Congress Clears Bill to Put VA on a Two-year Budget Cycle
Wednesday, October 14, 2009(National Federation of Federal Employees)
Yesterday, the U.S.
Senate cleared a bill that would put veterans’
health care programs on a two-year budget
cycle. The measure (HR 1016), which
cleared by voice vote, would authorize
appropriations for the Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) medical care programs one year in
advance of the start of each fiscal year. The
authority would start in fiscal year 2011 for
three VA medical care accounts: medical
services, medical support and compliance, and
medical facilities. The bill now heads to
the White House for President Obama’s
signature. The President has already
indicated that he supports the
legislation.
The VA has received
its appropriation from Congress by the start of
the fiscal year just twice in the last fourteen
years. Because of this chronic delay in
funding, VA medical centers have had to delay
the hiring of nurses and other health care
providers, postpone the purchase and repair of
medical equipment, and put off the construction
and repair of medical facilities. All of
these setbacks adversely impact the delivery of
care to our nation’s veterans. Many of
these problems could be mitigated or even
eliminated by the switch to an advanced
appropriation.
“The current
system for funding the VA has not been
working,” said Randy Erwin, legislative
director of the National Federation of Federal
Employees. “Something as simple as hiring
nurses has been difficult because the VA
doesn’t know how much money they will have to
hire nurses until well into the fiscal year,
and at that point the VA has trouble spending
the money efficiently. The agency has
been in a permanent state of feast or
famine. This legislation will allow the
VA far more time to plan for how to allocate
its precious few resources.”