VA’s Budget Request for FY2013 hearing held by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Two questions dominated today’s (02/15/12) VA’s Budget Request for FY2013 hearing held by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs: When will the Administration make a decision on the question of sequester that may greatly impact funding next year for VA healthcare, and, are requests for additional funding being used appropriately to best serve veterans?

Citing potential funding issues next year under sequestration rules, Chairman Jeff Miller asked of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, “Will there be layoffs? Will maintenance needs be postponed? Will facility activations be delayed? For months, I’ve been trying to get clarity about what we, as a Committee, and veterans as our constituency, deserve to have resolved.”

The Committee requested and received in a matter of days, legal opinions from lawyers from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the issue of sequestration and both determined that under current law, VA should be ruled “exempt,” prompting Chairman Miller to ask, “So, why has it been 7 months and we have yet to receive an answer from the Administration?”

VA’s FY2013 budget request represents a 10.5% increase from its FY2012 budget, with a majority of the additional funding being requested for additional disability compensation payments, however, the budget lacks specificity in certain areas.

Specific budget questions the Committee has for VA on the FY2013 budget include:

With revised estimates in FY2012 and FY2013 for VA healthcare funding, where were appropriated funds diverted, amounting to more than $5 billion?

With hundreds of thousands of veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS), is an additional $312 million sufficient to meet current and future needs?

With a surge of veterans expected to return home in the next two years, is VA prepared for the influx of new veterans when VA only allocates 7% of its overall medical care budget for OIF/OEF veterans when homeless veterans receive more than 10%?

For years, promises of IT and manpower have been made to devote to the disability claims backlog, yet as of January 2012, more than 800,000 veterans are awaiting decisions, 60% of which are 125 days old – an increase of more 100% over the past three years. Will this year’s budget finally help turn the corner on the backlog?

“In the end, it is outcomes that really matter,” Miller said. “Veterans don’t care about numbers; they want their claims decided faster, their health care taken care of, and their aging facilities upgraded. That is the question we need to focus on in this budget.”

2013 VA Budget Under the Microscope For more information, contact: Amy K. Mitchell, (202) 225-3527 Feb 15, 2012 Issues: Economy, Veterans.

TEXT and IMAGE CREDIT: House Committee on Veterans' Affairs 335 Cannon House Office Building. Washington, D.C. 20515. Phone: Office: (202) 225-3527, Fax: (202) 225-5486

Paul Ryan: President’s Budget Ensures Debt Crisis and Decline

President’s budget reveals broken promises, failed leadership and a diminished future, February 13, 2012

WASHINGTON – Earlier today, President Obama introduced his Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, calling for record levels of spending increases, tax hikes, and debt. The President’s budget breaks his promise to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, and it breaks his obligation to all Americans to confront the nation’s spending-driven debt crisis.

In response to the President’s failure of leadership, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin issued the following statement:

“President Obama’s irresponsible budget is a recipe for a debt crisis and the decline of America. His refusal to honestly confront our nation’s most pressing challenges does real harm to the economic security of millions of American families. The $1.9 trillion tax increase proposed in his budget will make it harder for businesses to create jobs and for workers to spur economic growth.

“This budget does nothing to prevent the bankruptcy of critical programs, threatening the health and retirement security of current and future seniors. Worse, it continues the President’s policy of letting an unaccountable board of bureaucrats cut Medicare in ways that will lead to denied care for seniors. The broken promises and recycled gimmicks contained in this budget have dramatically widened this President’s growing credibility deficit.

“Our families, seniors, children and grandchildren deserve better than this reckless budget and this dismal failure of leadership. As Chairman of the House Budget Committee, I will continue to work with my colleagues – from both parties where possible – to advance bold solutions that lift our crushing burden of debt and ensure a future of opportunity, growth and prosperity.”

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Key facts from the President’s budget:

Spends Too Much:

$47 trillion of government spending over the next decade

Proposes a net increase over current spending projections

Taxes Too Much:

$1.9 trillion in new taxes

Raises taxes, not to pay down the debt, but to fuel more government spending

Borrows Too Much:

Four straight years of trillion-dollar-plus deficits; no plan to reduce the debt

Gross debt at the end of FY22: $25.9 trillion

Budget Gimmicks & Broken Promises

Overstates new deficit reduction by taking credit for savings already enacted

Exploits discredited budget gimmick by “not spending” nearly $1 trillion that was never going to be spent.

A bicameral fact sheet prepared by the House Budget Committee and Senate Budget Committee:
budget.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=280065

House Budget Committee hearings this week to review the President’s FY13 budget:

- Wednesday, February 15 – 10:00 AM – OMB Acting Director Jeffrey Zients

- Thursday, February 16 – 2:00 PM – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

- To learn more: budget.house.gov/HearingSchedule/

TEXT and IMAGE CREDIT: HouseBudgetCommittee Committee on the Budget U.S. House of Representatives 207 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: 202.226.7270 Email: Budget.Republicans@mail.house.gov