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THE CRISIS TODAY #3 Vets Hold Rallies To Raise Health-Care Budget; Current Estimates: Rocky Mountain VA Hospitals To Lose $50 Million July 1, 1999 Dear Colleague: From coast to coast and border to border, our Nations’ veterans are calling on Congress to provide significantly increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and especially for veterans health care. VETERANS FUNDING – Veterans Administration hospitals in the administrative region including Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Montana stand to lose money next year – about 13 percent of its $380 million budget, according to Cheyenne VA Medical Center Director Dick Fry. If the Administration’s budget passes, Fry estimated that his hospital’s budget would drop about $3.5 million next year from the current total of $23.5 million. "Even though the president submits a $1.1 billion budget increase, that money simply will not make it to the Rocky Mountain Network," Fry said, adding, "If that budget happens, there will be no way that we can sustain the programs that we currently support." We’re hoping that every veteran and every nonveteran who is a supporter of veterans will show up," said Philip Fields, Disabled American Veterans’ hospital services coordinator in Cheyenne. Unless action is taken at the federal level, he said, "This hospital will basically become an outpatient clinic." When the budgets decline, he said, current outpatient clinics like those in Casper, Fort Collins and Greeley in Colorado; and Sidney, Nebraska, could suffer or close, making it harder for veterans to receive health care. Source: Casper (WY) Star Tribune, 5/29/99; By Jeff Tollefson The San Bernardino (CA) Press Enterprise, 5/31/99; By Jeremy Berzon (excerpts) THE CATASTROPHE TOMORROW -- House VA-HUD-Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee (Discretionary Spending In Billions of Dollars)
If Congress truly honors the service and sacrifice of America’s veterans, it will increase the FY 00 discretionary spending appropriation for VA to fully offset current shortfalls in VA health care funding and continuing increases in the cost of health care. Our Nation’s veterans deserve no less. Sincerely, LANE EVANS |