Mission Roll Call: Veterans should not carry burden of VA's $15 billion budget shortfall

A national veteran nonprofit organization says that veterans should not have to carry the burden of the Department of Veterans Affairs' reported $15 billion budget shortfall.

“They get more than enough money to do the things they should be doing,” retired Army Lt. Colonel and Mission Roll Call CEO Jim Whaley said. “The challenge is they are not being held accountable.”

VA Secretary Denis McDonough told reporters last month that his department’s budget shortfall is the result of more veterans using VA care than ever before and comes in direct response to an aggressive campaign that urges them to file for the benefits they have earned. He also said VA had initially anticipated processing more than 2.5 million claims this fiscal year, but is now expected to exceed that.

VA has asked Congress for an authorization level raise to cover increased benefits paid under compensation and pension claims as well as increased utilization of readjustment benefits, including the GI Bill and Veteran Readiness and Employment benefits, McDonough said.

Whaley said the VA’s budget problem is similar to what happens when corporations become too big.

“A good idea becomes a program and a program becomes a person and a person becomes a department,” he said. “Before you know it, it becomes too big.”

Service members and veterans make up a minority of the American public and Whaley warned a chasm could develop between those who served and those who have not or have little connection to the military.

“As a community, we need to be smart about how we approach this,” he said.

Whaley stressed that VA benefits are just that – benefits – and not entitlements. He also noted that many veterans do not need the services provided by VA until they are older.

Whaley noted that 90 percent of respondents to a Mission Roll Call survey indicated they are registered to vote and their major concerns are national security, transitioning and benefits, veteran homelessness and suicide.

He also empathized with McDonough.

“I think its probably an impossible job,” he said. “It’s such a big bureaucracy, it would take a year just to understand all the engine parts to that.”

“You are going to be hated no matter what you do,” added Whaley.

Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com