[Nfbf-l] Resend of election results

[Kirk]

Hi all, I have been informed that some of you didn't get any text on my send 
about our election results for yor review. So, Here it is once more! Your 
friend in the cause, Kirk



In one of the most expensive elections in our nation's history, the 
Republicans captured control of the House with the largest transfer of seats 
since 1938.  The GOP will hold at least 240 seats in the 112thCongress, 
compared with 185 for Democrats, with 10 races not yet decided.  The current 
makeup of the House is 255 Democrats and 178Republicans, with two vacant 
seats.  With races still too close to call in Washington and Alaska, it is 
clearly apparent that Democrats will retain control of the Senate in 2011 
with at least 50 seats while the GOP's current hold is at 46.     Rumor is 
that while Congressman Cliff Stearns from Florida who has seniority now on 
the House VA Committee will not get to become chairman of the committee 
because the republican leadership wants him on House Commerce Committee 
instead, and that would mean Congressman Jeff Miller(R FL) would probably 
become the chairman of the VA Committee


Congressman Bob Filner will become ranking member of the committee but will 
have almost all new members being appointed to minority. Also because on 
republican side Congressman Steve Buyer retired, and Congressman James Moran 
(R KS) and Congressman John Boozman (R Arkansas)both won elections to the 
senate, and Congressman Henry Brown (R SC)retired, we are going to have 
several new members on both house VA Committee majority and minority.  With 
the Republicans taking over the House, John Boehner (R-OH) looks to take 
over as Speaker of the House, Eric Cantor (R-VA) looks to take over House 
Majority Leader, and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) or Pete Sessions (R-TX)look to 
take over the House Majority Whip.  The House Appropriations Chairman will 
most likely be Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the Ways & Means Chairman will be Dave 
Camp (R-MI) and the Education and Labor Chairman will be John Kline (R-MN). 
Although Joe Barton (R-TX) was the Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce 
Committee, it appears that Fred Upton(R-MI) will become chairman of the 
vital committee that has jurisdiction over a great deal of health 
legislation. Congressman Bill Young (R FL)will probably become Chairman of 
MILCON VA Appropriations the committee that funds the VA system


However, on the Senate side, the Democrats still maintained majority


Harry Reid (D-NV) will remain as the Senate Majority Leader, Dick 
Durbin(D-IL) looks to be the Senate Majority Whip, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 
will remain as the Senate Minority Leader and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) looks to be the 
Senate Minority Whip.  The Senate HELP Committee, which handles a majority 
of health issues in the Senate, will retain Tom Harkin (D-IA)as its Chairman 
and Mike Enzi (R-WY) as its Ranking Member.  Daniel Inouye (D-HI) will 
remain as Senate Appropriations Chairman with Thad Cochran (R-MS) remaining 
Vice Chairman


Senator Akaka (D HI) will remain as Chairman of Senate VA Committee, and 
Senator Burr (R NC) will remain as ranking member. We do expect some changes 
to the content of the Senate VA Committee though, and all this means more 
risk of some very new members being appointed to both the house and senate 
VA committees without any history or knowledge about VA specialized blind 
rehabilitation programs. Just be concerned that several members elected last 
week want to privatize federal programs, and that could open door for 
National Federation for Blind NFB going into all these new members in 
February like they did two years ago, and asking for more money so NFB can 
treat blinded veterans.  Congress will return on November 15 for a lame-duck 
session possibly lasting just a few weeks. Tuesday's election results make 
it less likely for the lame-duck session to address much substantive 
legislation even though funding for government agencies, expiring tax cuts, 
stem cells, the Medicare physician fee fix, and a myriad of other important 
issues are still pending


With that said, there is further delay of final congressional enactment of 
fiscal year (FY) 2011 government funding.  It's possible that Congress could 
decide to fund the entire FY 2011 through a continuing resolution at 2010 
levels.  Thus, the National Institutes of Health(NIH) would not receive its 
proposed $1 billion increase.  However, it's also possible that Congress 
will enact the proposed FY 2011 Senate and House Labor, Health and Human 
Services, and Education (LHHS)appropriations bills that would increase NIH 
funding by $1 billion to$32 billion, a 3.5% increase from FY 2010.  If that 
were to occur, below would be the detailed FY 2011 funding for the NIH: The 
VA Appropriations for FY 2011 if not passed will have double whammy because 
Advanced Appropriations for FY 2012 will not occur under a continuing 
resolution


