President Barack Obama has proposed a $140.3 billion budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The $140.3 billion for FY2013 is roughly a 10% increase over the FY2012 request of $127 billion request for FY2012.

$1 billion over five years for a Veterans Job Corps, a new effort to leverage skills Veterans developed in military service for a range of jobs protecting and rebuilding America’s public lands. The initiative would put up to 20,000 Veterans to work on projects to restore America’s lands and resources.

The proposed budget would fund services for newly discharged veterans, continue the drive to end homelessness among veterans, improve access to benefits and services, reduce the disability claims backlog, improve the Department's collaboration with the Defense Department and strengthen its information-technology program that is vital for delivering services to Veterans.

The budget request includes $64 billion in discretionary funds, mostly for medical care, and $76 billion for mandatory funds, mostly for disability compensation and pensions.

If approved by Congress, the new spending levels would support a health care system with 8.8 million enrollees and! growing benefits programs serving nearly 12 million service members, veterans, family members and survivors, including the eighth largest life insurance program in the nation; education benefits for more than 1 million Americans; home loan guarantees for more than 1.5 million veterans and survivors; plus the largest national cemetery system in the country.

Highlights from the President's 2013 budget request for VA, include

Medical Care

The President's proposed budget seeks $52.7 billion for medical care, a 4.1 percent increase over the $50.6 billion approved by Congress for the current fiscal year, and a net increase of $165 million above the advance appropriations level already enacted for FY 2013.

For the next fiscal year, VA estimates 6.33 million patients will use VA for health care. About 610,000 of those patients will be Veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The budget request also would provide:

$403 million for the gender-specific health care needs of women Veterans, improving their access to services and treatment facilities;

$6.2 billion for mental health, a 5.3 percent increase in funding over the current level, making possible increased outreach and screenings, expansion of innovative technologies for self-assessment and symptom management of post-traumatic stress disorder, and enhancements to programs that reduce the stigmas of mental health;

$7.2 billion for long-term care, meeting VA's commitment to provide long-term care in the least restrictive and most clinically appropriate settings, such as non-institutional programs that serve a daily population of about 120,000 people;

$583 million in direct appropriations for medical research, which receives another $1.3 billion from other sources, with emphasis on research for traumatic brain injury, suicide prevention, PTSD and genomic medicine;

$792 million to support the activation of health care facilities, including new hospitals in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Denver and Orlando, Fla.

Funding in VA's major construction account of $396.6 million is provided to continue construction of new medical facilities at Seattle, Dallas, St. Louis and Palo Alto, Calif.