The Mid-Atlantic Regional Group
Blinded Veterans Association
Legislative News
February 24, 2010
The Chairman of the House VA Committee sent this press release out yesterday regarding a hearing on the VHA portion of the VA budget for FY 2011 and wanted to share this with our contacts and members.
Veterans Health Administration Proposes Robust Budget for FY 2011
Washington, D.C. - On Tuesday, February 23, 2010, the Health Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, led by Chairman Mike Michaud (D-ME), conducted a hearing to examine President Obama’s budget request for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The hearing focused on the Administration’s budget for VA medical care, as well as the VHA portion of the construction and information technology budget request.
The Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009 was enacted into law on October 22, 2009, and provides for advance appropriations for the VA medical care accounts for the upcoming fiscal year. Under this law, the Administration is able to request two budgets for the VA: one to provide fiscal 2011 total funding and another to provide fiscal 2012 funding for the VA medical accounts. The Administration proposes $51.5 billion in fiscal year 2011 for VA medical care, which is an increase of $4.1 billion over fiscal year 2010 levels. The Administration’s request for fiscal year 2012 for VA medical care is $54.3 billion, which is about $3 billion or 5.3 percent above the 2011 request.
“The fiscal year 2011 budget request addresses many of the shared priorities of this subcommittee, such as rural health access, mental health treatment, and homeless veteran prevention,” said Chairman Michaud. “This subcommittee will continue to examine the details of the President’s 2011 budget request to ensure adequate resources for construction, information technology advances, and meeting the needs of our returning service members, including those who deployed as part of the troop surge to Afghanistan.”
Witness List
Panel 1
· The Honorable Robert A. Petzel, M.D., Under Secretary for Health, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Accompanied by:
o Mr. Paul Kearns, Chief Financial Officer, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
o Mr. Robert L. Neary, Acting Director, Office of Construction and Facilities Management, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
o Ms. Brandi Fate, Director, Capital Asset Management and Planning Service, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Panel 2
· Mr. Blake C. Ortner, Senior Associate Legislative Director, Paralyzed Veterans of America, The Independent Budget
· Mr. Eric A. Hilleman, Director, National Legislative Service, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, The Independent Budget
· Mr. Joseph L. Wilson, Deputy Director, Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission, The American Legion
Prepared testimony and a link to the webcast of the hearing are available on the internet at this link: http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/hearing.aspx?newsid=522.
Also, next week, on March 4th, BVA will be providing testimony before the House VA Committee, if you link on to this web link above, you can listen to our annual testimony before the full committee by Roy Kekahuna.
Thanks,
Tom Zampieri
Blinded Veterans Association
Washington DC
BVA's Legislative Alerts Group
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