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DEMOCRATS ADD OTHER MEASURES TO VA BUDGET BILL --

Congressional Democrats stumbled ahead with a plan lumping

the popular budget for veterans' programs with a health and

education bill that President Bush has promised to veto.

For more about the VA budget, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here... http://www.your
vabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=va+budget&op=ph

Story here... http://www.foxnews.com/
wires/2007Nov06/0,4670,BudgetBattle,00.html

Story below: 

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Dems Add Other Measures to Veterans Bill

By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats stumbled ahead Tuesday with a plan lumping the popular budget for veterans programs with a health and education bill that President Bush has promised to veto.

House Democratic leaders slated a vote on the House-Senate compromise bill for Tuesday night in an apparent attempt to use the politically untouchable veterans budget to increase the vote tally for the health and education funding bill, a top Democratic priority that fell just short of a veto-proof margin this summer.

The plan was certain to unravel in the Senate, where Republicans were poised to use the rules to cleave the measure in two, setting the health and education bill on course to be vetoed by Bush without the veterans' money attached.

At the same time, efforts to pass the Veterans Affairs budget into law before Monday's Veterans Day holiday appeared to falter.

The White House weighed in Tuesday afternoon, restating its promise to veto the labor and education bill, which contains $151 billion in discretionary spending, the portion of the budget passed each year by Congress. That's almost $10 billion more than sought.

"Funding for the nation's veterans should not be held hostage while Congress attempts to add billions in unrelated spending," said the White House veto statement.

The health, education and job training measure is the largest domestic appropriations bill. It contains long-sought increases to programs dear to Democrats and moderate Republicans: school aid under the No Child Left Behind law; special education; drug treatment; heating subsidies for the poor; health research; and funding for community health centers and medical education.

"It's about what we stand for," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The veterans funding bill _ which passed both House and Senate with a total of three dissenting votes _ is the only spending bill exceeding Bush's budget that he has agreed to sign.

The pending veterans bill adds another $3.7 billion to the VA budget over Bush's request, an increase that will ease waiting times to claim VA health benefits, boost funding to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries increasingly common in Iraq war veterans and even provide higher mileage reimbursements for veterans traveling to get their treatment.

The increases come on top of steady gains for the VA in recent years, particularly after the Bush administration two years ago underestimated health care needs by almost $3 billion over 2005-06. Democrats were prominent in pressing the increases when they were out of power; when they took control this year, Democrats immediately added $3.4 billion to the veterans budget over prior year levels and added another $1.8 billion in May.

Now, Republicans are criticizing Democrats' handling of the veterans budget, insisting that it be sent to Bush as an independent bill in time for Veterans Day. But Democrats contend that Republicans routinely bundled the veterans budget with other bills and haven't ever sent one to Bush by Veterans Day.

"They didn't even pass a veterans bill last year," House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said of Republicans. "They shut the place down and went home."

The uneven handling of the legislation is emblematic of the troubles Democrats have had this budget season. The 12 annual spending bills are the very basic work of Congress, but there's no clearly evident way that the present impasse between Democrats and Bush will be broken.

Bush has promised to veto nine of the 12 spending bills, including every major domestic bill. No negotiations of significance have taken place yet and none appear in the offing as the White House insists Congress hew to his $933 billion appropriations cap. Democrats have sought to break that cap by about $23 billion, though most of that increase is devoted to filling in budget cuts sought by Bush.

Meanwhile, the congressional clock is ticking.

Democrats unveiled a new stopgap funding bill to keep the government running past Thanksgiving and into mid-December. The current stopgap bill expires Nov. 16.

"At some point, there's going to have to be some sort of communication about how we wrap this up," said Senate GOP Whip Trent Lott of Mississippi. "If there are any negotiations going on anywhere to come up with a process or an agreement, I don't know what it is."

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Larry Scott  --

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