The Independent Budget for Fiscal Year 2014

As The Independent Budget is presented, American servicemen and –women continue to be placed in harm’s way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hostile areas around the world. Since fighting began in Afghanistan in October 2001 and Iraq in March 2003, more than 3,500 service members have made the ultimate sacrifice and more than 28,000 have been wounded. These brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines are only the latest in a long line of men and women who have unhesitatingly come forward in time of war to confront those who seek to unalterably change the world we know and the liberty we cherish.

It is for these men and women and the millions who came before them that we set out each year to assess the health of the one federal department whose sole task it is to care for them and their families.

The Independent Budget is based on a systematic methodology that takes into account changes in the size and age of the veteran population, cost-of-living adjustments, federal employee staffing, wages, medical care inflation, construction needs, the aging health-care infrastructure, trends in health-care utilization, benefit needs, efficient and effective means of benefits delivery, and estimates of the number of veterans and their spouses who will be laid to rest in our nation’s cemeteries.

The President has stated that the war on terrorism is likely to be long, with dangers from unexpected directions and enemies who are creative and flexible in planning and executing attacks on our citizens and on our friends.

With this reality ever present in our minds, we must do everything we can to ensure that the Department of Veterans Affairs has all the tools it needs to meet the challenges of today and the problems of tomorrow. Our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives who serve in the darkest corners of the world, keeping the forces of anarchy, hatred, and intolerance at bay, need to know that they will come home to a people who not only cherish their service, but also honor them with the best medical care to make them whole, the best vocational rehabilitation to help them overcome the employment challenges created by injury, and the best claims processing system to deliver education, compensation, and survivors’ benefits in a minimum amount of time to those most harmed by their service to our nation.

We are proud that The Independent Budget has gained the respect that it has over its 23-year history. The coauthors of this important document—AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States—work hard each year to ensure that The Independent Budget is the voice of responsible advocacy and that our recommendations are based on facts, rigorous analysis, and sound reasoning.

We hope that each reader approaches The Independent Budget with an open mind and a clear understanding that America’s veterans should not be treated as the refuse of war, but rather as the proud warriors they are.