June 30, 2005

Contact: Jeff Schrade 202-224-9093

(Washington, DC) An amendment to add $1.5 billion dollars to the 2005 budget for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was adopted by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. It received a unanimous vote and is now a part of the Interior Appropriations bill.

Leading the charge was Senator Larry Craig, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

"America's 25 million veterans received a solid vote of support from the U.S. Senate today and I am pleased that we truly had a bipartisan show of support for this measure. The VA will now be able to purchase the equipment and provide the care that veterans need," Craig said.

"At the same time that I am pleased for veterans, I am not happy to be placed in this situation of having to add $1.5 billion as an emergency measure. We need a better budget model so that we don't have to pass emergency funding measures like the one we passed today. This cannot and should not happen again."

The money the Senate approved will replace funding that the VA has taken from its capital investment fund and from funds it had anticipated to carry in to 2006.

The day before the measure passed, Sen. Craig chaired a hearing at which VA Secretary Jim Nicholson was asked tough questions about the VA's budget. After that hearing Craig said he would sponsor an amendment to add $1.5 billion to the VA's budget.

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania), as Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, sponsored the amendment. Cosponsoring the amendment were Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Jon Kyl (R-Arizona), Bill Frist (R-Tennessee), Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Jim Talent (R-Missouri), John Thune (R-South Dakota), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia), Patty Murray (D-Washington), Diane Feinstein (D-California), Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota), Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland), Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), Jon Corzine (D-New Jersey) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

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