American Legion Praises VA Secretary, Slams CBO Proposal

WASHINGTON (March 24, 2022) – The head of the nation’s largest veterans organization double-downed on the Secretary of Veterans Affairs’ assurances that proposed Congressional Budget Office cuts to the VA budget will not happen.

“In remarks to the media yesterday, Secretary (Denis) McDonough said of proposed cuts ‘We don’t think that’s a good idea…Nobody inside VA is talking about it, nobody in the executive branch and I haven’t heard anything about it from Congress…We’re not going to do it,’” Vincent “Jim” Troiola, national commander of The American Legion said. “The American Legion agrees with Secretary McDonough. Veterans have sweated, bled and sacrificed for this country. There is absolutely no way The American Legion would allow unelected bureaucrats from the CBO to reverse the hard-fought gains that veterans have made over the last couple of years. The administration and Congress deserve great credit for last year’s passage of the PACT Act. The American Legion is committed to ensuring that the promises made to veterans are promises kept.”

Troiola pointed out that the CBO is not a deliberating body and does not have the authority to cut veterans benefits. “What I can assure veterans and their families is that The American Legion has a strong legislative team that monitors such proposals, and we would use our loud pulpit to ensure that members of Congress know that such suggestions should be considered dead on arrival.”