White House Warns Congress Against Hiking VA Budget Figure

Moves in Congress to give the Department of Veterans Affairs as much as $3.8 billion more than the Bush administration proposed has drawn an indirect veto threat from the White House.

“If Congress increases VA funding above the president’s request and does not offset this increase with spending reductions in other bills, the president will veto any of the other bills that exceed his request until Congress demonstrates a path to reach the president’s top line of $933 billion,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.

The Veterans Affairs budget currently stands at $36.5 billion, and the administration has proposed raising it to $40.1 billion. In Congress, a conference committee is attempting to reconcile a House bill providing $3.8-billion beyond that with a Senate measure that would increase the administration’s proposal by $3.6 billion.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, chairman of the House veterans affairs appropriations subcommittee, said, “This bill is about respect, and honors the promises made to our veterans with historic increases in funding to provide them the health care and benefits they earned when they put on our nation’s uniform.”

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Bill to Improve Care

Responding to shabby outpatient treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., a group of U.S. senators moved June 13 to boost disability pay to those hurt in combat and improve care for brain injury. The measure would also expand medical care and counseling to family members and require better cooperation to end red tape for disabled service members moving from Pentagon care to that provided by the VA.

The measure would boost military severance pay for those rated with less than 30 percent disability and eliminate the current requirement that severance pay be deducted from disability pay. It would also set up Pentagon pilot programs that would give the VA a greater role in the evaluation system, a major shift in how benefits are administered.

To learn more, read the full article online at Military.com.

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George W. Reilly can be reached at VeteransColumn@verizon.net or by writing to The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.