Republicans propose big jump in VA spending

[unhappycamper]

Republicans propose big jump in VA spending
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Mar 18, 2009 14:26:09 EDT

Republicans on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee are proposing a $1.9 billion increase to the Obama administration’s veterans budget request for 2010, a jump twice as large as the one proposed by Democrats on the same panel.

About $550 million of the increase in the Republican plan would be in discretionary programs, which include health care and administrative costs and money to run the national veterans cemetery system. The remaining $1.36 billion would be in direct spending, which covers benefits, employment and training programs.

Democrats, who proposed an $800 million increase on March 13, would use $200 million of the total for operating expenses and $600 million for medical expenses.

Republican priorities include trying to improve the benefits claims process. A $2.5 million increase would be used to hire 30 more people to train claims processors; $170 million would speed deployment of a paperless claims adjudication system; and $5 million would fund a two-year pilot program in which veterans could pick the regional office they want to process their claim based on a performance report.

The single largest direct-spending increase, $1 billion, would go to reauthorize an expired small-business loan program for companies owned by veterans.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/03/military_republicans_vaspending_031809w/%2e