Welcome everyone to the hearing on the Department of Veterans Affairs Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2009.

This hearing marks the first time Secretary Peake has come before this Committee, and I cannot think of a more important subject than the VA’s fiscal year 2009 budget request.  

I would like to welcome our other witnesses, representing organizations that have a direct stake in the VA’s budget, and thank you for your hard work and diligence in helping to ensure the VA’s budget is sufficient to meet the needs of our veterans.

Ensuring veterans are provided the benefits and services we have promised them as a nation is an issue that I, and the Members of this Committee, take very seriously.  We must make sure we provide the resources needed by our servicemembers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and we must make sure resources are available for our veterans from previous conflicts.  This is not cheap, but the service and sacrifice of our veterans is real, and VA’s budget must provide realistic funding levels to meet these needs.

The VA has requested an increase for VA Medical Care of $2 billion, for a total of $42.2 billion, including collections.  We applaud this increase, but we have serious concerns that this increase may not be enough.  The Independent Budget has recommended an additional $1.6 billion.

I believe that no veteran should have to wait for a health care appointment simply because the VA does not have the resources to care for that veteran.  We must make sure there is sufficient funding in FY 2009 to meet the mental health needs of our veterans, and to effectively deal with the issue of homeless veterans, which is a national tragedy.  We must also make sure the resources are available for our women veterans, and to meet the unique needs of our returning servicemembers.

We look forward to hearing how this budget will assist the VA in working with the Department of Defense to make certain situations like those found last year at Walter Reed do not occur again, and that bureaucracies and jurisdictional issues do not serve as roadblocks in getting the health care and benefits that our servicemembers and veterans need.

I am, however, extremely disappointed that the VA has once again submitted a budget that assumes the continuation of the enrollment ban on Priority 8 veterans.  We were promised a detailed report by January 1st of this year, listing the resources needed by the VA to lift this ban.  We are still waiting for this report, and this information. 

The ability of the Secretary to deny enrollment to a group of veterans was provided to the VA in order to address unexpected and unforeseen circumstances – it was never meant by Congress to provide the VA with the ability to ban groups of veterans year after year after year.

I am also disappointed the VA has once again brought forward legislative proposals to increase fees and co-payments for certain veterans.  The Administration’s proposals to institute enrollment fees and increase pharmacy co-payments have been rejected year after year by Congress.  I would like the VA to explain to this Committee why they have offered these proposals again, and the policy reasons for deeming the proposed receipts from these proposals “mandatory” dollars.

Although the Administration has requested an increase for Medical Care, this increase has come at the expense of other VA programs.  The VA’s FY 2009 budget recommends a 5.5 percent increase for Medical Care, while recommending cuts in VA major and minor construction of nearly 44 percent; nearly 49 percent for grants for Construction of State Extended Care Facilities; nearly 8 percent for VA Medical and Prosthetic Research; slightly more than 7 percent for the National Cemetery Administration; 19 percent for Grants for Construction of State Veteran Cemeteries; and, 5 percent for the Office of Inspector General.  The VA’s FY 2009 budget recommends an increase of nearly 6 percent in General Operating Expenses, the budget account that funds, among other items, VA claims processors.  The VA also requests an increase in Information Technology systems of slightly more than 24 percent. 

We must make sure that we are providing the resources needed to address the claims backlog and speed up the process for veterans to receive the benefits they have earned.  We must also carefully consider the VA’s IT request to make certain these dollars are spent wisely.

This Committee will seriously weigh the VA’s budget request for FY 2009 and will make our recommendations to the Budget Committee at the end of this month.  We will work closely with our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to ensure veterans get the benefits and services they have earned, and we will work to ensure that the veterans’ funding achievements we accomplished last year are continued this year. 

We provided historic increases last year, and we will continue to make sure our veterans are cared for in the coming years.