The President’s 2017 Budget provides $78.7 billion in total discretionary budget authority for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Joshua D. Mosshart

Vetrans Affairs Mission Statement:

To fulfill President Lincoln's promise “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s Veterans.

Vetrans Affairs Core Values:

Integrity: Act with high moral principle. Adhere to the highest professional standards. Maintain the trust and confidence of all with whom I engage.

Commitment: Work diligently to serve Veterans and other beneficiaries. Be driven by an earnest belief in VA’s mission. Fulfill my individual responsibilities and organizational responsibilities.

Advocacy: Be truly Veteran-centric by identifying, fully considering, and appropriately advancing the interests of Veterans and other beneficiaries.

Respect: Treat all those I serve and with whom I work with dignity and respect. Show respect to earn it.

Excellence: Strive for the highest quality and continuous improvement. Be thoughtful and decisive in leadership, accountable for my actions, willing to admit mistakes, and rigorous in correcting them.

2017 Budget

The budget provides needed care and other benefits to eligible veterans, their families, and survivors. 

This includes:

• With the 2017 advance appropriations, a total of $65.0 billion for VA medical care to provide high-quality, timely health care services to veterans and other eligible beneficiaries. In addition, the Budget requests $66.4 billion in 2018 advance appropriations. 
• Supporting improvements in veterans’ mental health care, telehealth care, life-saving treatment for Hepatitis C, specialized care for women veterans, long-term care, and benefits for veterans’ caregivers. 
• Investing $1.6 billion in programs that will continue VA’s gains toward ending veteran homelessness. 
• Providing $7.2 billion in discretionary funding for veterans’ Care in the Community, which, combined with resources from the 2014 Veterans Choice Act, will support over 15.6 million medical procedures for veterans by non-VA providers. 
• Strengthening veterans’ benefits programs by improving the timeliness of non-disability claims and further enhancing disability claims processing accuracy and efficiency. 
• Increasing burial access for veterans and eligible family members with the construction of new national cemeteries in Colorado and western New York, and national cemetery expansions in Jacksonville, Florida and South Florida. 

Reforms: 

• Continues the largest Department-wide transformation in VA’s history through the MyVA initiative, which is changing VA’s culture, processes, and capabilities to put the needs, expectations, and interests of veterans and their families first. 
• Proposes a Simplified Appeals initiative to provide veterans with the timely, fair, and streamlined appeals decisions they deserve. 
• Supports legislation to streamline the Care in the Community programs. 

There is a big opportunity for grants, cooperative agreements and contracts with the VA. 

When businesses align their value proposition with the VA's initiatives awards and contracts have a very high probability.

Source: Vetrans Affairs

Joshua D. Mosshart MSFS, CHFC, CASL, CLU