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Bush disability plan comes late in game

Bush administration officials appear to be trying to stall the already slow-moving train of reform of military and veterans’ disability benefits by appealing to lawmakers to give the Veterans Affairs Department permission to revise disability ratings.

In briefings for lawmakers and their staffs, administration officials have floated a three-part overhaul of the disability benefits system that could include paying a temporary disability allowance to newly separated service members while they adjust to their changed life circumstances, and an easier transition between the military and veterans’ health care systems for severely injured service members.

Getting the most attention, however, is a request for Congress to allow VA time for a complete overhaul and update of the disability claims system.

Administration officials asked for greater flexibility so that VA could implement revised ratings — which could potentially raise or lower disability payments — without having to come back to Congress for approval.

That idea seems completely unacceptable to lawmakers and to representatives of veterans’ service organizations who were briefed on the plan, sending administration officials scurrying to revise their proposal to at least give Congress final approval on whatever changes are proposed by VA.

VA officials did not return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment on the initiative.

Talk of a new plan comes just as negotiators from the House and Senate have finally been able to start writing a compromise military disability benefits bill — because the Senate, after months of partisan bickering, finally passed its version of the 2008 defense authorization bill Monday.

While formal negotiations cannot begin until the House appoints its negotiating team, informal talks about the pending Wounded Warrior Assistance Act have begun.

The Senate appointed its negotiating team Monday, led by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the House Armed Services Committee chairman, is expected to lead the group of House negotiators.

While the House and Senate have markedly different ideas, both wounded warrior plans would order improvements in case management for wounded service members, demand that VA and the Defense Department use similar methods for rating disabilities, and try to smooth transition from the military to VA health systems for service members with continuing medical needs.

A decision has not been made about whether Congress will pass a separate Wounded Warrior bill or include the reform package in the defense authorization bill.

The administration plan was not well received by lawmakers, who wondered why the White House waited to unveil its own ideas until House and Senate negotiators were just starting to work out differences in their own plans.

Senior lawmakers told VA officials they would prefer to get detailed comments on pending legislation rather than to face an entirely new initiative, according to lawmakers involved in the discussions who asked not to be identified because they hoped to get cooperation from the administration.

“This late in the process, it is hard to see why the Bush administration would suddenly be coming up with a new plan, unless their purpose was to try to delay legislation,” said one lawmaker. “I don’t think we want to do that.”