Looks like the President will release the $3.7 billion in funds to the VA after all!

[Gimpy]

Looks like all the e-mails and letters to the Whitehouse may have paid off!

Thanks to all who took the time and effort to write the Whitehouse and their elected Senators & Representatives.


See the article from Congressional Quarterly below.

###START###


CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
Jan. 9, 2008 – 12:47 p.m.

Bush Will Release Billions in ‘Contingency’ Funds for Veterans


President Bush plans to approve $3.7 billion in “emergency contingency” funding for veterans’ programs by the end of the week, ending speculation over whether the White House would block release of the funding.

The omnibus fiscal 2008 spending bill, a $555 billion measure that funds 14 of the 15 Cabinet-level departments and several independent agencies, included $3.7 billion in “contingency” emergency spending for the Veterans Affairs Department.

Veterans’ groups and Democrats had pushed for the funding, which Bush has until Jan. 18 to approve. According to administration sources, the Veterans Affairs Department signed off on release of the funding on Tuesday, and Bush likely will make the move official this week.

Most of the money will go to the Veterans’ Health Administration for medical services, administration, facilities and medical research.

The White House said months ago that it had no objection to the $3.7 billion Congress wanted to spend on top of the president’s budget request for veterans, but it wanted the funds offset with reductions in spending elsewhere.

Congress refused, keeping the funds outside the budget caps and passing the decision to the president on whether to spend the money.


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[Gimpy]

Bush Releases Billions More for Vets

5 hours ago


WASHINGTON (AP) Jan. 17 — President Bush on Thursday released $3.7 billion in emergency money that Congress requested to care for veterans, including those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.


Bush released the emergency funds even though he said he thought the money should have been considered as part of the normal appropriations process. The emergency money was tucked in a $550 billion government spending measure that Congress passed last month before leaving for the holidays.


"While I believe that these funds should have been considered as regular appropriations, the men and women who have sacrificed for our country should not be held hostage to budgetary wrangling in Washington," Bush said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.


Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said the emergency funds were needed because the veterans budget proposed by the president would have underfunded the Veterans Affairs Department at a time when there was a need to expand mental health care, improve treatment for traumatic brain injuries and reverse a claims backlog.


"This could not be allowed to happen," said Akaka, who wrote to the president urging him to release the extra money. "I am relieved that he has seen fit to do so."


Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, also applauded the president's action.


Edwards said the added funding will help pay for more qualified doctors and nurses to improve medical services for veterans.


"For the 400,000 veterans, including combat wounded vets, who are having to wait too long to have their benefits cases reviewed, this bill means over 1,800 new VA case workers to reduce the unacceptable delays in receiving earned benefits," he said. "For veterans with traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health care issues, and lost limbs, this bill means renewed hope to rebuild their lives. For many of the 200,000 homeless veterans in America, it means the dignity of not having to sleep on the streets and hope for a better future."


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I try and give credit where credit is due.................We should all take the time to send a letter or E-mail to the President with our gratitude.


And also to the Democrats in Congress who proposed this landmark, history making increase in funding for the VA as well as the Republican Senators and representatives who voted in favor of it. Those who opposed it should be tarred & feathered and run out of town on a freakin rail.


Gimp

[Packo]

Politics has no place when it comes to Veterans Issues. These are earned benefits....not a hand out.

Thank you Mr. President and all the Dems and Repubs that worked together to get this done. Wish this could happen more.

Also....saw that Sam Nunn and a few of the ol' Senators and Congressmen got together to talk about what's happening in Washington with all the venom on both sides and how to get it back to where it was. I miss Sam and men like him. No, it was never lovey/dovey up there, but there was a civility not seen in years. I miss that.

Thanks for the update Gimpy!

Pack

[Boats]

It's about time - I wonder if we will get free public transportation as well. I heard that last night - he's under the gun - literally!!! He has to do something positive with the little time he has in office. His record has been poor to outright miserable.

[DeadlyDaring]

You don't trust Politicians literally... they will give you something in one hand but remember that they will take something else back (the budget did not allow for this)