During a visit to Wisconsin Wednesday, U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald urged the House of Representatives to go along with President Obama’s VA budget for next year.
McDonald spoke in Milwaukee to the Blinded Veterans Association. Later, he told reporters that a U.S. Senate committee has passed a VA budget equal to what the president wanted, but that the House has sliced $1.5 billion from the plan.
New efforts to help veterans would be harmed, McDonald said, if the chambers can’t agree on the new document and opt to continue the current budget.
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Current funding levels would hamper the agency, “if we’d like to do new research, if we have an influx of veterans into our programs and we want to do more things,” said McDonald.
The VA also still needs more money for congressionally backed programs like community-based health care clinics for vets, McDonald said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office said the House has acted responsibly by passing VA funding that includes four percent more spending than this year. Ryan, a Republican from Janesville, blames Senate Democrats for blocking final passage of the VA budget.
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