Lawmaker: Exempt vets health care from cuts - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Lawmaker: Exempt vets health care from cuts

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman moved Friday to protect veterans’ health care accounts from potential automatic budget cuts.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said that after six months of trying to determine whether veterans’ medical programs are exempt from the across-the-board cuts that are scheduled to take effect early next year, he doesn’t want to leave veterans with doubts.

Miller has introduced the Protect VA Healthcare Act of 2012, which would specifically exempt veterans health care programs from the so-called sequestration cuts ordered under the terms of the 2011 Budget Control Act that require a $1.2 trillion cut in spending because Congress failed last year to pass a deficit reduction package.

It is possible that the automatic cuts could be avoided, but Miller wants to remove any question about how VA’s health budget would be affected if sequestration occurs.

“Due to a conflict in the law, the Department of Veterans Affairs may be subject to a 2 percent cut in medical care, a cut that would significantly impact the care provided to America’s veterans,” Miller said in a statement.

He said he asked VA and White House to say whether VA health care programs are exempt, but said, “I have not received any assurance, and more important, nor have our veterans, that these cuts will not take place.”

Veterans’ benefits programs are exempt from the automatic budget cuts, but that is no guarantee that Congress wouldn’t reduce benefits as part of a deficit reduction agreement designed to avoid sequestration.