The House Appropriations Committee has introduced a bill that would authorize $88.8 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects and $638 million in overseas contingency operations funds for fiscal year 2018.The committee said Sunday the FY 2018 appropriations bill reflects a $6 billion increase from the enacted FY 2017 discretionary funding.
The proposed legislation would allocate $10.2 billion in total funds for military-related construction projects.
These include $1.4 billion for family housing projects, $737 million for health care facilities, $249 million for Defense Department education facilities and $115 million for the construction of two new barracks to accommodate troops deployed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
VA would receive $78.3 billion in total discretionary funds, a figure that reflects a $3.9 billion increase from the enacted FY 2017 level.
The bill also proposes to allocate $70.7 billion in advance funds for military retirees’ medical programs for FY 2019 and $107.7 billion in advance budget for mandatory benefit initiatives within VA.
The House panel’s proposed bill also includes the following appropriations for VA:
- $69 billion for medical care
- $65 million for electronic health records system modernization effort
- $753 million for construction projects
