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Summary:
The President submitted his FY2009 appropriations request to Congress on February 4, 2008, including $115.3 billion for programs covered in this appropriations bill: $24.4 billion for Title I (military construction and family housing); $90.8 billion for Title II (veterans affairs); and $183 million for Title III (related agencies). Compared with funding thus far appropriated for FY2008 (emergency supplemental appropriations are pending), this represents increases for Title I of $3.8 billion (18.3%), for Title II of $3.2 billion (3.6%), and for Title III of $16.7 million (10.1%). The overall increase in appropriations between that requested for FY2009 and enacted for FY2008 is $7.0 billion (6.4%). The House and Senate Committees on Appropriations reported their versions of the FY2009 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies appropriations bill on June 24 (H.R. 6559) and July 22 (S. 3301), 2008, respectively. The bill's legislative path is laid out in detail in the "Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations" section of this report. The House committee recommended appropriating $118.7 billion in new budget authority, $3.4 billion above the President's request. This included $24.8 billion for Title I, $400 million above the request and $4.2 billion above the FY2008 enactment. The Senate committee recommended $119.8 billion, including $24.7 billion for Title I. The Continuing Appropriations Act appropriated $119.6 billion, including $25.0 billion for Title I. In the area of veterans' non-medical benefits, mandatory spending is increasing as claims for disability compensation, pension, and readjustment benefits increase due to a combination of several factors including the aging of the veterans population and the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result of the increase in the number of claims, the average processing time for a disability claim in FY2007 was 183 days. To reduce the pending claims workload and improve the claims processing time, funds were provided in the FY2008 appropriation for hiring and training additional claims processing staff. In FY2008 mandatory spending was $44.5 billion, increasing to $46.0 billion in FY2009. In terms of medical care afforded to veterans, similar to the past six years, the Administration has included several cost sharing proposals including increase in pharmacy copayments and enrollment fees for lower priority veterans. An additional proposal would bill veterans directly for treatment of nonservice-connected conditions. The House Appropriations Committee draft bill provides $40.8 billion for Veterans Health Administration for FY2009, a 9.6% increase over the FY2008 enacted amount of $37.2 billion, and 4.1% above the President's request of $39.2 billion. The draft bill does not include any provisions that would give the Department of Veterans Affairs the authority to implement fee increases. This report will be updated as events warrant.
