacceptably large backlog of claims beyond hiring more compensation and pension claims employees, which require two to three years of training.

“Simply throwing money at the problem is not the answer,” Buyer said. “Every one of these claims is not just a number but a veteran and their family who deserve the compensation that is owed to them. I am troubled by what I would characterize as an insufficient use of technology, and instead, the status quo – throwing more people at the problem.”

Discussing the Montgomery GI Bill for veterans returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom with VSO leaders, Buyer reviewed accomplishments made during the last Congress.

“You asked for improvements to the GI Bill,” Buyer said. “In the last Congress we made [GI Bill] chapter 35 more flexible for spouses and dependents, we restored the entitlements for National Guard and Reserve called to active duty during the school year, we extended work study provisions to ensure a vet didn’t lose a job during the school year, and we required VA to report ways to streamline administration of the GI Bill to shorten the time to get that first check.”

Buyer praised VA’s agreement with the U.S. Olympic Committee that permits participants in VA’s National Wheelchair Games and National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic to qualify for the U.S. Paralympics.

“You are tapping into hope,” Buyer said to Nicholson. “You are giving great hope to a lot of veterans, helping them aspire to levels in those sports they never dreamed would be possible.”

Buyer concluded, saying, “There is more to be done to ensure access to quality care and prompt delivery of benefits to all who have earned them, and I look forward to working with other members of the committee on these issues.”

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Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, doesn't like this VA budget.

Akaka's comments here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/scva07/scva020607-1.htm

Comments below:

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DEMOCRATIC PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

AKAKA DISAPPOINTED WITH PRESIDENT’S BUDGET



WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka expressed serious concern about the Budget for Fiscal Year 2008, proposed today by President George W. Bush. Akaka said the budget shortchanges veterans, retirees, students, middle class families and the environment.

“While these spending cuts are supposedly there to fight the huge deficit built during the first six years of this Bush administration, in reality this new budget does little to rein-in the uncontrolled spending that is threatening our nation’s security,” Akaka said. Many of the perceived savings in the budget amount to nothing more than creative accounting, Akaka noted, and the budget still fails to account for the full costs of the war in Iraq.

Hawaii’s 117,000 Veterans Could Be Hurt By VA Funding Shortfalls:

The budget requests approximately $34.2 billion for veterans health care, a mere 6 percent increase over the 2007 funding level of $32.3 billion in the Joint Funding Resolution expected to pass the Senate. Once inflationary costs are subtracted from the Administration’s budget, the real increase is far from adequate. This budget will not allow for any new initiatives, including enhancements to mental health services desperately needed for our returning servicemembers. Without adequate funding, the VA health care system will find it more difficult to provide quality care for Hawaii’s 117,000 veterans and troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senator Akaka said today he’s especially concerned about out-of-pocket expenses veterans would be forced to pay under the Administration’s new budget proposal. “The doubling of drug copayments for veterans – who make as little as $28,000 a year – seems particularly cruel. Take the example of a veteran living on Oahu, where the cost of living is so high, who takes seven different prescriptions each month: his out of pocket cost goes up by $600 a year.

“Why are we asking veterans to suffer in order to finance a war? This Administration consistently fails to consider the cost of caring for veterans as part of the cost of war,” Akaka said.

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Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), Ranking Minority Member on the Senate Vet's Committee is in love with this budget.

Craig's comments here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/scva07/scva020507-1.htm

Comments below:

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REPUBLICAN PRESS RELEASE

Monday, February 5, 2007

ANOTHER STRONG VA BUDGET GETS SEN. CRAIG’S PRAISE

“This budget sends a clear message to the troops,” Craig says

Media contact: Jeff Schrade (202)224-9093



(Washington, DC) U.S. Senator Larry Craig said today that VA’s 2008 budget is another strong proposal by President Bush to care for our nation’s veterans. The President’s new funding recommendation requests $86.7 billion dollars for fiscal year 2008 – an estimated 8 percent increase over this year’s anticipated budget.

"While I’m anxious to delve deeper into the details behind the request, it’s clear that this President and this Congress continue to make veterans a top priority. If we approve this budget, spending on veterans’ programs will have increased approximately 77 percent since President Bush took office. Those are stunning spending increases by any measure," said Craig, the top Republican on the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

"This budget sends a clear message to the troops that we support them and we will be here to take care of them when they return."

Among the military services, the President has proposed increasing spending an average of 11.3 percent – Army would get 20 percent increase over this year, to $130.1 billion; Air Force would get an 8 percent increase, to $136.6 billion; Navy's budget would rise by 9 percent, to $119.3 billion; and the Marine Corps would rise 4.3 percent, to $20.5 billion.

In making the budget announcement, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson also announced that he plans to create a special Advisory Committee composed of veterans from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The panel will also include spouses and parents who will report directly to the Secretary on issues impacting young veterans and their families.

"The Secretary already spends countless hours with veterans of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. I’m pleased to see that he has decided to formalize a role in VA’s hierarchy for these American heroes," Craig said.

In addition to providing renewed focus on young veterans, VA experts project the agency will be able to cut the claims processing time by 18 percent. Furthermore, Secretary Nicholson announced a change in policy advocated by Senator Craig to give priority treatment to all disability claims filed by veterans who are returning home from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Returning combat veterans are the nation’s number one priority. Delays and backlogs should not enter into our vocabulary when discussing their claims for disability compensation," Craig said.

The FY ’08 budget proposal calls for $42 billion in discretionary funding -- mostly for health care -- which is the largest amount ever requested by a President for VA. It also would provide $45 billion in mandatory funding, mostly for compensation, pension, educational assistance, home loan guaranties and other benefit programs.

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Larry Scott  --