VA Secretary says House budget plan would ‘hurt veterans’

By Leo Shane III

Veterans Affairs Secretary Bob McDonald warned this week that House appropriators’ plan to trim $1.5 billion off his department’s annual budget request will “hurt veterans” if it becomes law.

This is the second consecutive year that House lawmakers have proposed a smaller-than-requested VA budget, albeit still a sizable increase in department spending. It’s also the second consecutive year McDonald has called the idea harmful to veterans seeking medical care and benefits.

“It will impede some critical initiatives necessary to transform VA into the high performing organization veterans deserve,” he told a crowd at a Center for Strategic and International Studies speech on Wednesday. “We’re encouraging Congress to fully fund VA at the level requested.”

Last month, the House Committee on Appropriations passed a VA spending plan for fiscal 2017 with nearly $73.5 billion in discretionary spending, which would be an increase of about 3 percent from fiscal 2016 levels.

But White House officials asked for a 5 percent increase, arguing the need for more construction funding and expansion of VA programming. House Republicans have said their funding plan covers enough of those programs while practicing fiscal restraint.

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