House to vote Monday on controversial fix to urgent VA funding shortage

WASHINGTON – Eight national veterans organizations are calling on House lawmakers to vote “no” Monday night on legislation providing emergency funding for a nearly bankrupt program that pays for veterans to receive treatment outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

After days of closed-door negotiations about how to address the funding shortfall, members of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs proposed $2 billion for the Veterans Choice Program to keep it going for the next six months. The money would be stripped from other VA programs. The bill, S. 114, was scheduled for a vote Monday night on the House floor.

VA officials have said money for the program will run out by mid-August.

Eight groups issued a joint statement Saturday, urging lawmakers to work on another plan to fund the Choice program without trimming other VA programs. They viewed the bill as a step toward privatization of the VA, which lawmakers and VA officials have denied wanting to do.

“The leadership all said they are not looking to privatize the VA health care system or gradually erode it, and ultimately, we want them to show it – not just say it,” said Carlos Fuentes, an associate director with Veterans of Foreign Wars, one of the groups that sent the statement. “What we see here is them prioritizing the funding need in Choice and external care and ignoring the emergent needs in the internal care system, too.”

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