On May 22, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved, 30-0, the FY2015 Military Construction, Veterans’ Affairs, and Related Agencies spending bill (as-yet-unnumbered). The Military Construction, Veterans’ Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee approved the measure, by voice vote, on May 20. The House approved its version of the legislation (H.R. 4486) on April 30 (see The Source, 5/2/14).
According to the committee summary, the bill would allocate $165.4 billion in overall funding for FY2015, which includes $93.5 billion and $71.9 billion in mandatory and discretionary funding, respectively. Discretionary spending is $1.4 billion below FY2014 “due to a steep decrease in the FY2015 budget request for military construction.”
Military construction projects would receive $6.559 billion in FY2015, which is $3.25 billion below FY2014. Included in that amount is $1.19 billion for family housing.
The Department of Veterans Affairs would receive $158.6 billion in FY2015. This amount includes $93.5 billion and $65.1 billion in mandatory and discretionary programs, respectively. The bill includes $4.9 billion for health care for women veterans, including $403 million for gender-specific health care “to meet the unique needs of female veterans.”
Additional details will be made available once the committee releases its report.
