By Tom Miller
Appropriations and COLA
Unfortunately, there has been little legislative activity in
the halls of Congress since the last edition of the Bulletin.
Typical of election years, Members of Congress hastily adjourned
in early October to return home to campaign. Once again, they
failed to complete work on all of the necessary Fiscal Year 2005
appropriation bills necessary to fund all of the federal departments
and agencies.
Now that the elections are over, both political parties will
be busy preparing for the 109th Congress that will convene shortly
after January 1. New leadership positions must be filled and Committee
Chairs selected.
The 108th Congress did succeed in passing the Cost Of Living
Adjustment (COLA) legislation necessary to increase disability
compensation payments to both service-connected disabled veterans
and to the surviving spouses and dependent children receiving
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC). The effective date
of the legislation is December 1, 2004, which means that the increase
will first appear in checks from VA dated January 1, 2005 and
later. The COLA for 2005 is a 2.7 percent increase.
At the time of this writing, November 16, Congress has returned
for a so-called "lame-duck" session to complete unfinished
business. Most observers believe that business will still not
be completed but that an Omnibus Appropriation Bill will be adopted
to fund the remaining departments and agencies whose appropriation
bills have not yet passed.
All remaining appropriation bills, including that of VA, will
be folded into the Omnibus Bill, making it likely that VA will
not be funded at adequate levels. Although the U.S. House and
Senate adopted VA appropriation bills, there were significant
differences that remain to be reconciled in Conference Committee.
One of the most notable items outstanding is that of VA medical
and prosthetics research.
BRS Director Continues Rehab
Charlie Crawford, the newly selected VA Director of Blind Rehabilitation
Service, suffered a cerebral aneurysm just one month after assuming
office. He has thus far not progressed quite as quickly as he
had hoped (October 20 was his target date to return) and has been
unable to begin working again. It is now anticipated that another
two to four weeks of rehabilitation will permit his return. All
indications now point to steady and positive, albeit slow, progress.
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