Senate passes VA spending bill — just in time for Veterans day

The Senate on Tuesday passed a fiscal year 2016 funding bill for veterans’ benefits and military construction, making it the first spending bill to clear the upper chamber this year.

Senators voted 93-0 on the legislation after lawmakers reached an agreement to wrap up work on the proposal before Veterans Day.

{mosads}“Today the Senate put our veterans first,” said Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who is up for reelection in 2016 and took a leading role on the legislation.

“With $1.1 billion in funding for veterans’ care above the President’s request and special protections for whistleblowers like doctors and nurses who speak up to protect our vets, I am proud we found a bipartisan path forward.”

The Senate spending bill provides $79.7 billion in discretionary funding for military construction and veterans programs, approximately $7.9 billion above the previous fiscal year spending levels.

Passage of the legislation comes after the bill overcame a procedural hurdle late last week, effectively ending a logjam on spending votes in the Senate.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) urged his colleagues ahead of the vote to support the legislation, suggesting it was crucial to helping fix the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

“If we’re going to fix the access problems, if we’re going to serve our veterans in the way they need to be served, we need to pass this bill,” he said, adding that he hoped the vote would be “unanimous because this is an important bill.”

Senators lined up on the floor before Tuesday’s vote to support the legislation, a marked shift from the largely partisan fighting that has surrounded spending bills so far this year.

“I want to encourage everyone in the Senate to vote favorably,” Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said ahead of the vote.

“But I want everybody to stop and take a deep breath and think about three things: Number one, today is the 240th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. … Tomorrow at 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month we celebrate the soldiers of World War I in the United States of America, and today in the United States Senate we’re fixing problems that confront our veterans.” 

Democrats originally blocked the legislation when it came before the Senate earlier this year as part of a push to get a two-year budget deal. Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested earlier Tuesday that Democrats deserve the credit over the extra veterans’ funding.

“The veterans have $2 billion more than they would have had we followed the Republicans’ lead, $2 billion more,” he added. “So we’re satisfied this bill is a good bill, and it’s a good bill because veterans are getting $2 billion more.”

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and David Vitter (R-La.) missed the vote.

Cruz, Paul and Rubio are running for president and slated to appear at Tuesday night’s Republican debate in Milwaukee.

Graham is also running for the White House, but did not qualify for the debate.

Senators still need to reach an agreement on veterans and military construction spending with the House. 

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) said that senators “look forward to working with the House to finish work on this important bill to provide the necessary resources to improve veterans’ healthcare, benefit claims processing and medical research.”

— This story was updated at 1:49 p.m.