"The Administration's budget request for Department of Veterans Affairs health care is a shocking one, providing once again a woefully inadequate funding level for sick and disabled veterans." (Richard B. Fuller, PVA Legislative Director, 2/4/04)

"This deplorable budget will do nothing to alleviate the many thousands of veterans who are waiting six months or more for basic health care appointments with the VA. Instead, the budget seeks to drive veterans from the system by realigning funding, charging enrollment fees for access, and more than doubling the prescription drug copayment. This is inexcusable." (Edward S. Banas, Sr., VFW Commander-in- Chief, 2/2/04)

• Inadequate funding for health care. Under the President's Fiscal Year 2005 Budget, budget authority for veterans' medical care will rise to $27.051 billion from $26.544 billion appropriated by Congress in Fiscal Year 2004 - an increase of only $507 million, or 1.9 percent. Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander-in-Chief Edward S. Banas, Sr. stated that "this funding package is a disgrace and a sham." (VFW Press Release, 2/2/04) Even VA Secretary Anthony Principi admitted that President Bush shortchanged veterans, testifying to the House Veterans Affairs Committee that he asked the White House for $1.2 billion more than VA received.
  
  
• New fees and copayments. Last year, President Bush proposed establishing steep new fees and copayments for Priority 7 and Priority 8 veterans. Congress, with bipartisan opposition to this proposal, increased the President's meager veterans' budget to block this proposal. Despite Congress's action last year, President Bush has again called for establishing $250 annual fees for Priority 7 and Priority 8 veterans, and increasing pharmaceutical copayments from $7 to $15 for these same veterans. As Richard Fuller, Legislative Director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) points out, "punitive copayments and charges are designed not so much to swell projected budget increases as they are to deter veterans from seeking their care at VA medical facilities." (House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing, 2/4/04) Along with a continuing prohibition against new Priority 8 veterans enrolling in the system, these additional fees are intended to discourage approximately 210,000 veterans from seeking VA health care.
  
  
• Priority 8 enrollment ban. The Bush Administration claims that its Fiscal Year 2005 VA budget "fully funds all those Priority Group 8 veterans already in the system, ensuring that no veteran currently in the system will be denied care." First of all, this claim is not only false, but its funding comes with the price of new copayments and fees for these Priority 8 veterans. Second, this political doublespeak is simply another way of saying that the ban on new Priority 8 veterans enrolling in the VA medical system, imposed last year by President Bush, will continue through Fiscal Year 2005.
  
  
• Medical research cutbacks. The President's budget cuts funding for VA medical and prosthetic research by $50 million from the Fiscal Year 2004 budget approved by Congress - translating into the loss of 149 projects. The VA Medical Research function funds research into development of new prosthetic technologies, treatment of mental illness, prevention of cancer, effects of pathogen exposure, and other important efforts. The President's proposal would set funding back six years - to Fiscal Year 1999 levels.
  
  
• Exacerbated claims backlog. When President Bush took office, he promised to significantly reduce the backlog for processing veterans' disability claims by September 2003. Despite this promise, there are currently 348,000 veterans across the nation waiting an average of 189 days - over 6 months - to have their disability recognized by the VA. These veterans are being told that they must wait for priority health care, prescription drugs, disability compensation, and other benefits because the bureaucracy is too slow to process their paperwork.
  
  Instead of addressing this backlog, President Bush's budget proposal would cut 540 staff who review claims for benefits like disability and pension payments. Such a cut is likely to further exacerbate this already intolerable waiting period, precisely at a time when a new generation of veterans returning from Iraq will be filing disability claims.