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Air Force Times: "Senators: VA needs funds to step up research"

By Rick Maze - Staff writer

June 7, 2007

Two key senators are trying to get more money for medical and prosthetic research for the Veterans Affairs Department.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman, and Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, the former chairman and now senior Republican on the veterans' committee, have asked the Senate committee responsible for funding government programs to provide enough money to not just sustain current research, but try to advance the quality of life for disabled veterans.

Akaka and Craig made their request for funding in a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will soon decide how much money to allocate to various federal agencies and where, exactly, it will be spent.

The Bush administration's proposed budget for VA recommends a $411 million research budget, a $1 million decrease from current spending. "Unfortunately, the President has proposed flatline funding of the VA research budget for a third consecutive year, which would severely impair VA's ability to respond to the changing needs of veterans, young and old," Akaka and Craig wrote in their letter.

"VA requires increased funds just to sustain current research and development program commitments, and to cover inflationary cost increases associated with these commitments," the letter says, asking for a research budget that is "substantially above last year's funding level."

Akaka and Craig say some of the extra money they are seeking should support research into treatment of traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans.

"TBI has become the signature wound of the war in Iraq and we must commit the proper resources to deal with and treat all aspects of the injury," the letter says.

"A robust research program is also essential if VA is to match the needs of service members returning from combat who are suffering injuries that would have been fatal in previous wars," the two senators wrote. "Improvements in battlefield medicine enable the military medical personnel to stabilize injuries, but often the wounded men and women will require prosthetics and extensive rehabilitation to achieve maximum independence. There should be no disagreement that for all these veterans have sacrificed in the line of duty, we should match their commitment to service with a similar commitment to vigorously explore new ways to help them live freer and fuller lives."

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/06/military_veterans_researchmoney_070607w/


Year: 2008 , [2007] , 2006

June 2007

 
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