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Administration Releases FY 2011 Budget Requests

President Obama sent details of his FY 2011 budget to Congress this week, asking for increases in the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans’ Affairs (VA), and cuts in the Coast Guard budget.  The DoD request totals $708.3 billion (a 3.4 percent increase over FY 2010) and, for a second year in a row, fully funds military health care programs without requesting out-of-pocket costs for TRICARE beneficiaries. The budget calls for a 1.4-percent active duty pay increase that equals the Employment Cost Index (ECI), which FRA believes is inadequate, and boosts funding for family readiness programs. Funding is also included for phasing-in the concurrent receipt of military retired pay and veterans’ disability compensation for service members who were medically retired with a 30-percent or greater disability (so-called Chapter 61 retirees).

The FY2011 VA budget request of $125 billion includes funding for 4,000 additional claims adjudicators to process the growing backlog of VA disability claims – an FRA priority – and new technologies to streamline the disbursement of education benefits and create an electronic recordkeeping process. The proposal also provides for $54.3 billion in advanced funding for VA  health care and to further expand health care access for 500,000 Priority Group 8 veterans, and expand care and support for wounded warriors and female veterans. 

The U.S. Coast Guard budget reflects a three-percent decrease and includes an end-strength reduction of 1,100 billets.  FRA is particularly concerned about this manpower reduction, given the service’s growing mission requirements.