FOR RELEASE: February 06, 2002

Evans Calls Veterans’ Budget Major Disappointment; Veterans’ Medical Care Funding Inadequate, Transfer Of Veterans Employment Program Proposed Without Explanation, Veterans Claims Backlog Continues

Illinois Lawmaker Welcomes Administration Work On Procurement Reform 

Washington, DC -- Congressman Lane Evans (D-IL), today called the newly released Bush Administration budget for veterans, “a major disappointment.”  Evans is the senior Democratic Member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. 

Evans said the new proposal for veterans is “particularly disappointing because Bush Administration public statements describing the budget could easily mislead some veterans.  Our veterans have earned and deserve the simple truth, Evans continued.  Instead, the Administration’s public description of this budget is likely to create misunderstanding among some veterans about the facts of the new VA medical care budget proposed by the Bush Administration.”

For example, Evans continued, “the Bush Administration claims the new veterans budget requests a record-setting ‘$25.5 billion for medical programs”’.  The fact is the Bush Administration is really asking Congress to appropriate $22.75 billion for veterans’ medical care -- $2.75 billion less than the reported record-setting reported total.”  

Of the $25.5 billion the Bush Administration claims the budget will provide for veterans medical care, $794 million will simply shift personnel related costs to VA from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).  Another $1.28 billion is to offset unavoidable cost increases like inflation, higher pharmaceutical prices, and federal pay raises.  Taken together, this $2 billion “increase” doesn’t provide a single dime more for medical care for veterans, Evans said.   

Evans pointed out that the proposed increase in the medical care appropriation for fiscal year 2003 is approximately $100 million more than the $1.3 billion Congress appropriated for fiscal year 2002 which the Administration acknowledges is $400 million short of meeting veterans’ needs.  Five of VA’s 22 networks have already projected shortfalls in funding for veterans medical care by the year’s end.  The Administration already plans to request a $142 million supplement for funding to continue to treat non-service connected, higher income veterans.  It plans to find another $300 million in “management efficiencies”.  As proposed by the Administration, the FY 2003 VA medical care budget will require VA to find an additional $316 million in management savings in order to meet veterans’ demand for health care. 

The Administration budget also assumes Congress will pass a Bush proposal to impose a new $1,500 annual copayment on higher income non-service connected veterans who receive medical care from VA.  If Congress were to reject this proposal, VA would require an additional $1.15 billion in appropriations to cover the cost of providing this care.  

Evans continued by saying more than $400 million of the reported budget increase for veterans medical care is projected to come from increased collections by VA, particularly veterans’ copayments.  With the recent increase from $2 to $7 in the amount veterans are charged by VA for a prescription, much of this “increase” in funding for medical care is being paid for by veterans themselves.  

Evans also noted the Bush Administration veterans’ medical care appropriation is nearly $2 billion less than veterans’ organizations requested President Bush recommend.  In a January letter, the Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., Paralyzed Veterans of America and AMVETS, called on President Bush to propose a veterans’ medical care appropriation of $24.5 billion.  Evans said he regrets the Administration has not heeded this budget advice from veterans.

Evans said the Bush budget again emphasizes the need to reduce the huge backlog in claims for benefits submitted by veterans.  No one disagrees with providing veterans good service, Evans continued, and reducing the claims backlog while increasing the quality of decision-making, is a goal everyone can support.  Evans expressed concern, however, that during the first four months of fiscal year 2002, the number of rating cases awaiting a decision for over 180 days increased from 172,294 to 204,006.  Evans said veterans are waiting for VA to reduce claims processing time without sacrificing decision-making quality or VA’s statutory duty to assist veterans develop their claims which President Bush has strongly supported in the past. 

Evans said the Bush budget for veterans also calls for transferring to VA veterans employment programs now administered by the Department of Labor.  Evans said the Administration has not provided any justification, rationale or basis for the transfer of employment programs to VA and he expects Congress will “not buy a pig in a poke.”  Evans encouraged the Administration to provide a full and complete explanation of the proposed transfer so it can be fully examined. 

The budget calls for coordinating the medical care systems of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Defense to improve health care delivery.  As reported in the Administration’s budget, “Although VA and the Department of Defense (DOD) both operate very large medical care systems with a combined cost of over $40 billion yearly, historically there has been little cooperation between the Departments.”  According to the budget only $100 million – or one-quarter of one percent – of $40 billion in expenses passes from one Department to the other.  “Given the budget rhetoric on sharing resources,” Evans commented, “it’s surprising the budget lacks a proposal from the Administration to achieve more sharing or even sets a goal for increased sharing that could be achieved without action by Congress.” 

Evans welcomed the Administration’s acknowledgement of VA’s need to improve procurement processes.  Calling for reduced VA procurement costs, Evans recently introduced H.R. 3645, the VA Health-Care Items Procurement Reform and Improvement Act of 2002.  Evans said enactment of his legislation would leverage the enormous untapped purchasing power of VA and reduce annual VA spending on medical and surgical supplies by an estimated tens of millions of dollars annually.  Evans said the budget reports that a VA Procurement Reform Task Force is likely to soon issue a draft report on procurement reform.  Evans said he welcomed the Administration’s commitment to procurement reform and called on Congress to support and act on procurement reform legislation.

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Link to Budget Table prepared by the Democratic staff of the Committee on Veterans Affairs.