6-26-05, 9:16 am
During congressional hearings last week, Jonathan B. Perlin, the Veterans’ Administration undersecretary for health, admitted that the VA is short $1 billion and may not be able to cover current needs this year.
Perlin’s announcement came just after congressional Republicans and the Bush administration blocked two Democratic efforts to raise the VA’s funding. In addition, Republicans in both houses have so far thwarted a Democratic initiative that would have fully funded veterans’ health care programs and prevented them from being subject to budget cuts. In April, Jim Nicholson, the Bush-appointed Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs, urged the Senate to vote down an amendment sponsored by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee covering veterans affairs, that would have added $1.9 billion to the VA budget.
Nicholson, in a letter to the Senate, had claimed, 'I can assure you that VA does not need emergency supplemental funds in FY2005 to continue to provide timely, quality service that is always our goal.'
Aides close to Murray say that Nicholson may not have been forthright about his claim. The VA has known of the shortfall since at least April, when Nicholson made the claim. The Republican-controlled Senate took his advice.
Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX) had also raised questions about the budget shortfall and even proposed paying for a $2.2 billion increase in the VA budget by rolling back part of the Republican tax cut for people with incomes of more than $1 million. The Republicans voted down Edwards’ plan in the House.
Stinginess with the VA budget by the Bush administration and the congressional Republicans has angered veterans groups. In January, a Pentagon spokesperson called for sharp cuts in veterans’ benefits and described the costs of such benefits as a 'hurtful' to national security. (Fore more on that story, click here.)
Since then, the Republicans in the House passed a funding package for the Department of Veterans Affairs appropriation for 2006 that has been sharply criticized by the American Legion, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Disabled American Veterans.
Veterans groups point to poor health care, long waiting lists, VA hospital closings, and lack of service at veterans’ health care facilities as a sign that a stronger fiscal commitment to caring for US veterans is needed.
So much so that when Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) publicly called for increases in funding, he was fired as House Veterans Affairs Committee Chair and replaced by Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) who was appointed to the post specifically to enforce spending cuts.
Buyer angered veterans groups further, when he claimed in an interview that not all veterans deserved to be treated equally by the VA system and that Congress had to 'drill down' on VA funding.
While the Republicans have claimed that their proposal actually increases funding next year, analysis of their spending package indicates about $960 million of their spending 'increase' comes at the expense of important VA medical care spending.
Further, the Republican 'increase' simply doesn’t cover much needed funding, especially as medical and re-training programs are in growing demand as veterans return form the Iraq war. Over 18,000 medical-related evacuees have so far been brought home from Iraq.
Joseph A. Violante, legislative director of the Disabled American Veterans, said that the Bush administration and Republican maneuvers to hide their stinginess indicates that despite their claims about being supportive of the military, they really don’t view the care of veterans as 'a continuing cost of war.' Veterans aren’t a priority to the administration or the Republicans, he added.
--Joel Wendland may be reached at jwendland@politialaffairs.net.
