New Independent Budget Recommendations to Be Released Early Next Week

Annual Comprehensive Budget and Policy Document by Veterans for Veterans Will Outline FY 2012 Veterans' Health Care and Benefits Funding and Policy Recommendations

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released today by AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America and Veterans of Foreign Wars:

WHO: AMVETS

Disabled American Veterans

Paralyzed Veterans of America

Veterans of Foreign Wars

WHAT: Immediately following the release of the President's budget request, AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Veterans of Foreign Wars will release The Independent Budget (IB) for Fiscal Year 2012, a comprehensive budget and policy document that outlines veterans health care and benefits funding, and policy recommendations for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

For the past 25 years, the IB has been a blueprint for the resource requirements for the Department of Veterans Affairs. It has served as a voice of advocacy for American veterans by providing the White House and Congress with a roadmap for funding VA. At no time in our history has the need of the returning veteran been so great, the service of the VA so critical, and the recommendations of the IB so relevant as they are today. The full implementation of the IB recommendations will ensure the sufficient funding so crucial to delivering the health care and other benefits our veterans have earned.

WHEN: The Independent Budget will be available online at www.independentbudget.org shortly after the release of the President's budget request.

AMVETS—a leader since 1944 in preserving the freedoms secured by America's Armed Forces—provides not only support for veterans and the active military in procuring receipt of their earned entitlements, but also community services that enhance the quality of life for this nation's citizens.

The 1.2 million-member Disabled American Veterans, a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1932, is dedicated to a single purpose: building better lives for our nation's disabled veterans and their families.

Paralyzed Veterans of America was founded by a band of spinal cord injured service members who returned home from World War II to a grateful nation, but also to a world with few solutions to the challenges they faced. These veterans from the Greatest Generation made a decision not just to live, but to live with dignity as contributors to society. They created Paralyzed Veterans, dedicated to veterans service, medical research and civil rights for people with disabilities. And for more than six decades, Paralyzed Veterans and its 34 chapters have been working to create an America where all veterans, and people with disabilities, and their families, have everything they need to thrive. (www.pva.org)

The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. is a nonprofit veterans service organization composed of combat veterans and those who currently serve in uniform. Founded in 1899 and chartered by Congress in 1936, the VFW is the nation's largest organization of war veterans and its oldest major veterans' organization, with 2.1 million VFW and Auxiliaries members located in 7,600 VFW Posts worldwide. For more information or to join, visit the organization's Web site at www.vfw.org.

SOURCE Paralyzed Veterans of America