The fiscal 2020 budget deal finalized by Congress on
Thursday will give the Department of Veterans Affairs another hefty funding
increase next year.
The $1.4 trillion budget deal, which avoids a partial
government shutdown until at least next fall, includes nearly $217 billion for
VA operations, matching the White House’s request for veterans program
operations. The total is more than a 9 percent boost for the department,
significantly more than most other federal agencies.
That’s the largest budget in VA history, and continues a
nearly 20-year run of significant spending hikes in the department. In fiscal
2001, the VA budget totaled about $45 billion. In fiscal 2011, it was about
$125 billion.
Those increases have caused concerns among fiscal
conservatives on Capitol Hill, but not actual public opposition to the VA
spending increases.
In an interview with Military Times in November, VA
Secretary Robert Wilkie said his officials are working to ensure they money is
being spent efficiently and effectively but “I haven’t heard anybody get up and
say publicly ‘enough is enough’ with the VA budget.”
Mandatory spending on medical benefits and disability claims
amounts to almost three-fifths of all VA spending for next fiscal year.
Discretionary spending alone, which totals $92 billion, is increasing about 6
percent from fiscal 2019 levels.
The bill includes $80.2 billion for the Veterans Health
Administration, including $9.4 billion for mental health services, $222 million
for suicide prevention outreach, $585 for gender-specific care for women and
$300 million in rural health initiatives.
Lawmakers included $125 million extra for processing
disability claims from “blue water” Navy veterans, whose cases will begin being
processed on Jan. 1. That money is designed to help hire new staff and pay for
overtime work, not to cover the estimated $6 billion cost of awarding the
benefits over the next decade.
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