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Senators vow to add money for vet care

Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they would add money to the $100 billion wartime supplemental funding bill in about two weeks to improve health care for military combat veterans.

While not yet prepared to talk about how much money could be needed, Senate leaders set three general goals: improving facilities that are overdue for repair, improving diagnosis and treatment of brain injuries and mental health problems, and improving the transition between the military and veterans’ health care systems.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said details of the legislation and how much money might be needed will be determined after a series of hearings that will look at military and veterans’ programs. He talked only of putting in money “to right this ship.”

In the House of Representatives, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, is pushing for a $5 billion addition to the wartime spending bill specifically for veterans programs. This would include $3 billion to diagnose and treat post-traumatic stress disorder, $1 billion to diagnose and treat traumatic brain injuries, $500 million to reduce the backlog of benefits claims and $500 million for GI Bill education benefits improvements.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, chairman of the House military construction and veterans’ affairs appropriations subcommittee, also is working on a plan to add money to the supplemental. Edwards’ seat on the appropriations committee puts him in position to get money added early in the process.

The Democratic effort in the Senate involves looking at more than one-time costs but also at long-range expenses. One of the issues Democrats have with the Bush administration is problems in estimating the number of wounded veterans needing treatment, something Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee member, said would be addressed in hearings.

The House Appropriations Committee had planned to debate and pass the wartime supplemental spending bill Wednesday, but the schedule is now unclear because Democratic leaders have drafted language that could put some restrictions on funding that might speed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The Senate will take up the supplemental in about three weeks, Reid said.