FOR RELEASE:  October 7, 2002

EVANS:  INCREASED FUNDING NEEDED
FOR VETERANS HEALTH CARE

Identifies “Increasingly Alarming Signs of Stress”
on Veterans’ Health Care System 

Washington, DC -- Congressman Lane Evans (D-IL), the Senior Democrat of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee sent leaders of the VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee a request to add $2.485 billion to the veterans’ medical system for fiscal year 2003.  The Subcommittee plans soon to make its funding decisions.  

“As you may know, recent VA actions show increasingly alarming signs of stress on the system,” said Evans in a letter to Jim Walsh (R-NY) and Alan Mollohan (D-WV).  Evans based his funding recommendations on two earlier bipartisan agreements.  This February, Evans and VA Committee Chair Christopher Smith (R-NJ) asked for $2.2 billion for VA health care.  This summer, as part of the supplemental appropriation for fiscal year 2002, Congress authorized the President to spend $275 million more for VA health care, if he designated the funds as “emergency spending”.  Bush failed to request the funding Congress provided.  Evans asked for another $10 million for a homeless veterans grant program.    

Evans made the case for funding by citing well-documented problems in the system including veterans’ waiting times for care, a recent moratorium on all marketing and outreach activities to veterans, and the need to enforce new priorities for care to ensure that the highest priority veterans with conditions related to their military service are not locked out of the system. 

In citing the problems, Evans stated, “I think you will agree that all of the above are clear signs that the VA is under considerable fiscal distress.”   

Evans also stated his concern about the state of specialized mental health programs and provisions that had been enacted, but not funded, in the “Comprehensive Homeless Veterans Assistance Act” passed late last year.   

“I encourage you to take into consideration the difficulty under which the system is currently operating and improve on the President’s request to the greatest extent possible,” stated Evans, “I am ready to assist you in any way possible with these efforts”.

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