Monday, February 6, 2012

Funding Cuts for Veterans still Unknown


WASHINGTON – Since November, members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee have been pushing administration officials to clarify whether veterans programs could be trimmed as part of more than $500 billion in defense funding cuts mandated under the sequestration mechanism initiated by the failure of the congressional debt reduction panel last fall.
Last week, the head of the veterans committee said he’s frustrated he still doesn’t have an answer for advocates worried about how benefits and service may be hurt.
In a letter to the White House, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said that veterans “deserve to understand the ramifications if sequestration is imposed.” He notes that lawmakers still hope to avoid the defense cuts altogether, but still need answers on what could possibly be cut if that goal isn’t met.
In an interview with Stars and Stripes last month, Miller said he and other congressional leaders believe that the sequestration cuts to defense programs do not include any veterans programs, since lawmakers had no intention to include them when they wrote the original legislation. But, he added, the Office of Management and Budget has final say on that interpretation of the law, and so far officials there have offered no answers.
Also last week, Miller introduced the Protect VA Healthcare Act, which would specify that those defense cuts would not have any impact on veterans’ medical care. He said the legislation is necessary because of the continued ambiguity surrounding how the cuts will be implemented.
Last week, a group of Republican senators including John McCain, R-Ariz., unveiled legislation to avoid the potentially crippling defense cuts by freezing federal employees’ pay and laying off thousands of government employees. Democrats have already dismissed the proposal as unworkable.

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