[MORTARDUDE]

Legion Opposes OMB on VA Funding

The Office of Management and Budget is opposing an additional
$1.3 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs health
care budget and wants to charge many veterans seeking
treatment at VA a $250 annual enrollment fee and to raise
the pharmacy co-payment from $7 to $15. American Legion
commander John Brieden testified to House and Senate
committees on Veterans' Affairs that Congress should fund
the additional amount because health care for veterans is
the delayed cost of the war. About 164,000 veterans in the
lowest of VA's eight priority-treatment groups have been
suspended from enrolling in the VA health care system since
January because VA lacks the resources to serve them, says
the American Legion. The Legion wants to switch the VA
health care budget from discretionary funding, which Congress
must approve each fiscal year, to mandatory funding, whereby
federal dollars are allocated by a formula to meet the system's
demands.