Testimonies

Hearing on the VA Budget Request for FY2010

On behalf of IAVA and our more than 125,000 members and supporters, thank you for inviting Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to testify today regarding the VA’s budget for Fiscal Year 2010.   I would also like to thank you for your commitment to our nation’s veterans. From the passage of the new GI Bill to the dramatic increases in veterans’ health care funding, the remarkable legislative victories for veterans we’ve seen in the last three years would not have been possible without your leadership.

At IAVA, we are committed to making sure that no servicemember, and no veteran, is ever left behind. The mission of IAVA is to improve the lives of the more than 1.7 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.  As veterans come home from Iraq and Afghanistan to the worst economy in decades, we need to show real support for our troops and veterans. 

Overall, we are pleased with the limited information currently available about the FY 2010 Budget.  The top line number for veterans’ discretionary funding is about $1.2 billion higher than the amount recommended by leading veterans’ organizations, including IAVA, in the Independent Budget.  The budget plans increases in VA funding by $25 billion over five years.  This funding will be crucial if we are to provide proper care and support to the surge of veterans who will be coming home from combat in the coming years. 

We are also pleased to see the renewed focus on mental health care in the DOD budget, including the comprehensive TBI registry, and also the rollback of concurrent receipt limitations that unfairly cut the benefits available to disabled military retirees.  We were also pleased to see the Administration’s planned expansion of VA health care access to about 500,000 moderate-income veterans.  This is a good first step, although we’d like to see it happen faster.  About 1.8 million veterans lack health insurance, and about 565,000 veterans have been denied VA care because their income level was too high.  IAVA believes every single veteran should be eligible for VA health care.

From what we’ve seen so far, the budget looks strong.  But the devil is in the details.  Until we have had the opportunity to go through this budget line-by-line in April, we can not entirely endorse the plan.  Above all, we must ensure that this budget does not rest on increased copays, premiums and fees for veterans. 

Our biggest disappointment about the current budget is that the President has not opted to include advance appropriations for the VA in his proposal.  Advance appropriations doesn’t cost any additional money, it just gives VA hospitals and clinics advance notice of the funding they will receive the following year.  Right now, VA hospitals have no way of knowing what their budget will be next year, and when the budget is passed late (and it usually is), they often have to ration the care they give veterans. 

The bottom line is, VA budget delays hurt veterans.  I want to tell you about one of the thousands of veterans of all generations who would benefit from advance appropriations.  Rey Leal served as a Marine in Fallujah during some of the heaviest fighting, earning a Bronze Star with valor as a Private First Class, an almost unheard of accomplishment for a soldier of his rank. But when he returned to southern Texas, his closest VA hospital was over five hours away. Rey’s a tough Marine, and a boxer, but he shouldn’t have to fight to get care at a veterans’ hospital. And at his nearest outpatient clinic, there was just one psychologist, taking appointments only two days a week. 

The psychologist only works two days because that Texas clinic, like many VA clinics and hospitals, has to stretch it’s funding to make sure the money lasts the whole year. They don’t know how much funding they’ll have next year because the VA budget is routinely passed late.  For the millions of veterans like Rey, we must fix this broken VA funding system. Advance appropriations is a common-sense solution that President Obama supported as a candidate, and it’s something we would have liked to see in the budget.

If the Obama Administration is not going to lead the fight for advance appropriations, we will need Congress to step in.  A number of members of this committee, including, of course, Chairman Filner, have already proven themselves to be key allies in the fight for advance appropriations, and we thank you for your support.  IAVA is a proud endorser of HR 1016/ S. 423, and we will work with the committees in any way we can to move this legislation forward.  With your help, we can ensure that veterans are not kept waiting, as they have in 19 of the last 22 years, while Congress plays politics with the budget.

Last month, President Obama traveled to Camp Lejeune to announce the eventual drawdown of combat troops in Iraq. No matter what you think of his plan, one thing is clear: the new strategy in Iraq will create a surge of new veterans coming home in 2009 and 2010.  America needs to be ready, and the 2010 veterans’ budget will be a crucial first step.