The national commander of the American Legion, in Honolulu for the organization's annual convention, said a top priority is getting Congress to change VA spending from discretionary to mandatory funding.

Lawmakers and the Bush administration took steps in late June to cover a $1 billion shortfall at the Department of Veterans Affairs, but veterans organizations took the opportunity to again call for fully financed medical care and other programs.

Disabled American Veterans have called the discretionary funding a "broken" system whose shortfalls, coupled with rising costs and increased demand, have resulted in unprecedented waiting times for medical services.

"We believe it ought to be set in stone so we can run hospitals and do all the things that we can for our (veterans)," said Thomas P. Cadmus, the American Legion commander.

Approximately 13,000 American Legion members from across the nation and Puerto Rico, France, Mexico and the Philippines are in Hawai'i for the annual convention, the first in Hawai'i since 1981. The American Legion, with 2.7 million members, is the world's largest veterans organization.

Committees are meeting over the weekend at the convention center. A parade will be held on Monday, and the convention will open on Tuesday.

Air Force Gen. Richard Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commander of Pacific Air Forces at Hickam Air Force Base in 1997 and 1998, will speak Tuesday. VA Secretary Jim Nicholson is keynote speaker Wednesday.

President Bush taped a video presentation, said Cadmus, 58, who served in the Army from 1965 to 1967 and lives in Michigan.

The Bush administration and some Republicans have faced the anger of veterans organizations like the American Legion for the VA funding shortfalls and voting down some efforts to increase VA programs.

Cadmus said the heavy use of National Guard and Reserve troops in Iraq and Afghanistan — including more than 2,200 Hawai'i soldiers in Iraq — is "the next strain on the VA system."

"We feel as a strong national defense, we're really not happy with the way we're using the Reserves and National Guard — and that's what they are, Reserves and National Guard, and not a first-strike force," Cadmus said.

The American Legion said it supports a constitutional amendment to protect the American flag from "physical desecration," and legislation to preclude the American Civil Liberties Union from collecting taxpayer money in litigation against "American values."

Cadmus also said the Legion supports the right of anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, to have held a protest outside Bush's Texas ranch, but the organization "does not question the president or our military leaders" in their support of U.S. troops under arms.

"Maybe we're not all individually happy with what we're doing, but we've still got to stand behind our president and government and support our troops," he said.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.