White House seeks $1 billion spending boost for VA

Vice President Al Gore Monday announced the Clinton administration will ask Congress for an additional $1 billion to ease veterans' access to health care.

The request, which the White House said will be fully offset, was to be made in a letter to Congress sent Monday and detailed in a budget amendment to be forwarded later this week. The plan includes $800 billion to ensure healthcare workers have greater resources to reduce waiting time for services and to "ensure quality care," according to a White House statement.

Also, $100 million would be provided for non- institutional care for "the highest priority veterans." Another $100 million would support the construction of clinics and examination rooms to aid the provision of outpatient services.

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Stump, R-Ariz., said the "new funding suddenly discovered by Vice President Gore is at least $700 million below what the VA [Veterans Affairs Department] will need to serve the healthcare needs of veterans. And coming today, when the House [VA-HUD] Appropriations Subcommittee is taking up VA funding, this announcement by Vice President Gore is political opportunism at its worst."

Stump accused the administration of "flaunting its contempt for veterans with a disastrous VA budget [request for 2000]." Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that when the appropriations panel planned to designate billions in veterans' healthcare and disaster relief spending as an emergency, allowing those funds to be spent without regard to the caps.