Budget Calls for Cuts to VA Programs as Tradeoff for Extending Choice

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/05/23/budget-calls-cuts-va-programs-tradeoff-extending-choice.html?ESRC=army_170530.nl

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's budget released Tuesday proposes cutting monthly stipends to some disabled, unemployed veterans and reducing veterans' cost-of-living adjustments as offsets to continue a program that allows veterans to seek care outside the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The $186.5 billion budget calls for $2.9 billion in new spending in fiscal 2018, which begins Oct. 1, to fund the Veterans Choice Program, which was created as a temporary measure and allows veterans, in certain instances, to seek health care in the private sector at the VA's expense. Trump's budget also asks for $3.5 billion more for the program in 2019 and every subsequent year.

The increase would bring the total amount that the VA spends through its various community care programs to $13.2 billion in fiscal 2018.