Initial reviews are good for the Obama administration's proposed $125 billion veterans budget for 2011.

The Democratic chairman and top Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee both used the word "robust" to describe a budget proposal that includes an 8.5 percent increase in medical care accounts and an unprecedented 27 percent increase in benefits funding.

"I thank you for bringing us a budget we can be proud of," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who noted the VA budget is increasing at a time when the Obama administration proposes to freeze funding for most federal agencies.

Veterans advocates also are pleased.

"This budget is as good as any we have seen," said Carl Blake of Paralyzed Veterans of America.

"It is very rare that we show up at a hearing on the budget and don't have to beat up on someone," said Steve Robertson of the American Legion.

Disagreements with the budget appear to be relatively minor:

• The medical research budget would increase by only 2 percent, an amount which Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., said is not enough to keep up with rising costs and likely would force cuts in research positions and projects.

Blake called the research budget, which includes prosthetic research, "grossly underfunded."

• Veterans groups doubt that VA will get $3.3 billion in 2011 in reimbursements from third-party insurers, which the budget plan assumes will help pay for health care costs.

• Funding for information technology also would increase by just 2 percent, essentially frozen at the same level as in 2009 for efforts that stand to provide long-term solutions to VA's problems with paying benefits on time and in allocating health care. Both lawmakers and veterans groups are pushing for an increase.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, appearing Thursday before the House committee, said the budget is designed to keep the department on a path that is more people-focused, results-oriented and forward-looking — a process that continues to be difficult because the number of veterans and survivors seeking help from VA continues to grow.

The department, which broke the 1 million mark in benefits claims in a single year in 2009, expects the number to increase by 13 percent this year and 11 percent in 2011. And those estimates don't take into account the possibility of more than 180,000 more claims that may come in 2011 as a result of an expected change in eligibility for Vietnam veterans with health issues related to Agent Orange, Shinseki said.

"This is my year to focus on the backlog," Shinseki said about the expected flood of claims.

But things may get worse before they get better. Average claims-processing time is 159 days today, but that could stretch out to 190 days in 2011, even with VA's plans to create 4,000 permanent positions for claims processors.

The number of veterans seeking health care also is increasing, which is part of the reason for the requested boost in the medical budget for 2011. VA expects the patient load to increase 3 percent next year, partly because the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking care is rising 15 percent.

Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense said he thinks VA is underestimating the number of new patients and could face "colossal failure." Part of his concern comes from research that shows service members who have had multiple combat-zone deployments are far more likely to have post-traumatic stress than other veterans.

The budget plan assumes VA will treat about 439,300 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in 2011 and about 500,000 in 2012, but Sullivan said he thinks those figures may be short by as much as 200,000 patients per year, based on the current rate of 9,000 new patients coming to VA each month.