By Solis of Bexar                                    H.C.R. No. 141
         76R9983 SMZ-F                           
                             HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-1           WHEREAS, Military veterans who have served their country
 1-2     honorably and who were promised and earned health care and
 1-3     compensation and pension benefits from the federal government
 1-4     through the Department of Veterans Affairs are now in need of these
 1-5     benefits due to advancing age; and
 1-6           WHEREAS, The proposed budget for the Department of Veterans
 1-7     Affairs Veterans Health Administration has for the fourth
 1-8     consecutive year proposed a straight-line budget for veterans
 1-9     health care that falls short of the needed funds to counter soaring
1-10     medical care inflation and other costs associated with the aging
1-11     veterans population; and
1-12           WHEREAS, The proposed budget calls for the elimination of
1-13     nearly 8,000 full-time employees from veterans health care, which
1-14     further threatens veterans health care service by placing a greater
1-15     strain on patient services and further endangers the quality of
1-16     care for the sick and disabled veterans of this nation; and
1-17           WHEREAS, The processing of claims for service-connected
1-18     compensation and pension benefits by the Department of Veterans
1-19     Affairs Veterans Benefits Administration has also suffered from
1-20     inadequate budgets resulting in backlogs in claims processing
1-21     ranging in the hundreds of thousands; and
1-22           WHEREAS, The substantial backlog of service-connected
1-23     compensation and pension claims by the Veterans Benefits
1-24     Administration has been a serious and persistent problem resulting
 2-1     in extended waits for veterans and their families to receive
 2-2     decisions concerning application for needed benefits; and
 2-3           WHEREAS, It is necessary to enact legislation to provide
 2-4     funding necessary to properly deliver earned health care and
 2-5     compensation and pension benefits to the aging veterans population
 2-6     of our nation; now, therefore, be it
 2-7           RESOLVED, That the 76th Legislature of the State of Texas
 2-8     hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
 2-9     maintain its commitment to the veterans of America and their
2-10     families by providing sufficient funding to the Department of
2-11     Veterans Affairs to address the above concerns; and, be it further
2-12           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
2-13     copies of this resolution to the president of the United States,
2-14     the president of the senate and speaker of the house of
2-15     representatives of the United States Congress, and all members of
2-16     the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
2-17     resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
2-18     memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.