The Senate on Tuesday passed legislation funding programs for veterans.  As the largest deployment of the Vermont National Guard since WW II is underway, the bill provides $53.2 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs.  It includes a provision cosponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders to create a $5 million outreach program to help veterans in rural areas without a nearby active-duty military installation, such as Vermont.  “While it is important to have the best health care, services, and benefits in the world, they don’t do our veterans any good if they don’t know about them or can’t access them,” Sanders said.

For the first time, the bill includes advance appropriations to fund three key medical programs for the Department of Veterans Affairs – Medical Services, Medical Support and Compliance, and Medical Facilities -- totaling $48.2 billion for fiscal year 2011. This funding will ensure a stable and uninterrupted source of funding for medical care for veterans.

Other initiatives include:

Rural Health: Building on the Committee’s 2009 Rural Health Initiative, the bill includes $250 million to continue the initiative, providing a total of $440 million in 2010 for medical care for veterans in rural and highly rural areas, including Native American populations. Vermont’s VA accessed this funding last year to develop a program to provide mental health counseling over the Internet.

Rural Clinic Initiative: The bill provides an additional $50 million in medical services to establish Community Based Outpatient Clinics in rural areas that are currently underserved by VA health care facilities.

Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraq Freedom Veterans: $2.1 billion to meet the health care needs of veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, a $463 million increase over last year. The VA estimates that the number of OEF/OIF veterans in its health care system will reach 419,000 in 2010, a 61 percent increase since 2008. The funding includes research and treatment programs for mental health issues, including traumatic brain injury  and post-traumatic stress disorder.        

Medical and Prosthetic Research: $580 million, an increase of $70 million over the 2009 funding level, for research in a number of areas, including mental health, spinal cord injury, burn injury  and sensory loss.

Women Veterans Programs: $183 million to meet the unique needs of women veterans.

Homeless Veterans Programs: $3.2 billion for health care and support services for homeless veterans. This includes $500 million in direct programs to assist homeless veterans, which include: $26 million devoted to a new initiative to combat homelessness through a collaborative pilot program with non-profits and other federal agencies.

Newly Qualified Veterans: $533 million to expand eligibility for VA health care to non-service disabled veterans earning modest incomes (Priority 8 veterans). The VA estimates that an additional 266,000 veterans will enroll in the health care system due to the change in policy.

Claims Processing:  The bill provides resources to hire 1,200 new claims processors, bringing the compensation and pensions workforce to 14,549 in 2010, up from 7,550 in 2005.  There is currently a backlog of more than 450,000 veterans' claims for benefits.