VA health care budget crisis.

If there was ever any question about the need to reform how the government funds veterans health care, the answer should be clear by now.

Congress funded the Veterans Health Administration at $30.2 billion in fiscal year 2005. That was about $ I billion more than the Administration's request, but $1.7 billion less than the DAV had recommended.

But not long after the appropriations bill was signed, VA facilities across the country began running short of money. Some in Congress tried to get additional funds for veterans health care added to an emergency supplemental appropriation bill, but their efforts were defeated. (See the July/August DA V Magazine.) One reason congressional leaders gave for not supportting additional funds for veterans health care was that the Administration kept saying things were fine and that the VA had all the money it needed.

That was in May.

In June, however, Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Nicholson and other department officials finally admitted what many, including the DAV, were saying all along: the veterans health care system was facing a critical funding shortage.

In testimony before Congress, VA officials first said the problem was manageable, but later admitted a $975 million shortfall this year. They blamed the funding gap on flaws in the system used to predict how many veterans would come to the VA for medical services and the cost of that care.

The miscalculations, VA officials said, were discovered in April during a mid-year review of the department's budget. But it was thought at the time that no additional funds were needed. In truth, though, VA network and hospital directors had already begun dipping into operating reserves, delaying maintenance, and putting off buying medical equipment just to pay for patient care.

So the House passed a supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 3130) that would provide the $975 million the Administration said the VA needed to carry it through the current budget year.

Among the most vocal advocates for the bill's passage were House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), the Committee's Ranking Member Lane Evans (D-I11.), and Chet Edwards (D-Texas), Ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs.

A unanimous Senate went further and amended the fiscal year 2006 Interior Department appropriations bill to add $1.5 billion to this year's VA health care budget.

Among those leading the charge in the Senate were Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Ranking Member Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), along with Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and subcommittee member Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and

Arthur H. Wilson, National Adjutant Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.), the Appropriations Committee's Ranking Member.

That was in June.

Fearing that the House-passed supplemental for 2005 still wouldn't be enough to carry the VA through the year, the Senate again unanimously approved an extra S 1.5 billion for veterans health care-this time as an amendment to the fiscal 2006 Homeland Security spending bill.

However, before Congress could decide how best to close the funding gap, the White House said in July it would need another $300 million on top of the $975 million it asked for in June. That brought the admitted shortfall for 2005 to $1.3 billion. The Administration also asked Congress for nearly $1.7 billion above the President's original budget request for veterans health care in fiscal year 2006.

It's enough to make your head swim. And who knows what surprises are yet to come as the situation continues to unfold.

But one thing is certain: our government needs to take the politics and guesswork out of veterans health care and fully fund the need. Nothing less than the welfare of America's veterans is at stake.

The Administration has a fundamental obligation to provide Congress an honest, accurate budgeting of the VA's needs. And Congress must fully fund veterans health care in a timely manner.

The best way to do that is to overhaul the budget and appropriations process to guarantee an adequate, reliable funding stream to meet the health care needs of America's sick and disabled veterans.

A number of bills to reform the veterans health care budget are pending in both the House and Senate, yet the congressional leadership has refused to hold hearings on such a vital issue. It appears that in spite of an obvious need to reform the way veterans health care is funded, some in Congress have decided to turn their backs on America's veterans, even while the country is at war and thousands of our brave men and women are coming home sick and disabled.