I would like to take this opportunity to welcome to Capitol Hill the members of AMVETS, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the Military Officers Association of America, the Gold Star Wives of America, the Fleet Reserve Association, The Retired Enlisted Association, and the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs.

As you know, the Committee went for a period of time when we did not hold joint legislative hearings for veteran and military organizations. 

Reinstituting this very important hearing was one of the first things Chairman Akaka and I did last year.  We are certainly looking forward to hearing your organization’s legislative agenda for 2008.

Before we start, I would like to extend my complements to all of your Washington staffs and tell you how rewarding it is to work with them on the very important issues that affect our nation’s veterans.

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome all the members of your organizations who are here from California.  Please raise your hands so that we might recognize you… Thank you for coming.

As you know, on February 4th of this year, the Administration submitted the VA budget for fiscal year 2009.  Collectively, both the House and Senate believed that this request for veterans’ funding was simply not adequate. 

The Administration’s budget slashed funding for building new health care facilities and reduced investment in medical and prosthetic research.  The request included a 5.5 percent increase for health care; that barely covered the cost of medical inflation and did not keep up with the increasing demand for health care. 

We were seriously concerned that the budget proposal contained only modest increases for veterans’ health care while attempting to pay for these increases with cuts in other veterans’ programs well below the historic levels we provided for this year.

In this time of war, as we continue to send men and women into harm’s way, we must be committed and prepared to fully provide the resources to care for these heroes upon their return – and the Democratic house passed budget-- NOT the Administration’s budget -- does that.

The Democratic budget resolution passed by the House of Representatives built on the historical funding increases for veterans programs last year, recognized the needs faced by America’s veterans of today, and invests in our veterans for tomorrow. 

The budget resolution rejected the Bush Administration’s plan to institute enrollment fees and increase pharmacy copayments – a plan that would effectively force many veterans out of the VA system.  The budget also rejected the President’s proposed cuts to new facility construction projects and cuts to medical and prosthetic research programs at the VA. 

Our budget provides needed funding to care for our returning service members and provides more comprehensive mental health care and resources to address the needs of homeless veterans.  

Taking care of our veterans when they return home is a continuing cost of war.  The Democratic leadership recognized this truth and has provided for a budget that exceeds the Independent Budget’s request for veterans’ funding. 

I have had an opportunity to speak with many of you over the last few weeks, and I look forward to talking with more of you, about the Committee’s focus and agenda for this year.  While I won’t go through the entire Committee schedule here, I do want to touch on what we consider are other major agenda items in conjunction with the budget:

The Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB), implemented over 20 years ago, was a landmark piece of legislation.  The time has come to update, modernize, and provide greater flexibility to meet the needs of today’s veterans.  The Committee is exploring a number of options to improve and modernize the GI Bill and bring equity to our veterans that serve in the Guard and Reserves.

On February 16, 2008, the inventory of compensation and pension claims pending at the VA was over 650 thousand.  We believe the VA must embrace non-traditional ideas to solve the claims backlog issue and recommended funding to explore various pilot programs and initiatives that could revolutionize the process.  We also believe the VA may need to employ a more radical adjudication process of backlogged claims which may still require additional funding.

I also know there are many veterans groups who advocate providing VA health care funding from the mandatory side of the ledger, as compared to the current system of providing discretionary funding.  There are also many on the Veterans' Affairs Committee who believe the solution to the budget problems faced by the VA is mandatory funding.  I have asked the Budget Committee to work together to fully explore this option and additional ways to provide VA health care funding in a sufficient and timely manner.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these critical issues and the other legislative priorities of your organizations.