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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mistermj who wrote (56836)	11/12/2002 9:44:41 PM
From: gamesmistress	Respond to of 281500

Here's a WSJ story about the budget, mentioning the $275 million figure for vets. Clearly, you can interpret or "spin" this more than one way. House Approves Spending Bill; Senate Vote Is Today By David Rogers 07/24/2002 The Wall Street Journal Page A4 (Copyright (c) 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) WASHINGTON -- Congress is poised to send President Bush a long-delayed $28.9 billion emergency spending bill to bolster homeland security and replenish military accounts strained by the war against terrorism being fought overseas. House approval of the measure came last night on a 397-32 vote -- a margin that belies the months of struggle surrounding the measure. A final Senate vote is scheduled this afternoon, and the president is expected to sign the bill despite a continued debate among his advisers over billions of dollars in contingency funds added by lawmakers. Under federal budget procedures, Mr. Bush still would have the option to refuse to certify that about $5 billion in the measure qualifies as genuine emergency spending. Lawmakers gave him 30 days to make that decision, but if he declares any part of the contingency funds eligible, all $5 billion would qualify. The choice isn't easy. With deficits rising, the administration is eager to regain the mantle of fiscal discipline, and White House hard-liners would like Mr. Bush to reject the extra money outright. At the same time, few of the added appropriations can be described as pork-barrel spending and, in most cases, represent funds that agencies privately say they need. The items run from $165 million for improved computer systems at the Federal Bureau of Investigation to $200 million to fight AIDS overseas. Even the medical-care budget in the Department of Veterans Affairs is caught in the same war of wills. As the bill was being completed last week, the president's chief of staff, Andrew Card, angrily interceded to make sure that $142 million requested by Mr. Bush for VA medical care was kept safely outside this contingency fund. But an additional $275 million added by Congress for the same purpose remains in the $5 billion fund and is in jeopardy. The issue is especially sensitive this election year and in light of the strains on the VA system. The current economy, escalating medical costs and the needs of aging veterans have combined to push so many people into the VA's pharmacy-benefits program that the department is spending more than $3 billion annually for millions of veterans ' outpatient prescriptions. Just yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee gave initial approval to a $58.1 billion VA budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, a $6.5 billion, 13% increase that includes an extra $1.1 billion above the administration's request for medical care. To help make ends meet, the panel extended Secretary Anthony Principi's authority to impose co-payment charges for outpatient prescriptions, whose costs have exploded in recent years. But even as committee members met yesterday, the Senate was voting to scuttle rival Medicare prescription-drug plans that would relieve some of the pressure on the VA. In other budget-related action: -- The National Science Foundation budget would jump by 12% to $5.35 billion under the same Senate bill covering the VA. The Environmental Protection Agency is promised an estimated $8.3 billion, $680 million more than the president's request and a $225 million rise from this year. -- Spending for the Food and Drug Administration would grow by an estimated $209 million under a $74.3 billion agriculture and rural-development bill, which won initial approval from the Senate Appropriations panel. -- The House debated into last night on a $35 billion bill funding the Treasury Department and a variety of executive agencies, including the operations of the White House itself. Because it funds the Customs Service, the measure has become an annual battleground for amendments to relax U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba. On procedural grounds, Republicans struck a provision that would have barred federal contracts with American multinationals that reincorporate in Bermuda or the Bahamas to avoid U.S. taxes. If enacted, the ban threatened an Internal Revenue Service contract with Bermuda-based Accenture Ltd., which has a substantial number of employees in the suburban Virginia area outside Washington. Rep. Thomas Davis (R., Va.), a member of the party leadership and the local congressman, made the motion to strike.