“… The President’s FY 2021 Budget requests $243.3 billion for VA —$109.5 billion in discretionary funding (including medical care collections). The discretionary request is an increase of $12.9 billion, or 14.1 percent, over the enacted FY 2020 appropriation. It would sustain the progress we have made; provide additional resources to improve patient access and timeliness of medical care services for the approximately 9 million Veterans enrolled for VA health care; and improve benefits delivery for our Veterans and their beneficiaries. The President’s FY 2021 Budget also requests $133.8 billion in mandatory funding, $9.1 billion or 7.2 percent above 2020…”
“This is the largest budget request in VA history, allowing VA to sustain our remarkable progress, continue the upward trajectory of modernizing our systems, and be a center of innovation, providing options to Veterans when it comes to their own care. I urge Congress to support and fully fund our FY 2021 and FY 2022 AA budget requests.”
“Next, I will highlight progress we have made, as well as planned activities, in health care, benefits, business transformation, infrastructure, and cemetery operations among others and how the resources we are requesting will contribute to our continued success…”
Read the full 18-page statement here.
Source: Statement Before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2021 – By Robert Wilkie, February 27, 2020. House of Representatives.
