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Letter to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs Conferees supporting funding for state veterans homes

October 25, 2005

Dear Senator:

On behalf of the 1.4 million members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the employees of state veterans' nursing homes that we represent and our members who are veterans, I am writing to ask that you continue providing support for our State Veterans Homes by maintaining full funding of the Veterans Affairs nursing home program as well as restoring the $104 million in state grants in the conference with House conferees.

A potentially devastating proposal by the Department of Veterans Affairs which your committee addressed in your bill would change the eligibility of federal support for nursing care, excluding for the first time whole priority groups of deserving veterans. Language in the Senate Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill notes disagreement with the proposal and asks the Department to work with the National Association of State Veterans Homes on the matter.

Up to 80 percent of veterans in many states would no longer qualify for federal support through per diem payments to state nursing homes if this proposal goes forward. The impact would be devastating for the veterans of state veterans' homes and the states which would have to assume the federal government's shortfall in funding or be forced to exclude veterans from state homes. AFSCME agrees that the Department of Veterans Affairs is on the wrong track in proposing to change the eligibility so as to exclude these honored veterans.

We ask that you do everything you can to maintain the full funding level provided in your bill and to continue to reject the Department's eligibility changes that would adversely affect our nation's honored veterans and state veterans homes.

Sincerely,

Charles M. Loveless
Director of Legislation

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