Senate advances $3B VA supplemental bill one day before deadline

Facing a potential disruption of benefits for approximately 7 million veterans, the Senate moved quickly Thursday to pass a $2.89 billion supplemental bill for the Veterans Affairs Department. 

The voice vote for the Veterans Benefits Continuity and Accountability Supplemental Appropriations Act came one day after the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee held a hearing with VA leaders to understand how the department could end up approximately $15 billion short of its budget projections for fiscal 2024 and 2025. 

The shortfall was driven, in part, by the expansion of veteran benefits eligibility from the Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, as well as VA outreach efforts to make veterans aware of what benefits they may be eligible for. 

“The reason we find ourselves in this situation is, frankly, our workforce has over-delivered on what were already aggressive projections,” said Josh Jacobs, VA undersecretary for benefits, at the hearing. “For the last year, we delivered more benefits to more veterans at any other time in our history.”

Jacobs told the committee that when officials at the Veteran Benefits Administration conducted its midsession review at the end of June, they found there was potential for the VA to deliver 2.5 million claims decisions, well above its projections of 2.2 million decisions. 

Officials notified Congress of the $3 billion shortfall in July — as well as projected $11.97 billion shortfall in fiscal 2025 due to rising hiring and pharmaceutical costs within the Veterans Health Administration — leading lawmakers to scramble to draft supplemental funding legislation to ensure the VA could cover its benefits processing by a Friday deadline. 

A House bill, cosponsored by Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., emerged on Sept. 6 to provide the funding and passed the chamber on Tuesday, giving the Senate three days to take up the legislation. 

“Funding veterans benefits is key to living up to the promises we made to the men and women who stepped up to serve,” said Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., in a statement. “This shortfall exists because the PACT Act is working for toxic-exposed veterans and survivors in Montana and across the country, and as a result, more veterans and their loved ones are receiving benefits than ever before. This is what paying the true cost of war looks like, and I’m proud the Senate was able to act quickly today to ensure that seven million veterans and their families receive their benefit checks on time in 12 days.”

The legislation, which now heads to the president’s desk, requires the VA to provide a report to relevant House and Senate committees on the status of the requested funding for fiscal 2024, 2025 and 2026 within 60 days of enactment and update them every 90 days until Sept. 30, 2026. 

The VA inspector general would also examine the underlying cause of both the VBA and VHA shortfalls and report to the relevant committees within 180 days under provisions in the bill.