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Veterans groups find VA budget lacking

A Thursday hearing on funding for federal veterans program will focus on how much of an increase is enough.

The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a $125 billion Veterans Affairs Department budget request for fiscal 2011 that includes funding increases of 27 percent for benefits and 8.5 percent for medical care accounts.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who will defend the budget before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said the plan attempts to make improvements to speed disability claims, end homelessness and make it easier for veterans to access services, while also trying to transform how the VA does businesses.

Appearing at the same hearing will be representatives of major veterans groups who have produced their own version of the budget — known as the Independent Budget — which concludes that VA’s $60.3 billion discretionary budget, covering everything but the payment of benefits, is $1.2 billion short.

The single biggest discrepancy between the Obama and Independent budgets is a $3.3 billion disagreement over whether VA will be able to cover some of its medical care costs by collecting money from private insurers for patients who are not being treated for service-connected conditions.

The Independent Budget also recommends about $110 million more than the administration’s plan for medical and prosthetic research, and about $250 million more for improvements to information technology.

That relatively small, but still significant, difference will raise the question of whether it is possible for Congress to give VA any more money at a time when the Obama administration wants to freeze spending for most federal agencies.