{"id":287466,"date":"2026-05-24T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/?p=287466"},"modified":"2026-05-22T20:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T00:07:17","slug":"veterans-affairs-military-new-budget-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/veterans-affairs-military-new-budget-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans and the Military will get an extra $480.9 billion after a new bill passed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On May 15, 2026, the House passed the first spending bill of the year. The vote was 400 to 15. The total: $480.9 billion for the Department of <strong>Veterans Affairs (VA),<\/strong> military construction, and related agencies.\u00a0This is the <strong>MilConVA bill<\/strong>. It funds VA hospitals, barracks, military bases, the <strong>American Battle Monuments Commission<\/strong>, and Arlington National Cemetery.<\/p>\n<p>Representative John Carter (R-Texas), chairman of the subcommittee that drafted the bill, said: \u201cI want every service member and veteran to know this bill has your back.\u201d He also described the vote as \u201ca testament to America\u2019s commitment to <strong>care for the men and women who have bravely worn the uniform<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>The breakdown every veteran should know<\/h2>\n<p><strong>The VA<\/strong> is allocated nearly $450 billion for fiscal year 2027. That\u2019s a $488 billion total when including all related accounts.\u00a0Of that amount, $324 billion is mandatory spending. This covers entitlements required by law: <strong>healthcare, disability compensation, and pensions<\/strong>. The remaining $137.8 billion is discretionary spending, an increase of about 2% compared to fiscal year 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The White House had proposed shifting roughly <strong>$52 billion<\/strong> <strong>from the Toxic Exposures Fund (mandatory)<\/strong> into the discretionary budget. The House committee rejected that proposal.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers expressed concern that moving those funds would undermine the Toxic Exposures Fund, which was created to support veterans affected by burn pits, contaminated water at <strong>Camp Lejeune<\/strong>, and other environmental hazards. Keeping the funding as mandatory spending ensures that no veteran loses coverage for service-related illnesses.<\/p>\n<h2>Military construction and a key gun rights provision<\/h2>\n<p><strong>The bill allocates $19.7 billion for military construction projects, broken down as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$2.1 billion for the Army<\/li>\n<li>$5.5 billion for the Navy and Marine Corps<\/li>\n<li>$3.7 billion for the Air Force<\/li>\n<li>$3.8 billion for Defense-wide projects<\/li>\n<li>The rest for the National Guard and Reserves<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Additionally, the bill includes a significant provision that received little media attention: The VA will stop notifying the Justice Department when a veteran is assigned a fiduciary (someone to manage their finances due to inability to do so themselves). Previously, this notification automatically <strong>disqualified the veteran from owning a firearm<\/strong>. The new rule formalizes an earlier VA decision to halt those notifications.<\/p>\n<h2>What\u2019s missing for the VA and the Senate fight ahead<\/h2>\n<p>The Senate must now draft and pass its own version of the <strong>MilConVA bill<\/strong>. During hearings on April 30 and May 14, senators generally supported the VA budget levels but emphasized the need for stricter oversight on spending.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia), ranking member of the Senate MilConVA appropriations subcommittee, called the proposals \u201c<strong>important investments<\/strong>,\u201d but raised concerns about staffing. He noted that the budget significantly increases funding for privatized care while providing smaller increases for <strong>VA-run facilities<\/strong>. Citing the department\u2019s own data, Ossoff stated: \u201cOutcomes for veterans are equal or better for direct VA care compared to outsourced care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>VA Secretary Doug Collins will need to address these concerns during the confirmation process for key officials.<\/p>\n<h2>How this affects war veterans and what they can do<\/h2>\n<p>This budget impacts nearly every aspect of a veteran\u2019s life \u2014 <strong>healthcare, disability payments, housing loans, and education benefits<\/strong>. Changes in funding can mean shorter or longer wait times, better staffing, and whether your benefits keep pace with inflation.<\/p>\n<p>Important note: The bill keeps the $52 billion for toxic exposure illnesses as mandatory spending. This protects veterans with approved <strong>PACT Act<\/strong> claims from interruptions in their benefits. Service-connected disability compensation will also continue to receive its annual cost-of-living adjustment.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re a veteran or caregiver, <strong>you don\u2019t need to take any action right now<\/strong>. The bill still needs Senate approval and the president&#8217;s signature. However, the strong 400-15 House vote suggests the core numbers are likely to survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On May 15, 2026, the House passed the first spending bill of the year. The vote was 400 to 15. The total: $480.9 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs &#8230; <a title=\"Veterans and the Military will get an extra $480.9 billion after a new bill passed\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/veterans-affairs-military-new-budget-expansion\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Veterans and the Military will get an extra $480.9 billion after a new bill passed\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":287467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-287466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287468,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287466\/revisions\/287468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}