On June 6, 2024, Congressman James Moylan notified me that H.R. 8580, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025 (MILCON/VA Appropriations Act) was passed on June 5, 2024. The roll call vote was 209 to 197.
Now, a companion Senate Bill for H.R. 8580 must be passed. Congress will be acting on eleven (11) additional appropriation measures, along with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), over the next six (6) weeks.
The actual bill is a thirty-nine (39) page document detailing the projected expenditures from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025. It encompasses projected military construction programs as well as anticipated expenditures for a multitude of veteran affairs activities.
For example, the proposed bill has appropriated $306,683,000 for the continuance of the Veterans Crisis Line. Coupled with this was an increase in funding for the VA’s various Suicide Prevention Programs.
It increased the funding for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Office of Mental Health, to further assist veterans with disabilities and mental health or substance abuse challenges.
This included additional funding for VA’s Peer-to-Peer Program, which directly addresses Mental Health issues.
The bill provides additional funding to the Board of Veterans Appeals to assist in reducing the significant backlog of veterans’ claims and allow timely decisions. Reducing the backlog of these claims has been the priority of several veteran service organizations.
Medical and Prosthetic Research Divisions also had their appropriations significantly increased (to $923 million), as well as increased funding for the VA’s grant program for veteran cemeteries (to $495 million).
The increased funding for State Extended Care Facilities Grants would also assist States, such as Ohio, which administer Veterans Homes at Sandusky and Georgetown.
The bill would require that the VA apply the same access standards for the Mental Health Rehabilitation Treatment Program as for primary, specialty, and non-institutional extended care services.
Other areas that the funding would be increased were for the VA’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Program and the VA’s Medical Community Care Program which would increase accessibility for in-home healthcare services. The Medical Community Care Program is funded at $34 billion.
“There is much focus on increasing funding opportunities to address mental health, suicide, and traumatic stress programs for our veterans,” said Congressman Moylan. “Some of these funds will be available to supplement the local CBOC, while others will be the form of grants which local non-profit organizations can apply and avail.”
Representative Moylan was able to obtain funding, in the form of an amendment to the bill, for the VA to ensure the recommendations in a recent General Accountability Office (GAO) report which indicated care for veterans residing in territories and the Freely Associated States (FAS) are met.
The Office of Budget and Management (OMB) issued a Statement of Administrative Policy on June 3, 2024. The Statement indicated that “the Administration stands ready to engage with both chambers of Congress in a bipartisan appropriations process to enact responsible appropriations bills that fully fund Federal agencies in a timely manner.”
The Administration, in their Statement, appreciated the $129 billion in discretionary appropriations that the Committee provides for VA programs in 2025 and the Toxic Exposures Fund resources already provided under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.
“This level would enable VA to continue supporting key priorities including veterans’ health care and critical investments in caregiver support programs, construction of needed facilities, claims processing and national cemeteries,” stated the OMB Statement.
My Opinion: In early 2024, the President and members of the House and Senate finally came together to pass bipartisan appropriations bills. These appropriation bills avoided a first-ever default by using necessary adjustments to existing statutory caps.
Again, we are at the same point in history. The House has proposed and passed (by 12 votes) an appropriation bill that has nine (9) significant objections for the minority party.
I’m sure that the Senate will pass its version of the VA appropriations bill with significant objections for the other party in control of the House.
One of the objections of H.R. 8580, is the prevention of the VA Changing the Rates VA Pays for Special Modes of Transportation.
Congressman Mike Bost introduced H.R. 5530, the VA Emergency Transportation Access Act. This bipartisan bill is supported by 77 co-sponsors. There should be no objection for this provision being in the bill.
The debate on the compromise bill will continue almost at the deadline of October 1, 2024, for the new Fiscal Year. A thirty (30), sixty (60) or ninety (90) day emergency appropriation bill for the VA will eventually be passed. This is the way Congress operates now.
This is why the passage of H.R. 8580 is only half a victory for veterans. I seriously doubt the Senate bill will pass and a compromise House/Senate bill will pass before October 1, 2024. There must be a better way!!
BioSketch: John Plahovinsak is a 32-year retired Army veteran who served from 1967 to 1999. He is the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Department of Ohio’s Hospital Chairman and Adjutant for Chapter #63 (Clermont County). He can be reached at: plahovinsak@msn.com.