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HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOTE TO CUT
VETERANS' BENEFITS
(March 18, 2005)
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Earlier this week, the House Republicans voted to reject increased funds for veterans' health care in the war supplemental, and today they voted to actually cut veterans benefits in their budget resolution.
The budget resolution passed, primarily along party lines, by 218 to 213.
The GOP budget resolution contains reconciliation orders requiring the House Veterans' Affairs (VA) Committee to cut benefits or to tax veterans by increasing their fees. For fiscal year 2006, the VA Committee must identify $155 million in benefits cuts or increased fees; and $798 million over the next five years.
The amount available for veterans medical programs, including construction, and benefits administration is $127 million below the amount the Congressional Budget Office estimates would be necessary to maintain the level of services that exist in fiscal year 2005. Over five years, the Republican budget resolution cuts almost $16 billion from these discretionary programs.
One proposal found in the Bush budget and embraced by Republicans on both the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees is a new enrollment fee for some veterans. Other ways of finding savings in veterans programs might include cutting the cash payments made to veterans with service-connected conditions, cutting pension benefits, reducing vocational rehabilitation services or education benefits. Monies could also be raised by increasing the fees charged to veterans who obtain a VA home loan.
Along the path to approving the Republican budget resolution, a Democratic alternative budget resolution offered by Rep. John Spratt, the ranking member of the Budget Committee, which would have added $2.4 billion to veterans' benefits and services, was defeated. An amendment offered by Rep. David Obey, the Democratic leader of the Appropriations Committee which would have added $2.9 billion to the President's Budget, was also defeated.
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