For Your Benefit
For and about Hawaii's military
See also: In The Military
VA’s budget is growing
despite cost of Iraq warQuestion: Has the Department of Veterans Affairs budget been cut?
Answer: The rumor may have been fueled by a parliamentary maneuver.
About the time the Iraq war began, the U.S. House passed a resolution requesting House and Senate Appropriations Committee members to reduce most federal agencies' funding, including VA's, by 1 percent in fiscal year 2004, a reduction they believed could be made up by reducing waste, fraud and abuse at each department.
If that measure had passed, it would have lowered the amount of the record increase in funding proposed for veterans, but it would not have cut VA's funding. Lawmakers, however, quickly recognized the impact upon veterans and exempted VA from the across-the-board reductions.
These days, the only cuts at VA are to the waiting lists for medical care and the backlog of compensation claims.
President Bush has requested record increases in VA's budget and Congress has approved his budget. President's Bush's fiscal year 2004 budget requests a record $63.6 billion for our nation's veterans, including a nearly 8-percent increase over the fiscal year 2003 budget for discretionary funding, which mostly pays for VA's health care system, and a 32 percent increase in funding since fiscal 2001.
The budget conference report the House and Senate agreed to on April 11 raises the suggested levels of discretionary funding for veterans by an additional $1.8 billion.
Q: Does the VA have a casualty assistance program similar to the military?
A: The VA does have a program to give personal attention to surviving family members after in-service deaths and to help them with benefit information and applications. The Honolulu VA office designates a casualty assistance officer who works closely with military casualty officers to ensure timely assistance is available to beneficiaries.
For more information on VA benefits call 433-1000, or check the VA Web site at www.va.gov/hawaii.
If you have questions about your benefits as a veteran,
call Fred Ballard at the Veterans Affairs at 433-0049
or visit the VA Web site at www.va.gov/hawaii
or the Star-Bulletin at 529-4747.Gregg K. Kakesako, who covers military affairs for the Star-Bulletin,
can be reached by phone at 294-4075
or by e-mail at gkakesako@starbulletin.com.