Terry Everett, August 23, 2004

Congress and the Bush Administration are committed to our nation's veterans both by increasing funding for veterans and working to ensure that veterans' benefits and care are delivered in a more timely fashion.

Total veterans' spending has increased by 58 percent since 1995 when Republicans took control of Congress. Over the same period, spending for veterans' medical care has been boosted from $16.2 billion to $28.3 billion in 2004 - a 75 percent increase. Individual veteran spending has risen by 79 percent over the last nine years. This trend of serving veterans continues with the House passage in May of the 2005 budget blueprint. It allocates nearly $17 billion for veterans programs - a 15 percent increase over 2004.

This joint commitment of Congress and the Bush Administration to veterans is having a positive effect on veteran care and benefits. Since 2001, the Veterans Administration has enrolled 2.5 million more veterans in health care services, increased outpatient visits from 44 million to 54 million, and increased the number of prescriptions filled from 98 million to 116 million. And, 194 new community-based clinics have been opened since 2001. Six new VA outpatient clinics are planned for Alabama over the next eight years, including Enterprise.

Congress has also provided the VA with the resources it needs to reduce long and tedious claims processing. Claim backlogs have dropped from a high of 432,000 and are approaching the VA goal of 250,000. The volume of claim decisions a month has increased from 40,000 to 68,000. The average length of time to process a veteran's compensation claim has dropped from approximately 230 days to 160 days. The VA is working to meet its processing goal of 100 days this year. Also this year the list of veterans waiting more than six months for basic medical care, which peaked at 300,000, is expected to be nearly eliminated.

Treating veterans with military disabilities, lower incomes, and special needs has always been the VA's core medical care mission and its highest priority. The VA has established a new scheduling system to ensure that veterans seeking care for a service-connected condition are first in line. No veteran disabled in the service of our country should ever be turned away.

Over the last two years Congress has approved and the President has twice signed legislation providing "concurrent receipt" of both military retired pay and VA disability compensation for those military retirees most deserving - combat-injured and highly-disabled veterans - finally reversing a century-old law preventing these dual payments.

The 2005 Defense Authorization bill, which has passed the House, also eliminates the Social Security offset under the Survivor's Benefit Plan (SBP), also known as the Widow's Tax. The legislation increases the annuities paid to survivors of military retirees who are 62 or older from 35 percent of retired pay after September 2005 to 55 percent of retired pay after March 2008.

The VA is also honoring veterans with the right to a hallowed, final resting place. The National Cemetery Expansion Act, which was passed into law by Congress in 2003, establishes within four years six new national cemeteries, including one in Birmingham, Alabama.

America's veterans deserve the full gratitude of our nation for their military service. Accordingly, Congress and the Bush Administration believe that veteran care and benefits should remain a priority.

Congressman Terry Everett, a Republican, represents Alabama's Second Congressional District, which includes the state capitol, Montgomery.