VFW Urges Congress
| to Immediately Pass DOD, VA Budgets: Funds needed to turn benefits commissions' recommendations into reality | |||
| WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2007--The national commander of America's largest organization of combat veterans is urging Congress to immediately pass two key funding packages so that the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs can begin bringing the recommendations made by a pair of wounded veterans' benefits commissions into reality. "The two most important issues in America today are the war and the care of our wounded veterans," said George Lisicki, a Vietnam veteran from Carteret, N.J., who leads the 2.3 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries. "But Congress has yet to pass any fiscal year 2008 funding bill, to include the VA's, which Congress has touted as the largest VA budget increase in history," he said. "You can't brag about something until you finish the job, and that means consolidating the two House and Senate versions into one bill for the president's signature." This marks the eighth consecutive year the VA started a new fiscal year without an on-time budget. The federal government's new fiscal year began Oct. 1. The VFW wants the DOD and VA budgets passed so that some of recommendations made by the two commissions – the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission and the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors – can be accomplished without the need to seek additional appropriations. One key recommendation the VFW fully supports is having the VA assign disability ratings to transitioning servicemen and women instead of having the onus fall on DOD; making fit-for-duty determinations will remain a military service responsibility. Other recommendations would address the VA claims backlog, provide compensation for a disability's impact on an individual's quality of life, expand TRICARE benefits, and allow all current war veterans to receive VA mental health services without first receiving a service-connected determination, among others. But nothing is going to move forward without funding. "There is absolutely no excuse for Congress to fail in its primary responsibility to legislate and appropriate funding," said Lisicki. "DOD is fighting a war and the VA is a partner in that fight. They need funding, not empty rhetoric, because the war is producing casualties who will need a lifetime of care. The budget holdup is severely restricting medical research, healthcare advancements, and equipment and facility upgrades. Congress keeps demanding that DOD and VA improve their systems, but improvements go hand-in-hand with funding." Lisicki believes the reason for Congress' inaction is some of the members are too busy politicking to do their jobs. "Partisan politics is preventing our country from moving forward," he said. "We need elected officials who know how to think on their own and who can compromise when it puts the best interests of America first, and that's why I am now urging my entire membership to tell their senators and representatives to pass the DOD and VA budgets immediately. "Our nation is at war. There are no higher priorities." To contact a member of the Senate, go to click here. To contact a member of the House, click here. To read the Disability Benefits Commission report, click here. To read the President's Commission report, click here. To read testimony from an Oct. 17 Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, click here. |
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