House appropriators to cut 2011 Veterans Affairs IT funds by $160 million

The House Appropriations Committee sliced $160 million from the Veterans Affairs Department's 2011 information technology budget in a broad spending plan that the panel introduced late Friday to cut $100 billion from this year's federal budget. The 2011 continuing resolution sets the department's IT budget at $3.147 billion, 5.1 percent below the $3.307 billion VA requested. The Appropriations Committee said the budget cuts reflect savings VA achieved from canceling projects. The cuts made by the Republican-controlled committee slice $15.5 million more from VA for canceled programs than the Democrat-controlled committee did last December in its failed continuing resolution, which approved cuts totaling $144.5 million. The Senate Appropriations Committee in December 2010 also approved cutting VA's IT budget by $144.5 million in its 2011 continuing resolution, but the full Senate did not adopt the legislation. The current continuing resolution from the House Appropriations Committee includes a $460 million increase for disability claims processing, the same amount that VA requested, but $14 million below the $474 million the Senate Appropriations Committee voted for last December.