Congress this week is set to vote on a spending package that would reopen the government and provide full-year funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and Pentagon construction programs that modernize facilities and build troop housing. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
Congress this week is set to vote on a spending package that would reopen the government and provide full-year funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and Pentagon construction programs that modernize facilities and build troop housing.
The $153 billion legislation, one of three fiscal 2026 spending bills lawmakers are weighing as they move to end the longest government shutdown ever, would allocate $133 billion in discretionary funding for the VA and about $20 billion for military construction.
The Senate could vote on the measure, which is attached to a stopgap appropriations bill to fund the government through Jan. 30, as soon as Monday. The House is expected to come back from its weekslong recess to vote on the plan on Wednesday at the earliest.
If passed, the military construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill would also provide $263.7 billion in mandatory funding for veterans benefits as well as $115.1 billion for veterans medical care and an extra $52.6 billion for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins.
The legislation includes $1.4 billion to support the construction of new VA hospitals and veterans cemeteries as well as $19.7 billion for about 300 military construction projects in the U.S. and around the world, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The latter sum includes $1.9 billion for military family housing, $1.3 billion for the construction of barracks and other unaccompanied housing and $1.3 billion for hospitals, schools, child development centers, fitness centers, dining facilities and mess halls.
More than $7 billion would also be spent on modernizing infrastructure “critical to warfighter readiness,” including training ranges, maintenance and logistics facilities, storage warehouses, munitions facilities and airfield control towers.
Another $2 billion would pay for infrastructure for new and emerging technology, such as next generation hangars to support advanced weapon platforms, and $482 million would cover the U.S. share of NATO construction projects.
The plan also allocates $1.5 billion to the Navy’s Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, an initiative to refurbish four aging public shipyards in Virginia, Maine, Washington state and Hawaii. The program is a key part of the Trump administration’s efforts to boost American shipbuilding amid competition from China.
Apart from construction, the Defense Department would continue to operate under fiscal 2025 spending levels through the end of January as part of the emerging deal to end the shutdown.
Seven Democrats and independent Sen. Angus King, of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, voted alongside Republicans to advance the agreement on Sunday in a 60-40 vote. It is unclear how the spending package will fare in the House.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Sunday that the VA and military construction measure was an improvement over stopgap funding provided for 2025 but was released prematurely.
