Members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee rallied support Thursday for an assured stream of funding for veterans’ health care.

Committee members Phil Hare , D-Ill., and John Hall , D-N.Y., spoke in favor of a draft bill that would replace discretionary funding of veterans’ healthcare with mandatory spending, adjusted annually by a formula that takes into account health care inflation and the number of enrollees in the Veterans Affairs Department health system.

Hare planned to introduce the bill, which he says already has 73 sponsors. Several veterans’ groups, including the Disabled American Veterans, the American Legion and the Paralyzed Veterans of America, have announced support for the the legislation.

While the bill has been introduced in similar form in past years, appropriators have opposed the measure. But Hare and Hall said that recent shortfalls caused by administration underestimates of veterans’ health needs have proven the necessity of mandatory funding.

“VA health care is currently the only major federal health program that is not funded through mandatory appropriations,” Hare said. “You’re sort of left at the mercy ... of how much you can get appropriated and what the political climate is.”

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner , D-Calif., said Wednesday he supports the idea but did not commit to committee action on the bill this year.

“I’ve got to check with our leadership,” Filner said.

Hare’s bill would appropriate fiscal 2008 veterans’ health funding at 130 percent of the level of fiscal 2006 funding. After that, the formula would be determined annually by the number of enrollees in the VA health care system and a consumer price index rate for hospital and other health-related services in urban areas.

Hall said Filner also has floated the idea of an outside office to make projections of the VA’s budget needs in order to avoid future shortfalls. In 2005, faulty budget projections resulted in a $1 billion shortfall.

There are few complaints about the proposed level of fiscal 2008 veterans’ health care spending in a bill approved by the House Military Construction-VA Appropriations Subcommittee. That bill, also a draft measure, would for the first time reached level of funding recommended by veterans’ groups in their annual “Independent Budget” by providing $2.5 billion more than requested by the president for VA medical accounts.

But House Military Construction-VA Appropriations panel Chairman Chet Edwards , D-Texas, is not listed as a co-sponsor of Hare’s legislation, and his office would not say whether he would support the legislation.

Hare shrugged off concerns about possible opposition to his bill from appropriators.

“I’ve talked to a couple of the appropriators about this,” Hare said. “I think the dynamics have changed a lot.”