|
|
|
|
ARMED FORCES NEWS |
|
|
The House VA funding bill would increase the current budget by $3.8 billion more than what the administration wants. 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." Rather than threaten a veto in the face of that, the administration has taken another angle. A statement of administration policy by the White House Office of Management and Budget warns: "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 topline of $933 billion." (See next item.) Senate Panel Approves Big VA Budget The Senate Appropriations Committee has followed its House counterpart (previous item) by voting to appropriate $43 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs next year. This would be $6.5 billion above current levels and $3.6 billion more that the administration wants. The funds include $29 billion for VA medical services, primarily aimed at polytrauma care and mental health services. The Veterans Benefits Administration would get $1.3 billion, including funding to hire at least 500 additional claims processors to reduce the mounting backlog of claims pending. The legislation now will be considered by the full Senate.
|
|
