Jay Rockefeller: “the budget resolution would take $10.5 billion of ``savings,'' which is in the baseline of the Veterans Administration…”

“the budget resolution would take $10.5 billion of ``savings,'' which is in the baseline of the Veterans Administration budget, and remove it, excise it, and put it into more highway funds. There are $217 billion of highway funds over 5 years. What this would effectively also do is bar any veteran's claim for disability from a tobacco-related illness at a time when the test for getting a tobacco-related illness in the VA is incredibly difficult. Only 278 Americans, to this point, have achieved that. The whole issue on tobacco and the military has changed in the last 3 or 4 years. We want to restore the money, keep the money in the VA budget and not have it taken out and given to highways, which could find a different offset.”