Maloney Hails $3.7 B Additional Funding For Wounded Veterans
BY JOHN TOSCANO

Congressmember Carolyn Maloney said the largest single spending increase in the 77- year history of the Veterans' Administration indicates that Congress is moving the federal government in a long overdue new direction.

Commenting after President George W. Bush released the $3.7 billion expenditure following Congressional approval of the funds, Maloney declared: "After years of neglect in Washington, with this step we will ensure that our veterans will have the resources and benefits that they have earned and that they deserve. This funding will help and improve the healthcare services available to our veterans at facilities like the Manhattan Veterans Hospital at East 23rd Street and the Queens Community Clinic in Sunnyside."

Maloney (D- Queens/Manhattan) pointed out that the release of the $3.7 billion meant that the 110th Congress had provided an extra $67 billion over the last year, constituting the largest single funding increase in the 77-year history of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

As the Iraq War nears its 6th year, the additional funds, Maloney noted, will:

•Help deliver quality health care to 5.8 million patients, including about 263,000 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

•Invest in much needed maintenance for VA healthcare facilities and treatment for returning veterans with physical disabilities, post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and other serious medical conditions, and

•Reduce the backlog of an estimated 400,000 veterans' claims for earned benefits by adding 1,800 claims processors to the VA workforce.

Maloney added that the additional funding will expand on initial moves taken by the current 110th Congress at the beginning of 2007 which included increasing veterans' health care and benefits by $5.2 billion to improved care and cut red tape for veterans who had been waiting 177 days on average to receive their earned benefits.

"With a median annual income of $23,000, most veterans receiving VA health care are struggling to reach the middle class," Maloney noted.

The lawmaker, who has been in the forefront of the fight for veterans' benefits, said the latest increase won widespread support and praise from America's leading veterans' organizations, including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Military Officers Association of America, Paralyzed Veterans of America, AmVets, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the National Association for Uniformed Services and Disabled American Veterans.

Last year, the nation was shocked to learn that the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington and other veterans' facilities had deteriorated into squalor and decay.

This, Maloney declared, was simply unacceptable. Seriously wounded fighting men and women deserved much better, she said.

"America can and must do better," she stated. "Coupled with badly needed reforms proposed in the Wounded Veterans Act, this significant increase in veterans' funding will at long last help remedy this gross injustice."

The lawmaker said she was gratified that the Bush Administration had finally agreed to join with Congress and release the funds.