The Department of Veterans Affairs would get about $5 billion to update aging facilities, lease more medical buildings, add residents to its medical staff and more under a major social spending bill passed Friday by the House.
After weeks of negotiations among Democrats on areas of the bill unrelated to the VA funding -- and another last-minute delay when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., spoke on the floor for eight-and-a-half hours Thursday night and Friday morning -- the House voted 220-213 to approve what’s been dubbed the Build Back Better Act.
The $1.75 trillion measure would enact Democrats’ domestic agenda and includes everything from universal preschool to paid family leave to efforts at combating change to Medicare coverage for hearing care.
The vote broke along party lines except for Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, Maine, who voted with Republicans against the bill.
For the VA, the bill would mean $2.3 billion for the department’s capital investment portfolio to “address immediate and long-term infrastructure needs,” according to a summary of the bill.
It also would provide $1.8 billion for the department to enter into major medical leases that could help address a backlog of 21 leases that have been awaiting congressional approval and $455 million for the enhanced-use lease program that allows the department to rent underused facilities to the private sector to develop housing for veterans experiencing homelessness.
The bill would also provide $268 million for the VA to add up to 500 residents to bolster the 367,200-person full-time medical staff over seven years.
And it would add $150 million to help the National Archives and Records Administration digitize veterans’ records, as well as $5 million for the VA’s inspector general to conduct oversight of the bill’s spending.
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The bill approved Friday is down from the $18 billion for the VA that was in the White House’s original Build Back Better proposal and the House’s initial version of the legislation, a trim that happened as Democrats cut the overall size of the package from $3 trillion.
The biggest cut for the VA funding came from the money to update aging infrastructure, which was originally proposed at $15.2 billion.
Despite less money for the VA than originally proposed, Democrats still touted the funding as a needed investment.
“By making this critical investment in VA, we can start rebuilding VA’s capacity in terms of brick-and-mortar infrastructure, human capital and the support structures that serve our nation’s veterans,” House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano, D-Calif., said on the House floor Thursday. “Voting against this legislation would not only mean turning our backs on our most sacred promise to our nation’ veterans but would be a striking departure for many of my Republican colleagues who have long advocated for these investments.”
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough similarly said at a recent National Press Club appearance that the $5 billion is still “a really important investment in our infrastructure,” adding that the funding is a “down payment” to update hospitals that are an average of 59 years old.
While Republicans agreed the VA has serious infrastructure issues, they argued those issues are already in the process of being addressed after Congress passed a law in 2018 to review which facilities to update or close.
“Making significant infrastructure investments outside of AIR would be a waste of time and taxpayer dollars,” Veterans Affairs Committee ranking member, Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., said at a recent House Rules Committee hearing, using the acronym for the Asset and Infrastructure Review Act.
Despite jubilation from House Democrats after the vote Friday, the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., whose vote fellow Democrats need in order to pass the bill because the chamber is equally divided by party, has continued to express concern about provisions on paid family leave and immigration, as well as the potential for more government spending to increase inflation.
-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.
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