Veterans Groups Pleased with President’s Budget But Note Deficiencies

Groups Urge $68 Bil­lion for Vet­er­ans Health Care and Ben­e­fits in 2013 Inde­pen­dent Bud­get Report

WASHINGTON, DC—Four of the nation’s lead­ing vet­er­ans ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions are urg­ing the Admin­is­tra­tion and Con­gress to invest $68 bil­lion to suf­fi­ciently meet vet­er­ans health-care and ben­e­fits needs. As stated in Pres­i­dent Obama’s bud­get pro­posal released yes­ter­day, the Admin­is­tra­tion has pro­posed $64 bil­lion in dis­cre­tionary spend­ing for the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs for fis­cal year 2013. The bud­get pro­posal now goes to Con­gress for consideration.

The rec­om­men­da­tion to invest $68 bil­lion in vet­er­ans health-care and ben­e­fits is con­tained in The Inde­pen­dent Bud­get (IB) at www.independentbudget.org (report avail­able on Feb­ru­ary 14)—an annual com­pre­hen­sive bud­get and pol­icy doc­u­ment, by vet­er­ans for vet­er­ans. In its 26th year, the IB is coau­thored by AMVETS, Dis­abled Amer­i­can Vet­er­ans (DAV), Par­a­lyzed Vet­er­ans of Amer­ica (Par­a­lyzed Vet­er­ans), and Vet­er­ans of For­eign Wars (VFW).

The orga­ni­za­tions were pleased to see that the Admin­is­tra­tion has pro­posed increased fund­ing for the oper­a­tions of the Vet­er­ans Ben­e­fits Admin­is­tra­tion. They were also pleased to see fund­ing address­ing the areas of vet­er­ans’ unem­ploy­ment, home­less vet­er­ans, men­tal health and women vet­er­ans. How­ever, the groups have con­cerns about the con­tin­ued revi­sion of med­ical care col­lec­tions, and the sig­nif­i­cant reduc­tion in the area of major con­struc­tion nec­es­sary to main­tain the infra­struc­ture for a qual­ity VA health-care system.

The Inde­pen­dent Bud­get rec­om­mends $57.2 bil­lion for health care, $611 mil­lion for med­ical and pros­thetic research, $2.1 bil­lion for ben­e­fits pro­cess­ing and $3.8 bil­lion for major and minor construction.

“With sig­nif­i­cant num­bers of men and women home from Iraq and return­ing from Afghanistan, all tran­si­tion­ing to civil­ian life, it is more impor­tant than ever that this Con­gress and Admin­is­tra­tion honor our sacred covenant to care for our 1 per­cent of Amer­i­cans who have shoul­dered 100 per­cent of the bur­den of our national defense,” said AMVETS National Com­man­der Gary L. Fry. “AMVETS urges full imple­men­ta­tion of The Inde­pen­dent Bud­get rec­om­men­da­tions to ensure deliv­ery of promised ben­e­fits and ser­vices to our Amer­i­can heroes and their families.”

“Our gov­ern­ment has a moral oblig­a­tion to pro­vide the nec­es­sary resources and put in place poli­cies that will ensure timely, accu­rate deci­sions on dis­abil­ity com­pen­sa­tion claims and guar­an­tee prompt access to a full range of top-quality health care for our nation’s vet­er­ans,” said DAV National Com­man­der Don­ald L. Samuels. “The pol­icy and fund­ing rec­om­men­da­tions in The Inde­pen­dent Bud­get are based on a com­pre­hen­sive, needs-based analy­sis of what it will take to ful­fill our nation’s oblig­a­tion to the men and women who have served and sac­ri­ficed for our coun­try and our principles.”

As our nation faces a volatile eco­nomic recov­ery, the IB rec­om­mends that Con­gress appro­pri­ate suf­fi­cient fund­ing to address the full scope of med­ical care and ben­e­fits delivery.

“The best way for the Admin­is­tra­tion and Con­gress to honor the ser­vice and sac­ri­fice of all vet­er­ans and their fam­i­lies is to fully imple­ment the rec­om­men­da­tions of The Inde­pen­dent Bud­get,” said Bill Law­son, National Pres­i­dent of Par­a­lyzed Vet­er­ans. “With access to qual­ity VA health care and ben­e­fits, our seri­ously injured vet­er­ans have a fight­ing chance to rebuild their lives, and a real hope of suc­cess­fully meet­ing the chal­lenges of find­ing a good job in a tough econ­omy. The Inde­pen­dent Bud­get is all about empow­er­ing these brave men and women with what they’ve earned and they need to get back into life.”

For the past 26 years, The Inde­pen­dent Bud­get has been a blue­print for the resource require­ments for VA. It has served as a voice of advo­cacy for America’s vet­er­ans by pro­vid­ing the White House and Con­gress with a roadmap for fund­ing the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs. At no time in our his­tory has the need of the return­ing vet­eran been so great, the ser­vice of VA so crit­i­cal and the rec­om­men­da­tions of the IB so rel­e­vant as they are today.

“A nation that cre­ates vet­er­ans has a sacred respon­si­bil­ity to care for them when they return home wounded, ill and injured,” said Richard L. DeNoyer, national com­man­der of the 2 million-member Vet­er­ans of For­eign Wars of the U.S. and its Aux­il­iaries. “We look for­ward to work­ing with the Admin­is­tra­tion and Con­gress in the com­ing days and months to ensure Amer­ica keeps that promise.”

MEDIA CONTACTS:

AMVETS: Jay Agg, 301–683-4035
DAV: David E. Autry, 202–314-5219
Par­a­lyzed Vet­er­ans of Amer­ica: Lani Poblete 202–416-7667
VFW: Joe Davis, 202–608-8357

About:

AMVETS—a leader since 1944 in pre­serv­ing the free­doms secured by America’s Armed Forces—provides not only sup­port for vet­er­ans and the active mil­i­tary in procur­ing receipt of their earned enti­tle­ments, but also com­mu­nity ser­vices that enhance the qual­ity of life for this nation’s cit­i­zens. www.amvets.org

The 1.2 million-member Dis­abled Amer­i­can Vet­er­ans, a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion founded in 1920 and char­tered by the U.S. Con­gress in 1932, is ded­i­cated to a sin­gle pur­pose: build­ing bet­ter lives for our nation’s dis­abled vet­er­ans and their fam­i­lies. www.dav.org

Par­a­lyzed Vet­er­ans of Amer­ica was founded by a group of seri­ously injured Amer­i­can heroes from the “Great­est Gen­er­a­tion” of World War II. They cre­ated a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion to meet the chal­lenges head that they faced back in the 1940s — from a med­ical com­mu­nity not ready to treat them, to an inac­ces­si­ble world. For more than 65 years, Par­a­lyzed Vet­er­ans national office and 34 chap­ters across the nation have been mak­ing Amer­ica a bet­ter place for all vet­er­ans and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. www.pva.org

The Vet­er­ans of For­eign Wars of the U.S. is a non­profit vet­er­ans’ ser­vice orga­ni­za­tion com­posed of com­bat vet­er­ans and those who cur­rently serve in uni­form. Founded in 1899 and char­tered by Con­gress in 1936,
the VFW is the nation’s largest orga­ni­za­tion of war vet­er­ans and its old­est major vet­er­ans’ orga­ni­za­tion, with 2 mil­lion VFW and Aux­il­iary mem­bers located in almost 7,600 VFW Posts world­wide. For more infor­ma­tion or to join, visit the organization’s Web site at www.vfw.org.