House, Senate Budget plans boost veterans spending.

The DAV is urging lawmakers to support a recommended $6.6 billion increase in funding for veterans health care and other programs as called for in 2008 budget blueprints being debated in the House and Senate.

"The budget recommendations that came out of the House and Senate Budget Committees will make a real difference in the lives of America's sick and disabled veterans," said National Commander Bradley S. Barton. "This is especially important as our nation is at war."

Both budget resolutions reported out of committee call for $43.1 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the bulk of which is for veterans health care. That is $6.6 billion above the fiscal 2007 enacted level and $3.5 billion above the President's request. The congressional budget blueprints do not include user fees and higher prescription co-payments contained in the President's plan.

The President's 2008 budget proposes $34.2 billion for the VA health care system and relies on $2.3 billion in collections. That budget plan also would increase prescription co-payments from $8 to $15 and impose a three-tiered annual enrollment fee of $250, $500 or $750 for some veterans, depending on family income. But instead of going directly to the VA, those fees would be paid to the U.S. Treasury, where they conceivably could be siphoned off for other purposes.

"The DAV has been in the forefront of efforts urging Congress to honor America's commitment to sick and disabled veterans," said National Adjutant Arthur H. Wilson. "That includes providing full funding for medical care through direct appropriations, not charging veterans an enrollment fee or higher co-payments."

"Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-N.C.) and their committees are to be commended for recognizing the true needs of our veterans," said National Legislative Director Joseph A. Violante. "The recommended funding increase will allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to better meet the needs of the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as all veterans who have served in the past," he said.

"The Independent Budget recommendations for fiscal year 2008 call for nearly $43.5 billion in discretionary spending for the VA, with $36.4 billion of that for veterans health care," said Violante. "The House and Senate budget blueprints come very close to those recommendations. And the DAV is hard at work to ensure sufficient funding for veterans as the budget and appropriations process continues."

While the draft budget resolutions call for significant increases in spending for veterans programs in fiscal year 2008, the DAV is concerned about future projected funding levels. "Funding must keep pace with rising health care costs and an expected increase in veterans seeking services from the VA," Violante said. "The DAV will continue working with Congress to ensure that future budgets meet the needs of our nation's sick and disabled veterans."

"Because of chronic funding shortfalls, many veterans wait longer for medical appointments, VA hospitals are prevented from hiring additional nurses and other health care professionals to meet the growing demand for services and are forced to ration care," said Commander Barton.

Another major area of concern is that while the President's budget contains a commitment to improving the timeliness of veterans benefits claims, it does not address the adverse impact of recently passed legislation that expands attorney involvement in the process. The VA has said it will have to create a whole new bureaucracy to perform the additional accreditation and attorney fee oversight responsibilities.

With a backlog of more than 600,000 pending benefits claims and processing times averaging six months for initial claims and more than two years for appeals, the attorney fees law would likely add to the VA's woes, causing further delays and complicating an already overburdened system.

In recent testimony to the House VA-Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee, Violante noted that while increased resources will not alone cure what ails the benefits delivery system, all of the best efforts to overcome the deficiencies are doomed to fail without an admission that inadequate resources are at the root of the problem and without decisive action to correct that cause for difficulties in timeliness and quality.

"Past reductions in staffing levels have degraded VA's ability to process and decide disability claims in a correct and timely manner. After falling behind, it never fully recovered," Violante said. "With continued growth in the volume and complexity of claims for disability benefits, VA has not requested the resources necessary to overcome the existing backlog and stay abreast of that growth, with a consequent adverse effect upon both quality and timeliness of claims adjudication."

To improve the administration of VA's benefits programs, The Independent Budget recommends Congress provide the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) $1.9 billion in fiscal year 2008, some $752 million above the 2007 funding level. "These additional funds will provide the means to support a workable long-term strategy for improvement in claims processing and more adequate staffing for the discretionary programs under the jurisdiction of VBA," Violante told the subcommittee. Included in that funding recommendation are new resources needed for additional VBA staff, training programs and information technologies to correspond with a more effective and efficient benefits delivery system. These new funds would bring new capabilities to VBA to better serve disabled veterans.

"While the House and Senate Budget Committees have recommended a much-needed increase for veterans programs and services, the DAV will continue working with lawmakers throughout the appropriations processes to ensure the VA has the resources it needs to provide veterans with timely access to top-quality care. And it will take an all-out grassroots campaign on the part of our members and their families to urge their Senators and Representatives to accomplish that goal."

House Passes Key Bills

The House of Representatives has passed three bills that would expand health care and benefits for disabled veterans. The measures now go to the Senate for consideration.

Among those bills is H.R. 1284, a routine cost-of-living adjustment for compensation payments to service-connected disabled veterans and dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans. The percentage of increase would be the same as that for Social Security benefits and will be calculated later this year.

H.R. 797 would modify disability compensation benefits for veterans with impaired vision in both eyes. It would offer additional benefits to veterans who have only partial sight in their second eye. Under current law, disability compensation is provided to veterans who are blind in one eye, and it increases if they go blind in the other. However, if veterans are only visually impaired in the second eye, no additional compensation is offered.

The House Veterans' Affairs Committee adopted amendments to H.R. 797 to reauthorize the veterans' work-study program until 2009 and authorize the VA to provide a bronze "V" for markers of veterans buried at private cemeteries. Another amendment extends from, 2010 until 2012, a provision in the bill that directs the VA to work with the Department of Health and Human Services to confirm the employment status of veterans who claim they cannot work.

Another bill, H.R. 327, would authorize suicide-prevention programs at VA medical centers, including counseling and treatment, as well as required screening of VA patients for suicide risk. The VA also would provide outreach to and education for veterans and the families of veterans, with special emphasis on veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.