Thomas Foley: “Our funding under VERA has increased since 1997 by 14 percent in Florida, but the workload has increased by 30 percent.…”

“Our funding under VERA has increased since 1997 by 14 percent in Florida, but the workload has increased by 30 percent. In fiscal year 1995, VISN-8, which is the area that serves Florida, the VA office treated 225,000 veterans in fiscal 1999, will treat about 295,000, and it will go up to 300,000 in fiscal year 2000. I think that it is very clear that we need VERA to work. Now maybe some technical problems with it, but this amendment should be defeated. It is wrong, and I know how hard the chairman has worked on trying to increase the VA budget in this bill, and it is modestly there, not as far as the gentleman from Florida and I would like, but it is there to some extent. I am disappointed though that the NASA budget has been cut so severely, and it makes this bill extremely difficult for me to support because NASA is extremely important to Florida and the Nation as well.”