NEWS FROM….

CONGRESSMAN LANE EVANS

RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS

    U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FOR RELEASE: April 14, 2000

WASHINGTON, DC – The budget resolution for next fiscal year, adopted by a House-Senate Conference Committee, threatens full funding for veterans’ medical care and other high priority programs, according to Congressman Lane Evans

(D-IL), the Ranking Democratic Member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Under the budget Congress has approved for fiscal year 2001, which begins October 1, 2000, "with smoke, mirrors and budget gimmicks, it will still be next to impossible for Congress to provide the full funding proposed by the Clinton-Gore Administration for veterans’ health care," Evans said.

Earlier this year, Evans and Congressman Bob Stump (R-AZ) together endorsed the Clinton-Gore request for a $1.5 billion increase in VA funding for fiscal year 2001. In addition, Evans and Stump also recommended additional increased spending for several VA programs. "Based on the budget Congress has now approved, it’s as likely as day follows night that veterans’ health care, research and national cemeteries will receive less funding than was requested by the Clinton-Gore budget.

Republican leaders shared Evans’ assessment of the budget. The Republican Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Pete Domenici [R-NM], says the appropriators will have "a difficult job" staying within the Republicans’ discretionary spending limit. "He’s not kidding," said Evans. "My Republican colleague from Illinois, Rep. John Edward Porter, who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health, Labor and Education, voted against final passage of the budget along with other Republicans. It’s a bad budget and they know it."

Evans says the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA, HUD [Department of Housing and Urban Development], and Independent Agencies will have an expected $403 million less to fund critical programs such as veterans’ health care next fiscal year. The Republican chair of the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, Jim Walsh [R-NY], has said he could not write an appropriations bill now, with so little money. "It would be virtually impossible" with the draft allocation, Walsh said, because "expectations are very, very high this year in the research community, at NASA [the National Aeronautics and Space Administration]… and the president proposed a $20 billion increase for HUD."

"With a large cut in funding for the VA-HUD subcommittee and Chairman Walsh signaling a high priority for funding HUD and NASA," Evans said, "it will be an uphill fight to get the funding needed for veterans programs."

"The Republican-written budget for next fiscal year is once again a blueprint for tax cutting at the expense of priority programs like veterans’ health care," Evans continued. "Last year the American people said ‘no’ to this script. They need to say ‘no’ again this year. The American people are simply opposed to taking funds needed for programs for our nation’s sick and aging veterans to pay the bill for massive tax cuts. GOP leaders are playing tax cut games with veterans’ health care again this year and it’s still wrong.