Veterans could take $327 million hit

Since 12-16-05

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Subject: Evans: Veterans could take $327 million hit

Evans: Veterans could take $327 million hit

By Rick Maze
NavyTimes staff writer
December 14, 2005

Disabled veterans and their families could get a lump of coal for Christmas from House Republican leaders, warns a key House Democrat. Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said Republican plans to include across-the-board cuts in federal spending as one of the last acts of Congress this year “could equate to a loss of $327 million, mostly in health care dollars, in vital resources to care for our veterans.”

Evans is referring to a 1 percent reduction in all federal spending proposed as a provision in the 2006 defense appropriations bill. No federal programs would be exempted. A vote on the defense funding bill is expected over the next few days, making it one of the last measures lawmakers will send to President Bush this year. Brooke Adams, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee press secretary and spokesperson for its chairman, Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., said Evans’ complaint is premature.

“This is a hypothetical,” she said. But Evans charged the “true priorities of House Republicans are unveiled” by talking of indiscriminate budget cuts, and the priorities “are not the priorities of the citizens in my district and state, nor are they the priorities of our veterans.” House Republican leaders have been under pressure from fiscal conservatives to cut federal spending to at least partly offset the cost of hurricane relief and recovery.

Hopes for passing a separate budget-cutting measure were dashed by the inability to reach agreement with the Senate, which left House leaders to propose across-the-board cuts as a way of appeasing those wanting budget cuts. Evans said cuts, if applied to veterans programs would reverse the ground gained earlier this year when the Bush administration admitted that veterans programs — especially health care — was underfunded.

“Now the House Republican leadership wants to turn right around and take away a significant portion of this funding,” he said.“ Arbitrary cuts in veterans health care spending are irresponsible and demonstrate yet again the inability of the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress to understand the needs of veterans,” Evans said. “They fail to recognize that caring for veterans is a continuing cost of war. And supporting our troops does not end when they take off the uniform and re-enter the civilian world.”

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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)