Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-Manhattan & Queens) today hailed the appropriation of $3.7 billion in additional federal funding for programs benefitting veterans of America’s armed forces.  The funding constitutes the largest single spending increase in the 77-year history of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  The funding, which had previously been approved by both houses of Congress, was released by President Bush yesterday.

"With this historic increase in veterans’ funding, Congress is moving the federal government in a long overdue new direction in its treatment of our nation’s veterans,” said Congresswoman Maloney.  “As someone whose family members have served in our nation’s military for generations, I am gratified to help ensure that our government honors America’s veterans in both words and deeds.  After years of neglect in Washington, with this step we will ensure that our veterans have the resources and benefits they have earned and that they deserve.  This funding will help and improve the health care services available to our veterans at facilities like the Manhattan Veterans Hospital on East 23rd Street and the Queens Community Clinic in Sunnyside.”

"The squalor and decay at veterans’ medical institutions like Walter Reed Hospital served as a graphic reminder of the national disgrace that has been the state of veterans’ health care for far too long,” Maloney added.  “It is simply unacceptable that brave American men and women returning from tours of combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan should receive anything less than top-notch care in well-maintained facilities," she said.  "America can and must do better.  Coupled with badly needed reforms proposed in the Wounded Warriors Act, this significant increase in veterans’ funding will at long last help remedy this gross injustice.  I am gratified that the Bush Administration has finally agreed to this desperately needed spending, after short-sightedly rejecting the $3.7 billion that the Democratic-led Congress added to the President's 2008 budget proposal."

With this release of the additional veterans’ funding, the 110th Congress has provided an extra $6.7 billion over the last year, constituting the largest single funding increase in the 77-year history of the Department of Veterans Affairs.  As the Iraq War nears its sixth year, the additional funds will:

•Help deliver quality health care to 5.8 million patients, including about 263,000 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan;

•Invest in much-needed maintenance for VA health care facilities and treatment for returning veterans with physical disabilities, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, and other serious medical conditions; and

•Reduce the estimated backlog of 400,000 veterans’ claims for earned benefits by adding 1,800 claims processors.

The additional funding will expand on initial moves by the current 110th Congress taken at the beginning of 2007, which included increasing veterans' health care and benefits by $5.2 billion to improved care and cut red tape for veterans who had been waiting 177 days on average to receive their earned benefits.

With a median annual income of $23,000, most veterans receiving VA health care are struggling to reach the middle class.

The increase won widespread support and praise from America's leading veterans' organizations including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Military Officers Association of America, Paralyzed Veterans of America, AmVets, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, National Association for Uniformed Services and Disabled American Veterans.

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