VA Budget Shortfall Again No Big Shocker To Us

VA: Two agency officials retired ahead of in-house reprimand
VA also embarrassed by $2.5 billion cq budget shortfall as it tries to deliver healthcare to veterans
The Denver Post
By Mark K. Matthews
POSTED: 06/25/2015

WASHINGTON — Two top Veterans Affairs officials retired from the department this spring just as an investigative board was preparing to lambaste them for their role in the disastrous effort to build a VA hospital in Aurora, Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson said Thursday at a U.S. House hearing.

But now that attorney Phillipa Anderson and construction chief Glenn Haggstrom have left the Department of Veterans Affairs, it is unlikely they will face any punishment for their part in developing the over-budget medical complex. It's now estimated to cost $1.73 billion.

Gibson said the wrongdoing was not criminal in nature and that it's impossible to take administrative action — such as demotion or suspension — against people who no longer work at the VA.

"Once a person is resigned or retired, they are no longer an employee and we have no basis for taking any disciplinary action," Gibson said in an interview.

The admission did not sit well with members of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, which organized the hearing to examine budget problems at the sprawling government agency.

"Years-late, bureaucratic knuckle-rapping will not suffice for accountability, especially when the two officials retired unscathed with their full pensions and bonuses," U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, said in a statement.
read more here

Sorry but I can't stop laughing at this part.

"Lawmakers were incredulous at both the size and the late notice of the shortfall — the federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30 — and they took the VA to task for its budget management."

1985

President Reagan's draft budget for the fiscal year 1987 would cut spending on veterans' health care benefits by reducing the number of people treated and, for the first time, by requiring insurance companies to help pay the costs.

Harry N. Walters, the Administrator of Veterans Affairs, warned that cutbacks in spending and staff could ''ultimately result in a reduced quality of medical care'' for veterans. He made the comment in a letter to the Office of Management and Budget, which wrote the proposals.

The draft 1987 budget, to be submitted to Congress in early February, would require many veterans to show financial need to receive care. It would also provide no money for new nursing homes for veterans even as the number of older veterans is rising rapidly because of the large number of men who served in World War II.
U.S. HEALTH CARE FOR VETERANS CUT IN BUDGET DRAFT, New York Times

1995

Veterans. The panel included $38.1 billion in budget authority for the VA, including $19.5 billion in mandatory spending, mainly for VA compensation and pension programs.

The biggest boost in the agency's discretionary spending was in the VA medical care account, which was to get $17 billion, an increase of $747 million. Veterans groups lobbied hard for the additional medical care appropriation, as did Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Stump, R-Ariz., and Gerald B. H. Solomon, R-N.Y., chairman of the Rules Committee and a former Marine.

But the subcommittee proposed deep cuts in funding for VA construction projects, recommending $183.5 million — about one-half the existing appropriation and slightly more than one-third of what the Clinton administration sought. It eliminated funding for planned hospitals in Travis, Calif., and Brevard County, Fla., and recommended building no new VA hospitals, preferring that the VA focus on outpatient clinics.

Funding Cuts Prompt Veto of Bill for Veterans Affairs (VA) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Library of Congress

1999

With the Veterans Affairs Department getting no budget increase this year, Gutierrez said that in effect amounts to a $1.4 billion cutback because the agency's costs continue to rise. The savings, he said, would come from "unspecified management efficiency and savings" and a reduction of 6,900 employees. Chicago Tribune

2001

The restriction, which would have kept 320,000 veterans out of the health care system, was scheduled to take effect Saturday.

Principi had proposed the limitation to close part of a $400 million budget shortfall in the VA's health care system. Card told Principi the administration would find the money to cover the shortfall.

Principi then walked into the meeting with leaders of veterans organizations and delivered the good, rather than the bad, news. Those in the room, he recalled later, burst into applause. "It made my day," Principi said.
Veterans Get Reprieve on Health Care, Washington Post

2005

Just last week, the VA revealed that the rise in demand for VA health facilities had caused a $1 billion shortfall in operating funds for the current year. That would more than double in the coming year without congressional intervention.

Senate Republicans, embarrassed and angered over the revelations, yesterday announced plans to pass emergency legislation this morning to add $1.5 billion to the fiscal 2005 appropriation. The move is designed to appease angry veterans groups and preempt a Democratic proposal calling for $1.42 billion in increased VA spending.
VA Faces $2.6 Billion Shortfall in Medical Care, Washington Post

2007 Nicholson resigned

The agency has faced considerable criticism for its treatment of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as they move from the military health-care system to VA's, and for its chronically slow processing of disability claims by injured or sick veterans from all eras. Critics complain about lost paperwork, a shortage of VA caseworkers, a caseload of 400,000 pending disability claims and long waits for initial appointments in the VA health-care system. VA Secretary Is Ending a Trying Tenure, Washington Post

Also in 2007

Veterans Affairs
By Joseph Shapiro
The president's budget requests nearly $87 billion in fiscal year 2008 for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Most of the money would go to health care and disability compensation. The White House said that represents an increase of 77 percent over the VA's budget when Bush took office.

But some veterans groups said the increase is not as big as it looks — and not enough to care for troops returning from Iraq. The president asked for almost $3 billion more than last year to fund medical care for veterans. The White House proposes increasing the co-payment for medications from $8 to $15 per monthly prescription.

And there would be a new enrollment fee: It would cost $250-$750 a year to get care in the VA system. That enrollment fee would apply only to those whose disability is not a result of military service.

It's not the first time the Bush administration has proposed such a fee, which is unpopular with veterans. Such fees have been rejected in the past by Republican-controlled Congresses, and the Democratic Congress is expected to do the same.

Veterans groups say that even with the fees, the VA would be about $2 billion short of what it needs to provide current levels of health care to veterans.
Bush Budget Calls for Big Boost in Defense Spending, NPR

Do politicians think we're dumb enough to forget how long all of this has been going on or are they too dumb to remember?