Operation Just Cause... ...for as long as it takes
Sent in by Veterans News and Information Services
WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Stump (R-AZ) said Friday he sees this year's budget as a golden opportunity to build on recent legislative gains, and hinted he would oppose any effort to undo them.
The VA Committee heard testimony on the VA budget from Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo D. West Jr. and officials from veterans' organizations on February 17. The $48 billion VA budget proposal includes a $1.4 billion increase for VA health care. Conspicuous by its absence, according to several VA Committee members, is any upgrade in the Montgomery GI Bill to cover rising costs of higher education. But overall, members were far more receptive to this spending plan than last year's version.
Chairman Stump said the goal this year was "building upon the success Congress had last year" by expanding veterans' access to health care, speeding decisions on disability claims, and increasing available space in veterans' cemeteries.
"I think we're all aware that you are proposing a much better budget than you brought us last year," Stump told Secretary West while praising the funding levels for health care, benefits, and cemeteries.
"This is the best VA budget proposed by any Administration since I have served on this Committee," Rep. Lane Evans (D-IL), the VA Committee's Democratic leader, told Secretary West. "Veterans and the Congress have spoken out. This budget clearly demonstrates the Administration has listened and responded."
The VA Committee recommended an increase of $25 million above the President's request for VA medical research, including $11 million to prevent erosion of current research activity. The VA Committee also recommends increasing the Administration's $60 million proposal for state home grant programs to $140 million. Chairman Stump predicted VA Committee resistance to the Administration's proposal to return to the U.S. Treasury co-payment collections authorized under last year's Veterans' Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act. Stump said he wants the collections spent entirely on veterans' health care as mandated by the law.
"Congress worked very closely with the veteran service organizations last year to devise a plan for those copayments that would maximize incentives at the local level to collect and use such payments on veterans' health care at each facility," Stump said. "The President signed that bill into law on November 30, 1999. I'm disappointed that less than three months later his budget now recommends that we break faith with the veterans' organizations on that legislation."
In the area of veterans' employment, Stump said the VA Committee will examine a number of incentive-based initiatives, such as an allocation system that requires competition among states for available dollars based on performance. Current programs, Stump said, include no means of rewarding success or penalizing failure.
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