By allowing the emergency designation, appropriators in both chambers were able to propose boosting the VA's fiscal 2021 budget by roughly 13 percent, meeting the White House's request for programs at that agency. Without the emergency designation, total VA discretionary funds would be slightly below the prior year's enacted level of $92.5 billion.
Increases were sought by the VA to account for a rising patient population; millions more expected outpatient visits; implementing a sweeping new electronic health records project; and new funds for mental health services and oncology.
The money also includes increases to meet the demands of a vast network of urgent care providers partnering with the VA to provide private care closer to where veterans live. That's a function of a 2018 law overhauling delivery systems and promoting private care options, which also transferred the costs of the new programs to appropriators rather than being funded outside the regular budget process for several years after the 2014 wait time scandal.
Veterans medical care is mostly funded through "advance" appropriations so the agency can have some planning certainty. Under advance funding for fiscal 2021 enacted in last year's spending package, appropriators have already had to accommodate a $7.5 billion increase — more than 9 percent — for VA health care in this year's bill, amid tight overall nondefense limits.
Without the emergency designation, appropriators would either need to jettison additional VA increases requested by the White House, or find cuts within other veterans programs or nondefense accounts in other spending bills. That would mean appropriators in both chambers would have to go back to the drawing board on their 12 fiscal 2021 bills, with a deadline for action just weeks away.
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November 22, 2020 at 02:40AM
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Spat over veterans health care emergency funds stalls spending deal - Roll Call
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