VA budget plan not enough, lawmakers say - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

VA budget plan not enough, lawmakers say

The nearly $94 billion veterans’ budget proposal for fiscal 2009 that was unveiled Monday is already drawing fire from the House and Senate veterans’ committee chairmen.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, his Senate counterpart, say the Bush administration isn’t asking for enough money for the Veterans Affairs Department next year and continues to press for cost-cutting initiatives previously rejected by Congress, such as raising prescription drug co-payments and charging some veterans enrollment fees.

“The request for veterans’ funding for 2009 is not adequate,” Filner said in a statement. “Although the request includes an increase for health care, it does not fully fund the needs of America’s veterans.”

Filner said he opposes higher fees and co-payments, calling them “nothing more than a tax increase on our veterans.”

But the problem in rejecting the fee increases, which would apply to veterans being treated by VA for medical problems that are not connected to their military service, is that the Bush budget assumes $5.2 billion in revenue from such fee hikes.

If Congress does not go along with the fees, it would have to make up that funding from some other source.

Filner’s committee will hold a hearing Thursday, where retired Army Gen. (Dr.) James Peake makes his first appearance before Congress as VA secretary to talk about the budget request.

Akaka’s Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee will hear from Peake on Feb. 13.

“This budget does not go far enough to meet the demands of a nation at war, or the needs of the veterans who braved today’s and yesterday’s battles,” Akaka said in a statement. “It just is not enough. We must do better.”

Akaka said the proposed budget’s $38.7 billion for health care would be just $2 billion more than the budget for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

When inflation and higher operating costs are considered, there would be little money to boost spending on high-priority programs such as treatment of traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Akaka said.

The “most troubling” of the cuts proposed by the administration, Akaka said, is a $788 million decrease in money for construction, which comes “at a time when VA should be undertaking a massive effort to upgrade [its] infrastructure, much of which is well over 50 years old.”

Reductions also are proposed in VA’s medical research and auditing budgets, he said.

Akaka said the proposal “represents a meek approach to funding VA.”

Related reading:

VA to boost spending on combat vets by 21%