By Patrick Yoest, CQ Staff
The president plans to approve $3.7 billion in "contingency" funding for veterans' programs after he returns from his Middle East trip, ending speculation over whether the White House would block release of the funding.
The omnibus fiscal 2008 spending bill (PL 110-161), a $555 billion measure that funds 14 of the 15 Cabinet-level departments and several independent agencies, includes $3.7 billion in "contingency" emergency spending for the Veterans' Affairs Department.
Veterans' groups and Democrats had pushed for the funding, which Bush has until Jan. 18 to approve. According to administration sources, the Veterans' Affairs Department signed off on release of the funding on Tuesday, Jan. 8.
The release "will occur sometime after the president returns, likely next week," a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget said Thursday.
The president must formally request the money from Congress. The majority of the funds will go to the Veterans' Health Administration, for medical services, administration, facilities and research accounts.
The omnibus bill contained $108.4 billion overall for military construction and veterans' programs, including the contingency funding. The White House said months ago that it had no objection to the $3.7 billion Congress wanted to spend on top of the president's budget request for veterans, but it wanted the funds offset with reductions in spending elsewhere.
Congress refused, keeping the "emergency" designation on the funds and passing the decision to the president on whether to spend the money. Emergency funding does not count against discretionary spending caps, even though it adds to the budget deficit.
Veterans' groups, which had written several letters urging the president to release the funding, expressed satisfaction with the administration's decision.
"We appreciate the fact that the president is going to request the additional and much-needed funding for veterans' programs," said Joe Violante, legislative director of the Disabled American Veterans.
The release of the funding also will come as welcome news to Democratic members of House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees, who had pointed to major problems within the VA that they said required an infusion of funding.
"Providing the full level of appropriated funds to VA will ensure, among other things, that the department will be able to provide timely access to services, furnish improved mental health services and develop the needed capacity to handle the massive claims backlog," a Dec. 21 letter from Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Democrats stated.
On Thursday, Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, the panel's chairman, said, "I am pleased President Bush plans to release the full amount of funding for VA as approved by Congress in the omnibus appropriations bill. As the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, we must recognize that care for those wounded in combat is part of the true cost of war."
First posted Jan. 9, 2008 10:53 a.m.
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