Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 15, 1995 TAG: 9509150092
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WASHINGTON - The Veterans Affairs Department is overstating the damage it would incur under Republican budget-cutting when it says it would be forced to close 41 VA hospitals and fire thousands of health care workers by 2002, a congressional report says.
The General Accounting Office, the investigative wing of Congress, also said the Clinton administration's long-term budgetary plans could have even a greater impact on VA health care services than the GOP proposal.
VA Secretary Jesse Brown, in a letter to the GAO, defended his department's numbers and said ``it would not serve the public interest to mistakenly indicate to the chairman that VA took perceived liberties with data and that I selectively overstated the likely consequences of the House scenario.''
The GAO report was delivered to Rep. Bob Stump, R-Ariz., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, on Tuesday.
It said the VA calculations, ``while generally reasonable, overstate the potential impact of the House budget resolution on VA's ability to maintain the current level of VA health care services.''
- Associated Press
Public broadcasters: $4 billion to privatize
WASHINGTON - Privatizing the nation's public broadcasting system would require about $4 billion in start-up money, National Public Radio's president told a Senate panel Thursday.
A privatization plan put together by NPR, the Public Broadcasting Service and two other public broadcasting groups calls on Congress to set aside proceeds from the government sale of public airwaves - called the broadcast spectrum - for the project.
The money would be invested in a trust fund that would replace today's Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which dispenses the $285.6 million Congress now spends for programming broadcast by public television and radio groups, including NPR and PBS.
- Associated Press
New agency for weather, standards
WASHINGTON - The House Science Committee voted Thursday to establish a new agency to take over the National Weather Service and old National Bureau of Standards.
A new U.S. Science and Technology Administration would take over those operations from the Commerce Department, which Republicans are seeking to abolish as a Cabinet agency.
Several other committees also have to deal with various parts of the bill dismantling Commerce. President Clinton has threatened to veto the measure if it gets to his desk.
- Associated Press
by CNB