WASHINGTON, DC-Congressman Phil Hare (D-IL) today urged his colleagues to support the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act of 2007 during a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing examining the best way to fund the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) in the future.

Hare’s bill, HR2514, would make VA health care a mandatory spending item within the federal budget. VA health care is currently the only major federal health program that is not funded through mandatory appropriations.

“We are now three days into Fiscal Year 2008 and America’s veterans do not yet have a new budget,” Hare said. “Such is the failure of discretionary spending.”

The VA actually ran out of money the last 2 years under the discretionary process—suffering shortfalls of $1 billion in 2005 and $2 billion in 2006.

“Our veterans—who sacrificed their lives so we can live in peace and security—should not be at the mercy of the current political climate,” Hare said.

“Funding shortfalls are more than just numbers,” he added. “They can take away our ability to provide an injured solider with a prosthetic leg or treat a Marine suffering from a traumatic brain injury.”

Hare called the current system for funding the VA a “19th century solution to a 21st century challenge.” “With our continued military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is nearly impossible to meet the growing needs of our veterans through discretionary spending.”

The Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act has 87 co-sponsors. It is supported by the American Legion, American Veterans (AMVETS), Blinded Veterans Association, Disabled American Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Vietnam Veterans of America, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.