Department of Veterans Affairs Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2011-2012

Opening Statement of Hon. Bob Filner, Chairman, Committee on Veterans' Affairs
Welcome to the hearing on the Department of Veterans Affairs Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2011 and Fiscal Year 2012.

The President has requested a budget for VA of $125 billion, including a total discretionary resource request of $60.3 billion. VA medical care represents 86 percent of the total discretionary request. For fiscal year 2011, the Administration is requesting $51.5 billion in resources for VA medical care. Appropriated resources for medical care for fiscal year 2011 have already been provided in last year’s Consolidated Appropriations Act. This funding level is an increase of $4.1 billion, or 8.6 percent over fiscal year 2010 levels.

In accordance with the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act, enacted last year with the support of this Administration and the bipartisan support of this Congress, the VA has requested $50.6 billion in appropriated dollars and a total resource level of $54.3 billion, a $2.8 billion, or 5.3 percent increase over fiscal year 2011 levels. We understand this level is consistent with the VA’s actuarial model.

Rest assured that this Committee will be working closely with our counterparts in Congress and with the Administration as the process moves forward to ensure that veterans have the medical care resources they need when fiscal year 2012 begins on October 1, 2011.

The veterans’ groups that co-author the Independent Budget, who will be testifying on our second panel today, have recommended for fiscal year 2011, a total resource level for VA medical care of $52 billion, and an overall discretionary funding level of $61.5 billion, $1.2 billion above the Administration’s requested increase of $4.3 billion. We are looking forward to their testimony and the testimony of The American Legion, VVA, IAVA, and Veterans for Common Sense which are on our third panel.

Mr. Secretary, I am impressed by your robust budget request and your emphasis on funding many of the priorities of this Committee, including addressing the plague of homelessness, rural health care access, and the mental health care needs of our veterans. This budget addresses the problems faced by our newer veterans while not forgetting the sacrifices and service of veterans from previous conflicts.

I note that you are requesting additional funding for more claims processors and I am looking forward to you providing this Committee with a roadmap on how we reform the claims process. More money and more FTE will not solve this broken process and it won’t provide us with a system that is fair to veterans and efficient.

We look forward to hearing about your successes this year, your frustrations, and how you plan to use the resources in this request to meet the needs of our veterans. We look forward to working with you to ensure that you have the money to do the job, and we look forward to working closely with you to assist you in your goal of creating a 21st Century VA.