White House requests additional $2 billion for VA health care

The White House asked Congress for an additional $1.977 billion Thursday to address an acknowledged shortfall in Veterans Affairs Department medical services, increasing the overall fiscal 2006 discretionary spending cap to nearly $845 billion.

The request comes in the form of an amendment to the administration's 2006 budget request. The Office of Management and Budget said in an accompanying letter that the increase would not affect plans to hold overall discretionary spending increases to 2.3 percent -- less than the expected rate of inflation -- and non-security spending below last year's levels.

Discretionary spending limits are being strained in other areas of the budget, although Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H., was able to defeat a bipartisan effort to add $1.2 billion for mass transit security to a $30.85 billion 2006 Homeland Security appropriations bill. On a 53-45 vote, the amendment offered by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., failed to get the required 60 votes to waive a budget point of order.

But Gregg could only register his displeasure by abstaining from a unanimous vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee to approve a $145.7 billion Labor-HHS spending bill.

That bill uses time-honored gimmicks to fit extra spending on medical research, education, job-training and worker safety within budget caps. OMB Director Joshua Bolten has also expressed concern, and it might cause complications in conference with the House.

While technically within its 302(b) allocation, the measure achieves a paper savings of nearly $3.7 billion through accounting maneuvers and rescissions -- the largest being a shift of Supplemental Security Income payments for the elderly and disabled from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, 2006, the first Monday of fiscal 2007. That would technically save $3.36 billion in 2006 for other spending, although the House usually objects to the maneuver in conference.

Gregg was the only member of the committee to abstain from the vote on the Labor-HHS bill, and not only because he was busy defending budget caps on the Senate floor. The SSI payment shift is an unacceptable gimmick, he said.

"The committee is in a difficult situation. The allocation levels are very tight," Gregg acknowledged. "I can understand they wanted to put themselves in a position to get some additional funds, but I think it's not the best way to appropriate. I decided that I would wait until it gets to the floor and then see what can be done," Gregg said.

The contentious measure would consume a good deal of floor time; it is unclear whether Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., would bring it up. What is certain is that lawmakers are pushing hard for enactment of the Interior appropriations bill conference report before the August recess, which is likely to carry up to $1.5 billion in veterans' health care funds added by senators before the July Fourth break.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said he hoped a House-Senate conference would convene on the measure next week.

The Interior bill would include $975 million in veterans' health care funds for 2005 that had already been requested for an increased number of patients, and at least another $300 million contained in the budget amendment transmitted Thursday that is earmarked for this fiscal year to meet a 1 percent increase in average cost per patient.

For 2006, the budget amendment would provide $677 million to accommodate about 100,000 additional VA patients, $400 million to reflect increased costs per patient next year, and $600 million to correct an error in estimating the cost of long-term nursing home care.

That total of nearly $1.7 billion is all slated for 2006 and would be carried on the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill.