Sent in by Veterans News and Information Services
Washington, D.C. -- Funding for the Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) will reach $44 billion in the fiscal year 2000 budget
submitted to Congress today.
"As we plan for a new century, it is critical that our commitment to
keeping America's promise by providing quality care and
exceptional service to our nation's veterans remains unchanged,"
said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo D. West, Jr. "The
Administration's budget proposal for veterans reflects that
commitment."
VA's fiscal year 2000 budget, a $200 million increase over last
year, will provide budget authority of $43.6 billion and outlays of
$44 billion for the department. It includes funding for benefits and
services for the country's more than 25 million veterans and 44
million family members.
Among the budget highlights this year are funding for:
Vigorous testing and treatment of hepatitis C patients;
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2000 Budget -- Page 2
The budget contains $18.1 billion for medical care (includes $749
million in medical collections). To continue improvements in the
delivery of and access to outpatient care, VA will open 89 new
outpatient clinics and treat about 54,000 more patients in fiscal year
2000 than in 1999, a 1.5 percent increase. The budget proposes
additional funding to assist homeless veterans ($40 million in
medical care and $10 million in transitional housing loans), and
includes $136 million over the fiscal year 1999 level of $114 million
to combat hepatitis C in all veterans who are tested positive and
choose to receive treatment.
VA also seeks $106 million to fund alternative long-term care
programs such as home care. The Medicare subvention
demonstration program will again be sought by the Administration
in 1999 to test the feasibility of VA collecting Medicare payments
for VA care provided to Medicare-eligible, higher-income veterans
without service-connected disabilities. The budget also includes a
legislative proposal for provision of out-of-network emergency care
for service-connected veterans enrolled in the system.
The budget provides $860 million -- $49 million over the 1999
enacted level -- to further ensure the timely delivery of
compensation, housing, education, pension and insurance benefits to
veterans. An additional 440 full-time employees will be added to
process disability claims efficiently.
The budget requests $97 million -- $5 million above the 1999
enacted level -- to operate the National Cemetery Administration.
This increase provides the funding to further the development of
the system that has been underway for a few years.
New budget authority of $296 million is requested for VA's
construction programs. The budget request provides funding for
major construction projects, resources for minor construction, and
grants for state veterans' nursing homes and cemeteries.
In addition, the budget proposes to authorize the establishment of a
new five-year pilot that would allow VA to sell, transfer, or
exchange its excess properties, retain 90 percent of the proceeds,
and reinvest those proceeds into non-recurring capital needs to
benefit veterans.
The proposed budget will permit the department to continue the
shift from hospital inpatient care to outpatient and noninstitutional
care settings, enabling the department to provide better and more
accessible health care to a greater number of veterans.
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2000 Budget -- page 3
Medical Programs
A total of $17.3 billion is requested to provide quality medical care
to 3.6 million unique patients, an increase of 53,500 patients over
last year. In addition, VA is requesting authority for the expenditure
of $749 million in third-party insurance collections and copayments,
for a total medical care budget of $18.1 billion.
Using two nationally recognized clinical guidelines, health care for
the veterans VA treats will continue to improve to levels of quality
that exceed national standards.
The medical care budget includes resources to:
Support more than 673,000 inpatient episodes and 40 million
outpatient visits.
Benefit Programs
The budget requests $21.6 billion to provide compensation and
pension benefits to veterans and their survivors. Nearly 2.3 million
veterans and 300,000 survivors will receive compensation benefits
in fiscal year 2000. Pension benefits will be provided to more than
380,000 veterans and 268,000 survivors.
The Administration proposes to provide a cost-of-living adjustment
(COLA), based on the Consumer Price Index, to all compensation
beneficiaries including Dependency and Indemnity Compensation
(DIC) for spouses and children. It is currently estimated at 2.4
percent. This is the same as the COLA that will be provided, under
current law, to veterans pension and Social Security recipients. The
increase would be effective Dec. 1, 1999, and would cost an
estimated $293 million during fiscal year 2000.
With the additional staff dedicated to claims processing, VA is
projecting an improvement in timeliness.
National Cemetery Administration
The Administration proposes a budget of $97 million and 1,406
employees for the National Cemetery Administration, an increase
of $5 million over the 1999 level.
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2000 Budget -- Page 4
The increase includes an additional $770,000 for more employees
and equipment to address the projected fiscal year 2000 growth in
the number of interments to be performed at existing cemeteries.
Additional funding and personnel are requested to continue the
activation of the new national cemetery in Ohio and for the first full
year of operations at three new national cemeteries in New York,
Illinois and Texas. These new cemeteries will increase to 77
percent the number of veterans served with reasonable access to a
veterans cemetery.
Construction Programs
New budget authority totaling $60 million is requested for VA's
major construction program, which includes funding for a clinical
improvement project at Kansas City, Mo., a spinal cord injury and
rehabilitation project at Tampa, Fla., a patient environment project
at Murfreesboro, Tenn., and a gravesite development project at
Leavenworth, Kan. Also, construction funds are provided to
remove asbestos from VA-owned buildings and to support planning
and design activities.
In addition, new budget authority totaling $175 million is requested
for the minor construction program to make improvements to
ambulatory care settings, patient
environment and VA's aging infrastructure. New budget authority
of $11 million is
requested for grants for state veterans cemeteries and $40 million
for grants for the state extended care programs.
An additional $105 million for long-term care initiatives;
Expanded emergency care benefits for service-disabled
veterans enrolled in the VA health-care system;
An additional 440 full-time employees for adjudication of
disability claims;
Opening a new national cemetery and fully activating three
others;
An additional $50 million for homelessness activities (includes
$10 million for new transitional housing loan subsidies); and
prosthetics research.
Fund $250 million for testing and for treatment of hepatitis
C.
Fund $316 million for medical and prosthetic research
projects.
Fund $56 million to contract nationwide smoking cessation
programs for honorably discharged veterans who began
smoking in the military.
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