Funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will reach $44 billion in the fiscal year 2000 budget submitted to Congress today.
"As
we plan for a new century, it is critical that our commitment to keeping
America's promise by
providing
quality care and exceptional service to our nation's veterans remains unchanged,"
said
Secretary
of Veterans Affairs Togo D. West, Jr. "The Administration's budget proposal
for
veterans
reflects that commitment."
VA's
fiscal year 2000 budget, a $200 million increase over last year, will provide
budget authority
of
$43.6 billion and outlays of $44 billion for the department. It includes
funding for benefits and
services
for the country's more than 25 million veterans and 44 million family members.
Among the budget highlights this year are funding for:
VA
also seeks $106 million to fund alternative long-term care programs such
as home care. The
Medicare
subvention demonstration program will again be sought by the Administration
in 1999 to
test
the feasibility of VA collecting Medicare payments for VA care provided
to Medicare-eligible,
higher-income
veterans without service-connected disabilities. The budget also includes
a
legislative
proposal for provision of out-of-network emergency care for service-connected
veterans
enrolled in the system.
The
budget provides $860 million -- $49 million over the 1999 enacted level
-- to further ensure
the
timely delivery of compensation, housing, education, pension and insurance
benefits to
veterans.
An additional 440 full-time employees will be added to process disability
claims
efficiently.
The
budget requests $97 million -- $5 million above the 1999 enacted level
-- to operate the
National
Cemetery Administration. This increase provides the funding to further
the development
of
the system that has been underway for a few years.
New
budget authority of $296 million is requested for VA's construction programs.
The budget
request
provides funding for major construction projects, resources for minor construction,
and
grants
for state veterans' nursing homes and cemeteries.
In
addition, the budget proposes to authorize the establishment of a new five-year
pilot that would
allow
VA to sell, transfer, or exchange its excess properties, retain 90 percent
of the proceeds,
and
reinvest those proceeds into non-recurring capital needs to benefit veterans.
The
proposed budget will permit the department to continue the shift from hospital
inpatient care
to
outpatient and noninstitutional care settings, enabling the department
to provide better and
more
accessible health care to a greater number of veterans.
A
total of $17.3 billion is requested to provide quality medical care to
3.6 million unique patients,
an
increase of 53,500 patients over last year. In addition, VA is requesting
authority for the
expenditure
of $749 million in third-party insurance collections and copayments, for
a total
medical
care budget of $18.1 billion.
Using
two nationally recognized clinical guidelines, health care for the veterans
VA treats will
continue
to improve to levels of quality that exceed national standards.
The medical care budget includes resources to:
The
budget requests $21.6 billion to provide compensation and pension benefits
to veterans and
their
survivors. Nearly 2.3 million veterans and 300,000 survivors will receive
compensation
benefits
in fiscal year 2000. Pension benefits will be provided to more than 380,000
veterans and
268,000
survivors.
The
Administration proposes to provide a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA),
based on the
Consumer
Price Index, to all compensation beneficiaries including Dependency and
Indemnity
Compensation
(DIC) for spouses and children. It is currently estimated at 2.4 percent.
This is the
same
as the COLA that will be provided, under current law, to veterans pension
and Social
Security
recipients. The increase would be effective Dec. 1, 1999, and would cost
an estimated
$293
million during fiscal year 2000.
With
the additional staff dedicated to claims processing, VA is projecting an
improvement in
timeliness.
The
Administration proposes a budget of $97 million and 1,406 employees for
the National
Cemetery
Administration, an increase of $5 million over the 1999 level.
The
increase includes an additional $770,000 for more employees and equipment
to address the
projected
fiscal year 2000 growth in the number of interments to be performed at
existing
cemeteries.
Additional
funding and personnel are requested to continue the activation of the new
national
cemetery
in Ohio and for the first full year of operations at three new national
cemeteries in New
York,
Illinois and Texas. These new cemeteries will increase to 77 percent the
number of veterans
served
with reasonable access to a veterans cemetery.
New budget authority totaling $60 million is requested for VA's major construction program, which includes funding for a clinical improvement project at Kansas City, Mo., a spinal cord injury and rehabilitation project at Tampa, Fla., a patient environment project at Murfreesboro, Tenn., and a gravesite development project at Leavenworth, Kan. Also, construction funds are provided to remove asbestos from VA-owned buildings and to support planning and design activities.
In
addition, new budget authority totaling $175 million is requested for the
minor construction
program
to make improvements to ambulatory care settings, patient environment and
VA's aging
infrastructure.
New budget authority of $11 million is requested for grants for state veterans
cemeteries
and $40 million for grants for the state extended care programs.
SOURCE:
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Monday, February 1, 1999