Budget would boost VA funding

The Veterans Affairs Department would get a budget boost under the president's 2016 request, gaining $9 billion overall for total funding of $169 billion, and a nearly 8 percent increase in funding for discretionary spending, to $73.5 billion.

Other data points for VA:

• $56 billion for veterans health care;
• $1.2 billion for telehealth technologies;
• $253 million for IT to support electronic claims processing;
• $141 million for the Veterans Claims Intake Program to continue converting paper records to digital information;
• $86 million to improve customer service for online access and call centers.

If adopted, the budget would continue a steady rise in VA program spending that has been ongoing since 2004.

Full Coverage: Federal Budget 2016

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