Sequestration and VA - Our veterans deserve an answer

It has already been happening. I attend a lot of meetings and there has been a lot of complaints about this.

Sequestration and VA - Our veterans deserve an answer
By Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.)
02/10/12 10:34 AM ET
All the talk around Washington these days revolves around the federal budget and the coming effects of sequestration. While the focus has been mainly on the Department of Defense, what is less known to the public is that due to what I have called a “conflict” in the law, VA too may be subject to sequestration come next January. This conflict can, and should, be resolved right now by the president. Instead, he has allowed the risk of sequester to loom over the heads of veterans served by VA. If allowed to go forward, the sequestration VA faces in 2013 would be up to a 2% cut to VA healthcare, severely impacting VA’s ability to provide healthcare America’s veterans have earned.

The “conflict” in the law was not intentional. I believe it was an oversight in which laws were enacted over time to update the sequester process without a clear understanding of how one section of law may interact with another. Now that sequester is a possibility, we are all acutely aware of the conflict.

In 1985, during a previous budget crisis, the Gramm-Rudman law set out to hold accountable Congress and the administration to the ramifications of not keeping our budget in check. The original language exempted some, but not all, VA programs and allowed up to a 2% cut in VA medical care. In 2010, the law was updated to exempt from sequester “[a]ll programs administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs.” However, in a separate section, language permitting a 2% cut to VA medical care was retained. Therein lies the conflict.
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