FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2009

CONTACT:
Mark Daley (202) 615-7128
David J. Uchic (202) 416-7667

Advance Appropriations Legislation Is Re-Introduced: Proposal Would Ensure Sufficient, Timely and Predictable Funding for VA Health Care Earned by the Nation’s Veterans

Washington, DC—Paralyzed Veterans of America (Paralyzed Veterans) is pleased to see that today Sen. Daniel Akaka, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and Rep. Bob Filner, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, re-introduced the “Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009.”  This legislation would convert veterans’ health care funding to an advance appropriation. 

“Advanced appropriations for VA health care will protect veterans who depend on that care from the political wrangling that goes on in Washington,” stated Randy L. Pleva, Sr., national president of Paralyzed Veterans.  Pleva emphasized that “holding up funding for veterans’ health care every year only hurts veterans.  For 19 of the past 22 years, the budget for VA has not been approved before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1.  This is simply unacceptable.”

Paralyzed Veterans, along with eight veterans’ service organizations that comprise the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform (Partnership), developed this proposal to ensure sufficient, timely and predictable funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system.  Historically, advance appropriations have been used to make a program function more effectively, better align with funding cycles of program recipients, or provide insulation from annual partisan political maneuvering.  By moving to advance appropriations, veterans’ health care programs would accrue all three of these benefits. 

This proposal received the support of President Obama during the presidential campaign last fall.  In fact, the President sent a letter to the American Federation of Government Employees stating his plan to request advance appropriations in his first budget request, which has not yet been released. 

“With passage of this important legislation, the VA will finally be able to properly plan the delivery of care for the men and women who have served and have sacrificed for this country,” said Pleva.  “Congress can reaffirm its support for sufficient, timely and predictable funding for VA health care by making VA funding an advance appropriation.”

-ENDS-

Note to Editors:
Sixty-two years ago, Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord-injured service members who returned home from World War II to a grateful nation, but also to a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. These veterans from the Greatest Generation made a decision not just to live, but to live with dignity as contributors to society. They created Paralyzed Veterans, dedicated to veterans’ service, medical research and civil rights for people with disabilities. And for more than six decades, Paralyzed Veterans and its 34 chapters have been working to create an America where all veterans, and people with disabilities, and their families, have everything they need to thrive. (www.pva.org).