[Vision2020] Lawmakers Offer Plan to Address Veterans' Health-Care Shortages

[Tom Hansen]

>From yesterday's (July 21, 2005) edition of the Army Times
(http://www.armytimes.com) -

Some congressmen actually noticed that the Veterans Administration was
under-funded by more than two billion dollars for FY06.

It is about friggin' time!

Question:  How soon will President Bush veto these measures?

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Lawmakers offer plan to address veterans' health-care shortages

By Rick Maze
Army Times staff writer

Congressional leaders have a two-part plan to take care of funding shortages
for veterans' health care.
But as details continue to emerge, House Democrats are blasting the
Republicans who control Congress for taking so long to respond to what
they're calling a budgetary emergency.

Twenty-six days have passed since the Bush administration admitted the 2005
and 2006 Department of Veterans Affairs budgets were underfunded, a period
when Congress took a one-week vacation, passed five bills renaming post
offices and worked three-day weeks.

"Shouldn't taking care of veterans in time of war be more important than
renaming post offices?" said Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, at a Wednesday
press conference were Democrats appeared with representatives of major
veterans' groups to try to get Congress to act.

The House Veterans' Affairs Committee plans an afternoon hearing today at
which the VA is expected to provide more information about its health care
funding shortages.

Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said as a veteran, the son of a veteran and the
father of a veteran, he thinks funding VA health care should a top priority.
"We should be making sure veterans have a guaranteed benefit, not only this
year but every year," he said.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has started crafting a plan that would
give about $3 billion in additional funding for the VA. A minimum of $975
million in emergency funding for 2005 would be attached to HR 2361, the
funding bill for the Interior Department. An additional $1.97 billion for
2006 would be added to HR 2528, the VA funding bill.

Congressional leaders expect the Interior Department bill, now in
negotiations between the House and Senate, to be passed by the end of July
and ready for President Bush's signature. The VA funding bill containing the
rest of the money would not be completed until fall.

Senate aides said the amount of money in the 2005 and 2006 bills for
veterans' health care could be slightly altered because the Bush
administration has included $300 million in its revised 2006 budget request
that actually covers 2005 expenses.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman
who has been trying to get more money for the VA, said the combination of
the two bills and the speed at which they are being approved should show
veterans that Congress is trying to take care of them.

"We have assured veterans today that there will be sufficient money to meet
[their] needs," he said July 19 as an appropriations subcommittee approved
the $1.97 billion addition. "Clearly, we are going to reach a point where we
cannot continue to keep spending at this pace, but the needs of veterans are
being met."

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 
 
--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.