Veterans’ groups lobby against shifting money

Eight veterans’ organizations have urged Congress to provide emergency money to the Department of Veterans Affairs without cutting other VA programs as the House moved to address a budget shortfall that threatened medical care for thousands of patients.

Their statement Saturday came after the House Veterans Affairs Committee unveiled a plan Friday that would shift $2 billion from other VA programs to continue funding the department’s Choice program.

Put in place after a 2014 wait-time scandal at the Phoenix VA hospital, Choice provides veterans federally paid medical care outside the VA and is a priority of President Donald Trump. To offset spending, the VA would trim pensions for some veterans and collect fees for housing loans.

The veterans’ groups criticized the plan as unacceptable privatization.

They urged the House to embrace a bill that “ensures veterans’ health care is not interrupted in the short term, nor threatened in the long term.”

A House vote was scheduled for Monday.