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Congress still eyes Veterans Day for VA budget

Congressional leaders who promised they would pass a Department of Veterans Affairs funding bill by Veterans Day are now trying to figure out how to keep their word.

One thing they won’t do is lump the VA and defense budgets into a $664.3 billion package that also would include funding for the Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments. The bundled bill had been viewed as a way to prevent a threatened veto of a $150.7 billion domestic spending bill that the White House has called “irresponsible and excessive.”

Congressional leaders dropped the $459.6 billion defense spending bill for fiscal 2008 from the package Wednesday because of strong objections from Republicans and some freshmen Democrats in the House of Representatives about playing political games with the defense budget in time of war.

There were no similar complaints, however, about lumping the $65 billion appropriation bill for VA and military construction with the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which House and Senate negotiators did Thursday.

What might happen with the modified $215.7 billion domestic spending bill that includes veterans’ and military construction money is not clear. The VA budget includes $4 billion more than the Bush administration wants, but White House budget officials did not threaten to veto the veterans spending bill. Instead, the administration said it would veto other appropriations bills if Congress did not make $4 billion in cuts to offset the increased spending for veterans. A bundled bill would test the administration’s resolve.

Marty Conaster, national commander of the nation’s largest veterans group, the American Legion, said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada “personally assured me” that the veterans funding bill “would be passed by Veterans Day.”

George Lisicki, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the nation’s largest organization of combat veterans, said both the veterans and defense bills need to be passed quickly.

“The two most important issues in America today are the war and the care of our wounded veterans,” Lisicki said. “There is absolutely no excuse for Congress to fail in its primary responsibility to legislate and appropriate funding. DoD is fighting a war and the VA is a partner in that fight. They need funding, not empty rhetoric, because the war is producing casualties who will need a lifetime of care.”

Current plans call for negotiators to file their report on the combined funding bill on Monday, leaving the rest of the week for the House and Senate to pass it so that it is on President Bush’s desk by Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, who stressed that the plans are subject to further change, said leaders now intend to pass the defense funding bill separately. House and Senate negotiations intend to meet Tuesday in what Murtha predicted would be a short session to approve an agreement tentatively reached yesterday that will add some emergency spending — such as a new $11 billion request for Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles — to the measure. The compromise would not include the rest of the $182 billion in war-related funding requested by the Bush administration.

Murtha said the remaining war funding would not be considered until next year, a delay that does not appear to be causing any difficulties. Murtha said that after discussions with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, he believes the services can continue to cover war-related expenses for operations, extra personnel costs and other programs through May or June, giving Congress time to work on the war budget after New Year.