Out of respect to those who have served the nation and to America’s taxpayers, NTU must urge all Members of Congress to vote “NO” on the conference report to H.R. 3230, the Veterans Affairs reform bill. This legislation can and should be reformulated to better meet the needs of our veterans.
A cash infusion of $17 billion, $12 billion of which is considered “emergency mandatory spending,” is not the remedy that will truly improve the plight of veterans who are suffering from inept government administration, particularly when it comes to medical care. Given the current disgraceful state of the VA, it might be easy to believe the rhetoric that the agency has been faced with slashed budgets and funding shortfalls. In reality, the VA’s total budget has grown by 235 percent, the largest such increase among Cabinet agencies under the current administration. Less than one year ago, Representative Jeff Miller (R-FL), the House’s lead negotiator on this legislation, said rightly in a statement to the Dayton Daily Newsthat the “VA doesn’t have a money problem.” Earlier this year, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates also stated that the unconscionable treatment delays at VA medical centers were “not for lack of money.”
A recent report issued by Senator Coburn’s (R-OK) office found that billions in taxpayer funds have been left unspent in VA coffers from year to year. In Fiscal Year 2013, they totaled over $34 billion ($25.6 obligated, $8.8 unobligated), more than the entire National Institutes of Health’s annual budget and more than enough to pay for the underwhelming overhaul prescribed by H.R. 3230. The report also details waste in the hundreds of millions of dollars such as excessive staff bonuses (which H.R. 3230 does address), duplicative programs, over-budget construction projects, excessive paperwork, overpaying for procurements, and improper payments.
In the final analysis, only a fundamental reexamination of how the VA goes about its business will prevent the agency’s abominable scandals from recurring. H.R. 3230 does expand service options for veterans, but still falls short of what they deserve such as a prioritizing care for service-related injuries and means testing.
In addition, this bill constitutes a misuse of “emergency” spending. Long wait times and other serious problems are old news for anyone who has been watching the VA scandal unfold over the past year and cannot be considered unpredictable or unforeseen. Indeed, the Government Accountability Office and VA Inspector General have been detailing long-standing scheduling issues for years. Regardless of these opinions, if Congress collectively believes that additional “crisis-level” funding is necessary for VA, then it should collectively work toward finding offsets in lower priority programs.
Roll call votes on the conference report to H.R. 3230 will be included in our annual Rating of Congress and a “NO” vote will be considered the pro-taxpayer position.
If you have any questions, please contact NTU Federal Affairs Manager Nan Swift at (703) 683-5700