Congress still eyes Veterans Day for VA budget

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Congress still eyes Veterans Day for VA budget
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 1, 2007 14:00:31 EDT

Congressional leaders who promised they would pass a Department of Veterans Affairs funding bill by Veterans Day are now trying to figure out how to keep their word.

One thing they won’t do is lump the VA and defense budgets into a $664.3 billion package that also would include funding for the Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments. The bundled bill had been viewed as a way to prevent a threatened veto of a $150.7 billion domestic spending bill that the White House has called “irresponsible and excessive.”

Congressional leaders dropped the $459.6 billion defense spending bill for fiscal 2008 from the package Wednesday because of strong objections from Republicans and some freshmen Democrats in the House of Representatives about playing political games with the defense budget in time of war.

There were no similar complaints, however, about lumping the $65 billion appropriation bill for VA and military construction with the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which House and Senate negotiators did Thursday.

What might happen with the modified $215.7 billion domestic spending bill that includes veterans’ and military construction money is not clear. The VA budget includes $4 billion more than the Bush administration wants, but White House budget officials did not threaten to veto the veterans spending bill. Instead, the administration said it would veto other appropriations bills if Congress did not make $4 billion in cuts to offset the increased spending for veterans. A bundled bill would test the administration’s resolve.

Marty Conaster, national commander of the nation’s largest veterans group, the American Legion, said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada “personally assured me” that the veterans funding bill “would be passed by Veterans Day.”


REst of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/military_appropriationsbill_congress_071101w/