GOP plan provides $453 billion for VA programs, benefits next year

Yahoo

3 days ago

House Republicans unveiled plans Wednesday for a $453 billion Department of Veterans Affairs budget next fiscal year, with a dramatic increase in mandatory health care and benefits funding but only a 3% boost in discretionary veteran program spending.
The proposal also includes a host of controversial social items that drew immediate condemnation from Democratic lawmakers who promised a fight over the measure.
'This bill needlessly fixates on keeping guns in the hands of those who are potentially a danger to themselves or others, and restricts reproductive rights, and [includes] other cruel and pointless policy restrictions,' Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said in a statement.
'I cannot tell those currently serving and those who defended our nation that this is the best we can do.'
The budget plan is expected to be voted on by a House Appropriations Committee panel on Thursday morning. Republican lawmakers praised the proposal as 'maintaining our commitment to the well-being of both service members and veterans.'
White House budget plan gives 4% boost for VA amid other agency cuts
The appropriations bill represents an $83 billion boost from Congress' approved spending plan for VA in fiscal 2025. That's an increase of more than 22%, but nearly all of that boost is tied up in mandatory funding related to medical programs and veterans payouts.
Discretionary funding — money for new program starts and support services — would rise to about $134 billion, up about 4% but about $1 billion less than what the White House requested in its fiscal 2026 budget plan.
Almost all of that difference came in the VA Electronic Health Record Modernization initiative account. Spending for the project would double from this year's spending under the plan, to about $2.5 billion. But that is nearly $1 billion less than what the White House requested.
Lawmakers have been skeptical of the 10-year, $16 billion project which began during President Donald Trump's first term in office. The effort to modernize health records has been marked by numerous complications and delays, but VA Secretary Doug Collins has promised to restart the effort in coming months.
The legislation also includes provisions to block VA from providing abortions or abortion-related counseling at department medical centers — a priority of the previous administration — and prohibit vaccination requirements for any department health care personnel.
Republicans also included language that would bar the department from reporting veterans found financially incompetent from being reported to the National Instant Background Check System.
Republicans have called it an unnecessary infringement of Second Amendment rights. Democrats have criticized the provision as undermining gun safety efforts.
The VA funding bill also includes about $18 billion for military construction projects, an increase of about 3% from fiscal 2025. That includes $830 million for child development centers and barracks improvements.
The budget plan is expected to advance Thursday since Republicans control the majority in both chambers of Congress. However, any funding plan would need some level of bipartisan support to advance in the Senate, because of filibuster rules there.
The VA budget plan is unlikely to be signed into law until the entire fiscal 2026 funding plan for the federal government is agreed upon by congressional leaders. Negotiations for that are expected to last through the summer.
Veterans Affairs planners have seen regular budget increases annually for more than 20 years, even amid periodic congressional and White House efforts to reduce federal spending.
In fiscal 2001, the VA budget — both mandatory and discretionary — totaled just $45 billion. In 2011, it was about $125 billion. In fiscal 2023, the total topped $300 billion for the first time.