Remember that if the congress does pass just a continuing resolution, the VA 
health care system would be funded at the FY 2010 level all of this next 
year! VHA has already told medical centers to expect hiring freeze, and 
tough year ahead if a continuing resolution occurs. Disabled American 
Veterans DAV staff with years of capitol hill experience have been told that 
many in new house leadership want to find a way to eliminate the advanced 
funding mechanism for VA health care, because they prefer the old method of 
making the decisions and not allowing VA and GAO to send over a year in 
advance the projections for how much money it will need to provide health 
care services to veterans who are enrolled. The other stick in the gear here 
is that with the addition of the new Agent Orange presumptions for the 
estimated 180,000 Vietnam Veterans who will become service connected as a 
result of Ischemic Heart Disease and others being added to presumption is 
the impact on claims back log and funding strain as the VA estimates these 
new service connected veterans will cost $ 2 billion more in VA service 
connected benefits during next five years


Interesting to note the amount of funding for National Institute Health 
below, where almost all of the vision research for degenerative eye diseases 
for diabetes, glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration all come from the 
National Eye Institute plus the retinal chip research funding is something 
we also need to follow.   *National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and 
Bioengineering -$325,415,000*National Cancer Institute - 
$5,256,409,000*National Eye Institute - $723,220,000*National Heart, Lung, 
and Blood Institute - $3,182,524,000*National Institute of Dental and 
Craniofacial Research - $422,845,000*National Institute of Diabetes and 
Digestive and Kidney Diseases -$1,854,674,000*National Institute of 
Neurological Disorders and Stroke -$1,678,696,000*National Institute of 
Allergy and Infectious Diseases - $4,969,301,000*National Institute of 
General Medical Sciences - $2,121,783,000*National Institute of Child Health 
and Human Development -$1,366,750,000*National Institute of Environmental 
Health Sciences - $706,227,000*National Institute of Aging - 
$1,140,547,000*National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin 
Diseases -$554,846,000*National Institute of Deafness and Other 
Communication Disorders -$428,331,000*National Institute of Nursing 
Research - $149,963,000*National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism - 
$473,904,000*National Institute of Drug Abuse - $1,092,369,000*National 
Institute of Mental Health - $1,537,942,000*National Human Genome Research 
Institute - $533,127,000*National Library of Medicine - $364,254,000*Office 
of the Director - $1,268,580,000*Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) - 
$50,000,000 Someone can look though at the above list and probably figure 
out where some cuts should be made! The changes on the hill especially on 
the house side will cause major problem from the perspective of many of the 
national veteran service organizations that BVA work with on daily basis, 
expect far less opportunity to be invited to hearings, no new benefits that 
cost more money, things that we have accomplished like elimination of the 
co-payments can come back again as new issue. We lost seven democratic 
members on the House VA Committee, people like Congresswoman Halvorson(D IL) 
who sponsored the elimination of co-payments for blinded veterans, 
Congressman John Hall from NY who helped with elimination of the state 
annuities also was sponsor of the Vision Center of Excellence legislation 
back in 2008, and Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin (D SD) who increased the 
HISA grants, and supported passage of the BROS scholarship bill, and was 
trying to increase the Special Adaptive Housing grants for blinded veterans 
all lost. Chairman Chet Edwards (D TX) on Appropriations who provided 
funding for the expansion of the new outpatient blind and low vision clinics 
also has lost and he has kept the WACO TX BRC intact and protected from 
closure for 20 years


Congressman Chet Edwards has always been very supportive of BVA and often 
would meet with the legislative committee each year in March to discuss our 
issues. I will keep the  updates for you on all on pertinent legislation and 
legislative activity coming in next few weeks as these things shake 
themselves out.   Thomas Zampieri Ph.D


Director Government Relations Blinded Veterans AssociationKirk Harmon
President & CEO
Florida Disabled Citizens
for Progress
P.O.Box 61794
Jacksonville, FL 32236
PH(904) 783-9896
Cell: (407) 473-2176
DAV/BVA
Life Member


" TURNING HOPE INTO REALITY"