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Washington, March 9, 2005 - The commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. called on Congress today to fix the veterans' health care shortfalls in the president's fiscal year 2006 budget.
"The administration's budget is troubling in many ways because it's an obvious attempt to balance part of the nation's deficit on the backs of a disabled and aging military veteran population," testified John Furgess, before a joint meeting of the House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affairs.
Furgess highlighted a number of major concerns the VFW has with the administration's budget. The proposed increase of $100 million in appropriated funding for VA health care is a scant four-tenths of one percent. It would create a $250 annual enrollment fee for more than two million Category 7 and 8 veterans; increase the prescription co-payment from $7 per 30-day supply to $15; reduce prosthetic research by $9 million; slash $351 million from veterans' nursing homes by serving 28,000 fewer residents and eliminating $104 million in state grants; and it would eliminate more than 3,000 Department of Veterans Affairs personnel while a backlog of more than 700,000 claims exists.
Furgess asked the senators and representatives to help make the budget fit the need and not make the need fit the budget by eliminating or reducing services while increasing costs. He also urged them to make military veterans the number one priority of the nation.
"It was the blood and sweat of the American military man and woman that ultimately created this country, saved our Union, and helped free the world from tyranny," he said. "In return, the only thing we ever asked for, as Teddy Roosevelt said, 'was to be given a square deal afterwards.'
"The VFW celebrates the service of those who protected us yesterday and those who protect us today and tomorrow," he said, "and that's why the VFW demands that you improve upon the president's VA budget request for fiscal year 2006."
To read the full text of commander in chief testimony.
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