House OKs extra $1.5 billion for vets' health

WASHINGTON -- The House voted to provide an extra $1.5 billion for veterans health care programs Thursday, an amount lawmakers said should be enough to last until the next budget year begins Oct. 1.

The move resulted from an embarrassing episode for the Veterans Affairs Department, which has issued ever-rising estimates of how much is needed to fill a gap and has acknowledged its budget forecasting models are outdated.

Lawmakers have so little faith in VA projections that they ignored the agency's most recent $1.3 billion estimate and went with the $1.5 billion figure that the Senate has repeatedly passed. An earlier House-passed measure would have provided $975 million, but no sooner had the chamber passed the bill than the VA issued a new, higher cost estimate.

The funds are attached to a $26.3 billion Interior Department spending bill that passed the House Thursday afternoon by a 410-10 vote. The Senate was expected to clear the House-Senate compromise bill before leaving for the August congressional recess.

The Interior measure and another bill funding Congress' own budget, which passed the House by a 305-122 vote, will be the first two of the 11 spending bills for the budget year beginning Oct. 1 to go to President Bush's desk.

The emergency veterans funding comes on top of $28 billion approved last year as part of the VA's regular budget.

The additional money is needed to correct VA underestimates of the number of veterans seeking care as well as increased costs of treatment and long-term care.

The VA's estimating models for the original budget submission did not take into account the additional cost of caring for veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Demand for health care services has increased by more than 5 percent over last year. The VA originally predicted growth of about 2 percent.

The $1.5 billion for the current fiscal year is in addition to the $2 billion extra that Bush's requested for next year.

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