By Anonymous on Sunday, July 22, 2001 - 09:57 pm:| By Anonymous on Sunday, July 22, 2001 - 09:57 pm: |
White House Fact Sheet: Commitment to Veterans
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WASHINGTON, May 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released May 28 by the White House:
Commitment to Veterans Fact Sheet
Today's Presidential Action:
-- Today, President Bush signed H.R. 1696, a bill that will honor the 16 million Americans who served in uniform during the war, their families, and all those who contributed to the war effort by ending the delay in construction of the planned World War II Memorial. The Memorial will be built in the heart of our nation's capital between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall.
-- The President announced the creation of a veterans health care task force, led by former Congressman Gerald Solomon and Dr. Gail Wilensky. The new Task Force will recommend specific actions to improve the way that the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense work together to provide quality health care for veterans and military retirees who have earned health care benefits.
Honoring the Men and Women of World War II
-- Congress originally authorized the creation of a National World War II Memorial in 1993, but technicalities and litigation have delayed its construction. Three million World War II veterans have died since the Memorial was first authorized, and an estimated one million more will die during the 30 months the Memorial will take to complete.
-- Former Senator Bob Dole and actor Tom Hanks have raised over $170 million in a non-profit memorial fund for the Memorial's construction
Honoring Our Commitment to America's Veterans
-- President Bush announced that he will issue an executive order creating a Presidential Task Force to improve health care for veterans and military retirees.
-- The Bush Administration is working to implement the Veterans Millennium Health Care Act. This action will make significant improvements to the medical programs for veterans, particularly long-term care. The Veteran's Millennium Health Care Act will allow VA to pay for enrolled veterans' emergency care in community hospitals, expand eligibility for home and community-based long-term care services, and increase the VA share of co-payments for prescriptions, outpatient visits, and long term care services for certain veterans.
-- Secretary Principi is conducting a top-to-bottom review of VA claims processing to identify weaknesses and areas for improvement. This review reflects President Bush's commitment to make the processing of applications for veterans' benefits faster, easier and more accurate. Today the average claim takes 273 days to process, VA is aggressively pursuing a goal of 100 days by the summer of 2003.
The President's Budget and Veterans
-- The President's Budget increases net discretionary budget authority for the Department of Veterans Affairs by nearly $1 billion, or 4.5 percent, over the 2001 level. It focuses VA's health care system on its core mission of providing high-quality health care to veterans with service-connected disabilities or low incomes, and it supports the President's new task force to study ways of improving health care access and quality.
-- The Budget provides a $133 million increase for the Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA) to improve claims processing. These funds will allow VBA to hire 890 new employees, make information technology investments, and identify best practices as it strives to improve the service and delivery of benefits to veterans and their families.
-- The President's Budget provides a $78 million increase for construction to improve VA medical centers; plan, develop, or expand national cemeteries; and launch VA's multi-year health care infrastructure realignment initiative. Twelve million dollars is set aside to ensure that current cemeteries are properly maintained, and will allow VA to plan and develop new national cemeteries in Florida, Michigan, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma. The funding will also allow for expansion of existing cemeteries in Massachusetts and Washington.