Veterans Would Benefit from Bush Budget | |
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National Cemeteries
President Bush's proposed FY 2002 budget requests $121 million, or $12 million more than the current level,
for VA's national cemeteries. It doubles to $10 million the spending dedicated
to upgrade the cemeteries to a level befitting their status as national shrines.
Funds will be used to renovate gravesites and to clean, raise and realign
headstones and markers.
The request includes funding for land acquisitions for new cemeteries in the Detroit, Pittsburgh and Sacramento areas; development of a new cemetery in Atlanta; design of a new cemetery in Miami; and columbaria expansion and improvements at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, Mass., and the Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Wash.
The Veterans Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act of 1999 requires VA to establish six additional national cemeteries in areas of the United States in which the need for burial space is greatest. Those areas are: Atlanta, Georgia; Detroit, Michigan; Miami, Florida; Sacramento, California; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Other Programs
VA is replacing its accounting and logistics computer systems
with "coreFLS," or "core financial and logistics system,"
which replaces other computerized and manual systems. It will be supported by
funds from other VA offices.
A VA-wide evaluation of all information technology (IT) systems is underway, designed to ensure that critical computerized systems can communicate within VA and with other federal agencies.
A total of $441 million is requested for VA construction programs. This request provides funding for the cemetery projects mentioned above, and an emergency electrical project at Miami. Also, $115 million is requested to begin implementing VA's Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES) recommendations.
