WASHINGTON – Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake confirmed this week that effective Feb. 1, 2008, the VA is raising its mileage reimbursement rate to 28.5 cents a mile for the VA Beneficiary Travel Program, according to Sen. Olympia Snowe.

Under current law, veterans with a disability of 30 percent or more are entitled to a reimbursement of 11 cents a mile, a rate that has not changed since 1977. Snowe’s recent letter to Peake urged the VA to provide critical assistance to veterans traveling long distances to VA health care facilities by reimbursing them at 28.5 cents a mile, which has been fully funded within the Consolidated Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2008.

“This is terrific news for Maine’s veterans and those living in rural areas across our country,” Snowe said in a prepared statement Thursday. “For more than three decades our veterans have been waiting for increased support while prices at the pump have reached record levels. The VA’s decision couldn’t have come at a better time and I applaud Secretary Peake’s decisive action on this long-standing issue.”