Part of a speech of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs one year ago...

[MORTARDUDE]

entire speech at http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/ne...ead&forumid=26

Remarks

Hon. Anthony J. Principi

Secretary of Veterans Affairs

American Legion 84th National Convention

Charlotte, NC

August 27, 2002


.........

.... I became so concerned about what was happening to some of our veterans that I asked Gordon Mansfield, my Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs, to go out and make unannounced visits to our outpatient clinics and enroll for VA health care.

Gordon is a 100% combat disabled veteran of the Vietnam War, having fought in the Ia Drang and taken a bullet in the spine during the Tet Offensive. He's been in a wheelchair for 32 years.

Gordon visited eight outpatient clinics across the country. In six of those clinics he was turned away. In one clinic, they told him he'd have to drive close to 100 miles to receive his care. In the last clinic, a clerk told him all veterans are created equal.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is unacceptable. Service-connected disabled veterans are the very reason VA exists. Our every action must focus on their needs.

That is why I am proposing a priority for scheduling treatment for veterans who are 50% or more service connected and for veterans who need care for their service-connected disabilities.

I don't want to see veterans who are seeking appointments and other health-care services pinned to the side of the cliff and facing a field of fire of increasing demand from below, and limited resources from above, with no relief in sight.

Veterans waiting weeks, months or years for an appointment are not impressed by praise from the Institute of Medicine for the quality of our care or media accounts of improvement in service.

If they can't get in to see a doctor, the cliff of service they face appears unclimbable.

Although we are devoting a considerable amount of time to solving the problems of explosive demand, we are also finding other methods to improve the care we provide.

Two years ago, in Milwaukee, then Governor Bush spoke at the Legion's 82nd National Convention.

That day, he promised Legionnaires that he would convene a Veterans Health Care Task Force to focus on initiatives to improve health care for America's veterans.

And he kept that promise.

Under the able leadership of Dr. Gail Wilensky and former Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt, and I'm pleased to say the President appointed our own National Adjutant, Bob Spanogle --they are looking at ways to enhance health care for veterans.

They are considering a broad array of options including, Medicare subvention, which the Legion has endorsed for many years; whether there should be health care entitlement; and, very importantly, how our partnership with the Department of Defense can be strengthened

I am convinced that access to VA and DoD health care can be enhanced ? and hundreds of millions of dollars better utilized annually ? if VA and DoD tear down the walls that separate our Departments.

We have worked very closely with members of the Task Force, and I am looking forward to receiving their report early next year.

I would like to say a word about VA's budget. I know you are concerned that the President did not release $275 million in supplemental funding for this Fiscal Year.

Please, let me briefly explain the circumstances of this decision. Back in the early Spring, the President requested a $142 million supplemental appropriation for VA health care because of long waiting times. Congress generously added another $275 million to that appropriation.

Unfortunately, the supplement lay dormant on Capitol Hill for many months and we were not able to hire additional physicians and nurses nor expand our clinic space.

Just a few weeks ago, the supplemental finally cleared Congress and went to the President. So, the good news is that we received the $142 million that the President had originally requested in early April. But Congress tied the $275 million additional for VA to a $5.1 billion supplemental that the President had not requested. And Congress told the President he had to spend the entire $5.1 billion or none of it would be available.

Unfortunately, the $275 million was tied to that $5.1 billion and the President decided not to add $5.1 billion to the deficit.

Fortunately, as I said, we did receive the $142 million dollars and are making good use of it around the country.
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The President has asked for a $6.1 billion increase in VA funding for Fiscal Year 2003 ? an increase of more than 7 percent in discretionary spending over last year's funding level.

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VA's challenges are not limited to our budget, health care, or benefits. Our National Cemetery Administration faces its own set of challenges, as well.

Maintaining our National Cemeteries as National Shrines -- improving our properties, opening up five new cemeteries and preparing plans for the future of the system as more and more of our aging veterans pass on -- are challenges we must surmount to provide final resting places for those who have earned the dignity to be buried in a National Cemetery.

VA and the American Legion share a belief in the sanctity of our veterans' sacrifices. Since 1919, the American Legion has never wavered in its personal or professional support for the men and women who have borne the battle or who have stood the long and dangerous watch.

Fifty years ago today, on August 27, 1952, a senator from Illinois spoke at the Legion's thirty-fourth annual convention. His name was Adlai Stevenson, and at the time, he was a candidate for President of the United States.

Senator Stevenson told that convention things worth remembering today, on the fiftieth anniversary of his memorable speech. He said:

"The central concern of the American Legion?the ideal which holds it together?the vitality which animates it?is patriotism.

Men and women who have offered their lives for their country know that patriotism is not the fear of something; it is the love of something. Patriotism with us is not the hatred of another country; it is the love of this republic and of the ideal of liberty of man and mind in which it was born, and to which this Republic is dedicated.

I say to you now that there is work to be done, that the difficulties and dangers that beset our path at home and abroad are incalculable. Perhaps the goal of peace is not even for us to see in our lifetime.

But we are embarked on a great adventure. Let us proclaim our faith in the future of man. Of good heart and good cheer, faithful to ourselves and our traditions, we can lift the cause of freedom, the cause of free men, so high no power on earth can tear it down. Living, speaking, like men?like Americans?we can lead the way to our rendezvous in a peaceful, happy, world."

Today, the American Legion is still faithful to the causes and traditions our founding fathers set out for us. Together, VA and the American Legion have made certain that those for whom our veterans risked their lives do not forget the cause of America's veterans.

And through our love for our fellow veterans we are giving those patriots the rewards for their service they have earned-- hope for cures, compassionate care, reason to hope, and the true devotion of a grateful nation.

Yes, my fellow Legionnaires, there is work to be done to insure that our veterans receive the benefits they are entitled to, just as there has always been.

That spirit, ladies and gentlemen, is very much alive at VA. I see it every day, at every VA facility I visit; and it is the spirit that will lead us to ultimate success.

VA is beginning to take the cliffs that face us?cliffs of new demands for health care?cliffs of claims that must be scaled on behalf of our aging veterans who don't have any more time to wait?and cliffs of limited resources that threaten to slow our assault on every other front. And I know the American Legion's voice will be a loud one for the resources that our Department needs.

I stood on Omaha Beach?I saw the cliffs that American soldiers gave their lives to climb?and I know that if they had the courage and the patriotism to face their mortality head on with such selfless sacrifice, then we at VA can and must take our own cliffs in tribute to their last full measures of devotion.

I am honored to lead the way on behalf of the VA and our 223,000 employees.

I thank the American Legion for all its support. Thank you, and may God bless this great nation.


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[Arrow]

Thank you Larry...Sis

[BLUEHAWK]

What might happen if the VA budget was to be included in the Department of Defense budget? My guess is that it would receive the customary increases.