The Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters building in Washington, D.C. (Carlos Bongioanni/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — A subpanel for the House Appropriations Committee endorsed a Republican-led budget bill for funding the Department of Veterans Affairs in fiscal 2026 that would bring spending to $453 billion, an increase of more than $50 billion from 2025.
The House GOP version of the VA budget bill also is higher than the $441 billion spending plan the VA requested for 2026.
Lawmakers on Thursday voted 9-6 at a hearing of the committee’s subpanel on military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies to advance the GOP-led bill to the full committee for consideration. The vote was along party lines.
Opposing the bill were Democrats who objected to a large increase in anticipated spending for private non-VA health care, as well as to provisions unrelated to the budget that would restrict abortion services and stop the VA from taking away gun rights of veterans who are appointed an outside party to manage their finances.
“Disturbingly, Republicans think you should only have access to abortion if you’re dying,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. “This bill has the government making personal medical decisions for veterans, not their doctor or the veteran themselves.”
The House budget bill would spend $37 billion on non-VA medical care by private doctors, which is $3 billion more than the VA requested for fiscal 2026. In 2025, the amount was $22.5 billion.
“This bill is hurtling us down the path toward VA privatization, straight out of the Project 2025 playbook,” Wasserman Schultz said, referring to a conservative blueprint by the Heritage Foundation for reforming federal policy and administration. “This bill transfers a record amount of funding from VA medical services to [non-VA] community care, a 67% increase pushing veterans into private care.”
Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, the subcommittee chairman, said the large VA budget bill demonstrates a commitment by Congress “to those who wear the uniform and to the veterans who have served our nation honorably. “
“We’re not just talking about supporting our military and veterans — this bill does it,” he said.
The 2026 VA spending bill is more than $80 billion higher than the $369 billion budget for 2025 that Congress adopted in March.
Lawmakers subsequently added more than $30 billion to cover higher-than -anticipated spending on mandatory health care and benefits through fiscal 2025, which ends Sept. 30.
For fiscal 2026, more than $300 billion funds mandatory benefits and health coverage.
The bill funds veterans medical care at $131.4 billion. In addition, the bill sends $52.67 billion to the Toxic Exposures Fund, which pays for health care and disability compensation for veterans who were injured or became ill from contact with hazardous materials while on military duty.
Discretionary spending would increase 4% to $134 billion, which is $1.2 billion less than what the VA requested in its 2026 budget request.
The budget bill also adds $970 million for a new homeless prevention program called “Bridging Rental Assistance for Veteran Empowerment.”
The VA funding bill would provide $18 billion for military construction projects, up 3% from fiscal 2025. It also would prohibit the VA from making purchases of goods and services directly or indirectly from China.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said toward the end of the 90-minute hearing that debate and negotiations over the 2026 VA budget bill have just gotten underway.
“This is a process. Whatever the bill looks like now I assure you it will look different at the end,” he said. “But you have to start the journey. We have done that here today.”
