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 P R E S S  R E L E A S E - Wednesday September 20, 2006 this is an invisible spacer image
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Buyer commends GAO report on VA budget, praises VA Secretary for acting

Washington, D.C.A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued today supports conclusions by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs that projected veterans’ health care funding shortfalls from last summer were caused by a flawed Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) budget model.  Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) praised the report that found that the VA used unrealistic assumptions and outdated, insufficient data.

“The GAO’s findings confirm what we found after examining VA’s process of budget modeling,” Buyer said. “The department’s budget staffs relied on information that was outdated, used unsupportable assumptions, and reacted slowly when a gap appeared.  Commendably, VA Secretary Nicholson has already moved ahead to enact recommendations made in this report.”

The GAO report was requested by Buyer and members of the Senate after VA reported shortfalls in health care funding for fiscal years 2005 and 2006.  It found that “unrealistic assumptions, errors in estimation, and insufficient data” were “key factors” in the budget projections that led to the shortfall.  It recommended that VA do a better job of linking policy changes with their effects on budgets, strengthen internal controls, and improve budget calculations. GAO also recommended improved budget reporting by the administration to Congress, a factor in the late request last year for supplemental funding.

At the committee’s hearing last June (http://veterans.house.gov/news/109/6-23-05h.html), VA Under Secretary for Health Jonathan Perlin first acknowledged a looming health care funding shortfall.  Supplemental appropriations corrected the shortfalls, but Buyer insisted on finding and fixing the root problems.  In additional hearings held by Buyer last summer, it was discovered that VA officials used planning data that was in some cases three years old and neither accounted for servicemembers returning from the war on terror nor correctly estimated program cost savings within the Veterans Health Administration. 

“Last June, I promised that we would examine the VA budget process and work with Secretary Nicholson and the administration to fix the process itself,” Buyer said.  “Working with VA and the administration, we have made the hard and necessary changes to the budget model, and the proof was a strong FY 2007 budget.”

Please visit our website at http://veterans.house.gov

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