Appropriations for military construction and Veterans Affairs (VA) would rise 6 percent over last year’s levels under the bill spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Charles Dent (R-PA), who recently expressed outrage over cost overruns and mismanagement at the VA.
“We’ve had all sorts of problems that we’ve had to deal with at the VA,” Dent told the Ripon Advance. “And our veterans deserve better, and the truth is the taxpayers deserve better.”
Passed by the House last month, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2016 provides nearly $77 billion to support service members, military families and veterans. Total funding is $4.6 billion higher than in fiscal year 2015. More than $48 billion of the VA funding is specifically dedicated to providing medical services to nearly 7 million veterans.
“It’s a bipartisan bill and is truly focused on the needs of service members,” Dent, who chairs the subcommittee on military construction and veterans affairs, said.
President Obama threatened to veto the legislation last month, arguing the House bill does not adequately fund veterans’ medical care and military and VA construction.
“We level funded the VA as it relates to major construction, the same level as 2015” at $562 million, Dent said. “We did not fund more than double budget requests for construction as we faced the impact of gross mismanagement of the Colorado VA hospital site.”
A recent Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General report detailed the massive construction cost overrun at the Denver VA Hospital. The cost of the project has nearly tripled from initial estimates and has ballooned to $1.73 billion. Dent also cited significant cost overruns at VA hospitals in Las Vegas, New Orleans and Orlando.
The bill passed by the House increases funding for the VA’s inspector general office and addresses the need for greater oversight and investigation into the instances of wait time manipulation and other schemes that have resulted in poor service to the nation’s veterans, he said.
“There are some real issues with oversight here, and not just on the construction but on the waiting list scandal and on the regional office in Philadelphia, so we have a whole host of problems,” Dent said, referring to a backlog of disability and compensation claims at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Region Office.
Dent added that the appropriations bill would provide $233 million for the modernization of the VA electronic health record, and it also included language restricting funding until the VA demonstrates progress on the system’s functionality and interoperability.
“We’re trying to ensure an integrated health record and that’s a huge priority for all of us,” Dent said.
The bill also provides the full request for the Veterans Benefits Administration, which is a $163 million increase over fiscal year 2015, and the full request for the Board of Veterans appeals, he added.