Press conference: Advance funding for Veterans' health care

US Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) and Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairmen of the Senate and House Veterans Affairs Committees, were joined by Congressional colleagues, veterans groups and a former top VA official supporting legislation that would permit advance funding for veterans health care, allowing VA to make strategic long term decisions such as hiring medical personnel and funding IT upgrades.

Akaka and Filner introduced identical versions of the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009. The bill would secure timely and predictable funding for the veterans health care system through the advance appropriations process, which is already used for other programs, providing funding one-year in advance of the regular appropriations process. Six top veterans organizations unanimously called for advance funding at a recent Senate hearing. Last year, Akaka and Filner both introduced advance appropriations legislation, receiving bipartisan support in Congress.

More information at: http://akaka.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Home&mo...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• veterans
• VA
• health care
• iraq
• afghanistan
• wounded warriors
• advance funding
• Senator
• Akaka
• Filner
• VFW