| |
| |
|
|
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
|
|
|
WHEREAS, Military veterans who have served their country |
|
|
honorably and who were promised and have earned health care and |
|
|
benefits from the federal government through the Department of |
|
|
Veterans Affairs are now in need of these benefits; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Federal discretionary funding is controlled by the |
|
|
executive branch and the United States Congress through the budget |
|
|
and appropriations process; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Direct funding provides the Department of Veterans |
|
|
Affairs with a reliable, predictable, and consistent source of |
|
|
funding to provide timely, efficient, and high-quality health care |
|
|
for our veterans; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Currently almost 90 percent of federal health care |
|
|
spending is direct rather than discretionary, and only the funding |
|
|
for health care for active duty military, Native Americans, and |
|
|
veterans is subject to the discretion of the United States |
|
|
Congress; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Discretionary funding for health care lags behind |
|
|
both medical inflation and the increased demand for services; for |
|
|
example, the enrollment for veterans' health care increased 134 |
|
|
percent between fiscal years 1996 and 2004 yet funding increased |
|
|
only 34 percent during the same period when adjusted to 1996 |
|
|
dollars; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest |
|
|
integrated health care system in the United States and has four |
|
|
critical health care missions: to provide health care to veterans, |
|
|
to educate and train health care personnel, to conduct medical |
|
|
research, and to serve as a backup to the United States Department |
|
|
of Defense and support communities in times of crisis; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Department of Veterans Affairs operates 157 |
|
|
hospitals, with at least one in each of the contiguous states, |
|
|
Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Department of Veterans Affairs operates more |
|
|
than 850 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, |
|
|
132 nursing homes, 42 residential rehabilitation treatment |
|
|
programs, and 88 home care programs; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Department of Veterans Affairs provides a wide |
|
|
range of specialized services to meet the unique needs of veterans, |
|
|
including spinal cord injury and dysfunction care and |
|
|
rehabilitation, blind rehabilitation, traumatic brain injury care, |
|
|
post-traumatic stress disorder treatment, amputee care and |
|
|
prosthetics programs, mental health and substance abuse programs, |
|
|
and long-term care programs; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, The Department of Veterans Affairs health care |
|
|
system is severely underfunded, and had funding for the |
|
|
department's medical programs been allowed to grow proportionately |
|
|
as the system sought to admit newly eligible veterans following the |
|
|
eligibility reform legislation in 1996, the current veterans' |
|
|
health care budget would be approximately $10 billion more; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, In a spirit of bipartisan accommodation, members of |
|
|
the United States Congress should collectively resolve the problem |
|
|
of discretionary funding and jointly fashion an acceptable formula |
|
|
for funding the medical programs of the Department of Veterans |
|
|
Affairs; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the 80th Legislature of the State of Texas |
|
|
hereby express its profound gratitude for the sacrifices made by |
|
|
veterans, including those suffering from various medical issues |
|
|
resulting from injuries that occurred while serving in the United |
|
|
States Armed Forces at home or abroad; and, be it further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the legislature hereby respectfully urge the |
|
|
Congress of the United States to support legislation for veterans' |
|
|
health care budget reform to allow assured funding; and, be it |
|
|
further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
|
|
copies of this resolution to the secretary of veterans affairs, to |
|
|
the president of the United States, to the speaker of the house of |
|
|
representatives and the president of the senate of the United |
|
|
States Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to |
|
|
the congress with the request that this resolution be officially |
|
|
entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of |
|
|
the United States of America. |