FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A year after Americans recoiled at new revelations that sick veterans were getting sicker while languishing on waiting lists – and months after the Department of Veterans Affairs instituted major reforms – government data shows that the number of patients facing long waits at VA facilities has not dropped at all.
No one expected that the VA mess could be fixed overnight. But The Associated Press has found that since the summer, the number of medical appointments delayed 30 to 90 days has largely stayed flat. The number of appointments that take longer than 90 days to complete has nearly doubled. *** Last month, Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald on Friday released the names of members serving on a new panel intended to improve VA services and help in long-range reform planning.
The committee members bring together a range of experiences and specialties from the private sector, state government, health care, academia and veterans organizations.
“The collective wisdom of our committee members is invaluable and each of them understands that VA must improve customer service and focus the Department on the needs of our Veterans. They are dedicated to that mission and I am grateful for their principled service to our Veterans,” McDonald said.
*** Simply put, there is no improvement at the VA and to date there are no viable solutions except to throw money at it each year, where discretionary spending appears to go without oversight. That spending is also in the billions. The VA budget in 2014 was $153 billion, in 2015 it is $140 billion and the requested budget for 2016 is $168 billion with $70.2 in discretionary funds. All the while the number of overdue claims still hovers at 600,000. Navigating the Veterans Administration for a veteran is a Herculean task and for the most part impossible.
So, the normal Congressional process is to take political postured footing and then hear Barack Obama put in his ever so common veto threat. Sadly, the veterans are as always caught in the middle. Having a real accounting of spent funds, wasted funds and lost funds is a prudent objective which would be forced with smart budget planning.
House Dems bolster Obama veto threat
Bolstering a White House veto threat, House Democrats on Wednesday began lining up against a Republican bill funding the Veterans Affairs Department next year.
“I won’t support it,” Rep. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said Wednesday, “and I don’t believe our Caucus will support that, either.” Addressing the Democrats at a closed-door caucus meeting in the Capitol Wednesday, VA Secretary Robert McDonald warned the lawmakers that the GOP’s $77 billion bill funding the department and military construction projects in fiscal 2016 falls short of the resources needed to provide health and other services to the nation’s veterans.
Relaying McDonald’s message, Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said the GOP’s bill would scale back health benefits for roughly 70,000 veterans, while also denying funds for medical research, education and veterans’ cemeteries.
“The secretary came and sent a very strong message, something we rarely hear: ‘Please don’t let this funding bill become law, if you care about our veterans. We must do better for them,'” Becerra said.
Passed with bipartisan support by the House Appropriations Committee last week, the bill provides a 5.6 percent increase for the VA over 2015 levels, but falls more than $1 billion shy of the figure President Obama had included in his 2016 budget request.
Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) hailed the measure as “a balanced, thorough bill that will help improve the quality of life … [and] address the current and future needs of our veterans.”
The Democratic leaders see it differently, accusing the Republicans of adhering to spending levels dictated by the “incoherent” sequester law at the expense of veterans.
“We should not use the excuse — anyone in Congress — that sequester made you do this,” Becerra said. “If we divest in the Veterans Administration for something as incoherent as a bad law … then we’re doing injustice and disservice to our veterans.”
Scheduled for a floor vote Wednesday evening, the VA funding bill is expected to pass with overwhelming Republican support.
But the White House on Tuesday issued a statement threatening to veto the measure, saying it “fails” to fund building upgrades on military bases and expansions to medical facilities used by veterans.
The staunch opposition from leading Democrats suggests the president’s House allies would be able to sustain a veto if GOP leaders passed the bill and attempted to override the president.
