Washington Sen. Patty Murray did a superlative job this week in defending the health and welfare of U.S. veterans and in holding the Bush administration accountable for all of the expenses of the war in Iraq.

The Senate approved a $1.5 billion emergency payment to the Department of Veterans Affairs for its health-care program. Another $1 billion may be needed into the next fiscal year. Murray had tried this past spring to increase the VA's budget as the administration sought more money to fight the war. VA Secretary James Nicholson had waved off the money in April, but now acknowledges his department's miscalculations.

Murray was furious with the budgetary games and let the VA know it, and warned that the true budget shortfall could top $5 billion.

In yet another example of the Bush administration's failure to adequately plan for all phases of the Iraq war, the VA was budgeting on rosy 2002 estimates. The original budget forecast 23,000 veterans from the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan needing treatment, but new estimates top 100,000.

The administration's deficit spending has been aided and abetted by a Republican Congress with no apparent ability to say no — except to veterans. House and Senate majorities were openly hostile to any more spending until the VA chief changed his tune and acknowledged the crisis.

America's men and women in uniform have performed magnificently. To imagine the U.S. would renege on a contract to provide for their physical and mental health after their duty is over is alarming. Sen. Murray held Congress and the administration accountable for that promise.