...for as long as it takes
'Unprecedented' $1.1 Billion Increase for Veterans Health Care
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The House Budget Committee unveiled a pro-veteran budget Thursday calling for an "unprecedented" increase of $1.1 billion in additional health care funding that will keep veterans' facilities open and maintain needed programs.
The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs had lobbied for an increase ever since the Administration released a VA budget universally rejected as woefully inadequate.
"Considering the spending caps created in the 1997 balanced budget agreement, this is an unprecedented victory for veterans," said Chairman Bob Stump (R-AZ), "It's not as large an increase as we asked for, but if those caps are raised later this year we will certainly push for even more VA funding. This increase certainly gives us something to build on next year."
"I want to commend Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-OH) and the entire House Leadership for recognizing the plight of veterans," Chairman Stump said, "No one disputes the fact that veterans' programs, especially health care, are endangered in the Administration budget. Today's action does more than save those programs. It improves them."
The infusion of $1.1 billion will head off predicted closure of needed VA facilities and end crippling hiring freezes which are delaying veterans' access to care and threatening care quality, Stump said. He added it will enable VA to take needed steps to meet the growing long-term care needs of aging veterans.
Stump said the increase also would better prepare the VA to combat the growing threat of hepatitis C outbreaks among veterans.
"From the beginning, we sought a realistic increase we could justify," Stump said, "It's too bad we couldn't reach the kind of bipartisan compromise that always marked Committee business. Veterans would be better served if the same energy spent criticizing this increase were spent making sure the Administration never sends us such a lousy budget again."
The Administration proposed freezing VA medical care funding in its budget. At the same time, the Administration claimed VA could meet hundreds of millions of dollars in uncontrollable cost increases and take on major new initiatives through unspecified "management efficiencies and savings." VA officials conceded in Committee hearings that the projected $1.4 billion in management savings were illusory, and could only be realized by closing facilities and shutting programs veterans still need.
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