FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 7, 2005

CONTACT: Geoffrey Collver @ 202/225-9756

 

 

 

 

 

 

                   http://veterans.house.gov/democratic/welcome.htm

 

Bush Budget a “Cruel Mockery” of Obligation to Care for Veterans

                                     

Washington, DC--“In his State of the Union message last week, President Bush saluted the bravery and sacrifice of our troops abroad.  He also said that this grateful country will do everything we can to help them recover.  The flat-lined budget he has proposed today makes a cruel mockery of this rhetoric,” said the senior Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Rep. Lane Evans (IL).

 

Evans was responding to the submission of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) budget request for fiscal year 2006, which begins this October.  The President’s funding requests for all federal agencies will now be considered by Congress.       

 

For fiscal year 2006, the Bush Administration requests a scant 0.5% more than Congress recently appropriated for the VA in fiscal year 2005.  Evans called the request grossly inadequate and said it would force the Department to sustain a practice of rationing care to veterans that was used throughout the first George W. Bush Administration. 

 

Medical programs would receive a 1.7% increase over the funds appropriated for fiscal year 2005, far from the 13-14% VA has testified it needs annually to even maintain the current level of services.  Evans’ remarks about rationing referred to initiatives proposed by the Administration to continue to shut thousands of veterans out of the system and require fees from others before they could use VA services.  VA indicates that the proposed budget will call for a staff reduction of 2% in the medical care business line. 

 

The Bush Administration has proposed significant reductions in both VA’s nursing home program and state home nursing care programs.  Evans said that this could be particularly problematic as states, which are already struggling with long-term care costs, attempt to rein in their programs.  “The Administration wants to pull the rug out from under our oldest veterans right at the peak of their need for long-term care services,” said Evans.  

 

The budget request also requires VA to identify and implement an additional $590 million worth of management efficiencies in its medical care business line.  Evans said that previous Bush budgets had already programmed more than a billion dollars worth of efficiencies into VA’s budget, and it remained unclear where VA officials were finding cuts.     

 

“The management efficiencies seem to be coming at the expense of access to care,” said Evans.

 

Under the budget, veterans who are appealing decisions to the Board of Veterans Appeals can expect to see a dramatic increase in time to resolve their appeals.  Since President Bush took office in 2001, the number of pending appeals has increased from 87,291 to 154,608.  With the reduction in staff proposed for the Board of Veterans Appeals in the FY 2006 budget, the backlog of pending appeals will continue to grow.  “It is unconscionable that veterans who are appealing decisions for benefits based on their service-connected disabilities will be required to wait years for a decision,” said Evans. 

 

“Today we are offered a true vision of the Bush Administration’s agenda for veterans and wounded service members,” said Evans.  “If Congress really wants to pay tribute to those who are defending and have defended our freedom, we will put our money where our mouth is and make them—not tax cuts—our priority.”    

 

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