Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi directs the federal government’s second largest department, responsible for a nationwide system of health care services, benefits programs, and national cemeteries for America’s veterans and dependents. With a budget of more than $59 billion, VA employs approximately 224,000 people at hundreds of VA medical centers, clinics, benefits offices, and national cemeteries throughout the country.
Mr. Principi was nominated by President George W. Bush on December 29, 2000, and was confirmed by the Senate on January 23, 2001.
A combat-decorated Vietnam veteran, Mr. Principi is a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., and first saw active duty aboard the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy. He later commanded a River Patrol Unit in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.
Prior to his nomination as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Mr. Principi was president of QTC Medical Services, Inc. During the past decade, he was senior vice president at Lockheed Martin IMS, and a partner in the San Diego law firm of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps.
Mr. Principi earned his law degree from Seton Hall University in 1975 and was assigned to the Navy’s Judge Advocate General Corps in San Diego, Calif. In 1980, he was transferred to Washington as a legislative counsel for the Department of the Navy.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) appreciates the support of members of Congress and other advocates for veterans who have set the record straight and let servicemembers know that their benefits are not only intact but enhanced under President Bush's leadership.
Rep. Max Burns recently helped reassure readers who may have had doubts about VA's budget because of false rumors that have been spread on the Internet and in other circles. For this we owe him many thanks. I would like to add a few more points on this important topic.
The President's 2004 budget requests a record $63.6 billion for America's veterans, including a nearly eight-percent increase in discretionary funding over the 2003 budget and a 32-percent increase in overall funding since he took office.
The budget proposal -- $30.2 billion in discretionary funding (mostly for health care) and $33.4 billion for VA-administered entitlement programs (mostly disability compensation and pensions) -- reinforces VA's commitment to serve our core constituency, Priority Groups 1-6 veterans, who are those with service-connected disabilities, low-income veterans and veterans with special medical needs, such as spinal cord injuries, blindness and amputations.
People asserting VA health care has been "cut" ignore the fact that VA will care for 1.2 million more veterans in 2004 than we did in 2000, the year before President Bush took office.
Traditionally, VA provided medical care to veterans whose conditions were incurred or aggravated during military service and to lower-income veterans. However, for veterans serving in Iraq or other combat zones, VA will provide free medical care for two years after the servicemember leaves active duty, whether or not disabled. Contrary to what some ill-informed alarmists have said, VA's budget will be adequate to do that and to care for our core constituency as well.
With this sound foundation for VA's own future health, we are restructuring our system to ensure that medical facilities are located where veterans need them most while developing other options to improve access, such as one to allow some Medicare benefits to be used at VA clinics by our older veterans.
Over the past year, we have reduced our inventory of pending disability claims significantly. From a high of 432,000, we are within 35,000 of my goal of 250,000 pending compensation claims and my goal to reduce the claims processing time to 100 days. We will also eliminate the "waiting list" for healthcare. We have slashed the list to fewer than 160,000 from a high of 317,000 veterans waiting for more than six months for an appointment.
Military members and their families should take comfort in knowing that the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance program is on rock-solid fiscal ground. Likewise, VA home loan guaranties remain one of the most valuable benefits available to servicemembers and veterans, whether they are purchasing their first home or their retirement dream house. And, finally, the GI Bill educational benefits will rise to $985 on October 1 from the current $900 per month.
So, despite rumors they may hear to the contrary, veterans and their families, including our newest generation, should be secure in knowing that a grateful nation continues its commitment to them. While VA can always use more money, the interests of America's veterans and their families are protected by Congress, VA and the President.
-- Anthony J. Principi
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
(Washington, DC)
