For Veterans Affairs, Bush Proposes $80.6 billion: President Bush’s Fiscal 2007 budget request represents a 75 percent increase for VA programs since 2001, says an Office of Management and Budget statement. The Administration has increased the number of veterans it expects will receive VA medical care—the new estimate is five million, including more than 100,000 veterans returning from the Global War on Terror. The VA got in trouble with Congress earlier this year, coming up short on its 2005 and 2006 budget estimates, largely because it underestimated the number of young veterans that would need medical assistance.
Gene Smith, Former POW and AFA Chair, Dies at 91
Jan. 19, 2026
Lt. Col. Richard “Gene” Smith, who overcame five and a half years as a prisoner of war in the notorious Hanoi Hilton from 1967 until 1973, died Jan. 16. He was one day short of his 91st birthday.

