Improving health care services for our veterans and seniors continues to be one of my top priorities.
Federal funding for veterans programs will be increased for the new fiscal year which begins October 1st. That will help provide comprehensive health care services to veterans on a timely and convenient manner. Increasing veterans medical care funding is important, particularly as our veterans population ages. Over the last 10 years we have increased the budget for VA medical care by 90%. Just since 2005, we have expanded funding from $27.8 billion to $32.3 billion, an increase of 16%. For 2007, the VA plans to spend nearly $3 billion for mental health care. For new veterans who are returning from duty related to our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have increased funding for their care by 6.3%. Five million veterans will receive health care services this year.
In the past two years, the House has increased the veterans budget by 18%. The total VA budget has increased from approximately $66 billion in Fiscal Year 2005 to approximately $78 billion for next year. In the last decade we have been able to increase the VA budget by 94%. This action has enabled the VA to care for a record number of high-priority patients - those veterans who are counting on us the most.
Knowing that the concurrent receipt benefit is important to our veterans, we have worked for a number of years to ensure that all of our disabled military retirees who are entitled to disability compensation are not penalized by having their retirement pay reduced. In 2004, Congress approved a significant change in law and provided $22 billion to allow military retirees with a 100% disability rating to receive full retirement and disability payments. Congress has also authorized a concurrent receipt program for military retirees with a disability rating of 50% or higher to be phased in over 10 years. While some progress has been made to end this unfair offset, we will continue working to correct this inequity and grant full concurrent receipt to all disabled veterans.
Finally, I along with many other Americans have been offended by reports of demonstrations at military funerals held at National Cemeteries. While we can never place a value on the service of those who pay the ultimate price in defense of our freedom, we should protect the rights of their family members and loved ones to grieve and honor their fallen with respect and privacy. I supported and voted for the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act to prohibit such demonstrations, and that measure is now law.
