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Senate Committee Approves FY2012 Military Construction-VA Spending Bill

On June 30, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its FY2012 Military Construction, Veterans’ Affairs, and Related Agencies spending bill (as-yet-unnumbered). The Military Construction, Veterans’ Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee approved the measure on June 28.

According to the subcommittee summary, the bill would provide $142.029 billion in FY2012, which includes $72.53 billion in discretionary funding, $617.98 million below FY2011 and $1.255 billion below the president’s request. The bill also would provide $69.5 billion in mandatory funding, as requested by the president. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), Ranking Member of the subcommittee, noted in his opening remarks that the bill would provide $2.6 billion less than the House-passed version (H.R. 2055), which the House approved on June 14 (see The Source, 6/17/11).

The funding includes $13.7 billion for military construction and family housing, $2.87 billion below FY2011 and $1.049 billion below the budget request, and provides the requested $1.69 billion, an amount $125.2 million below FY2011, for family housing construction and privatization projects.

The bill would provide $58.6 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is $2.3 billion more than FY2011 and $181.7 million below the budget request. This funding would include $250 million for medical care for veterans in rural areas and $270 million for various women veterans programs. The bill would allocate $4.9 billion for health care and other social programs for veterans who are temporarily and chronically homeless.

More details will become available once the committee issues its report.