Rep. Calvert Votes for Funding of Key Military Facilities and Veteran Care

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) voted for the Fiscal Year 2018 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill, which was unanimously approved by the House Appropriations Committee. The bill included funding for a new Remote Piloted Aircraft Flight Training Unit facility at March Air Reserve Base.

"The bill approved today by the Appropriations Committee provides critical resources for our activity duty military as well as our veterans," said Rep. Calvert. "I was pleased to support the $15 million provided by our Committee to construct a new schoolhouse at March Air Reserve Base to support the MQ-9 Reaper aircrew. The demand for of Remote Piloted Aircraft by our military will continue to grow, so this investment is essential to making sure March can meet the future needs of our Air Force. The bill approved today also helps meet our promise to our nation's veterans, who deserve nothing less than first class care and treatment by the VA."

Bill Highlights:

(Provided by the House Appropriations Committee)

Oversight and Accountability – The legislation strengthens oversight and accountability at the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) to ensure taxpayer dollars are being used to fully benefit our service members and our veterans. Several provisions are included to keep these agencies on track and to address problems that have wasted money and hurt critical services.

The bill also includes funding for new oversight offices in VA, as requested, to protect whistleblowers and provide increased accountability through investigation of poorly-performing managers and instances of inferior patient care. These offices will support the Secretary's new authority to fire or demote poorly performing employees and to recoup pay, benefits and awards in cases of malfeasance.

Military Construction – The bill provides a total of $10.2 billion for military construction projects – an increase of $2.1 billion – 25 percent – above the enacted fiscal year 2017 level. Within this amount, $638 million is provided in OCO funding for projects in countries with ongoing U.S. operations. These funds will provide for the construction and maintenance of facilities to enable our military to fight current and emerging threats, to support increased troop levels, and to sustain services for military families. This includes operational facilities, training facilities, hospitals, family housing, National Guard readiness centers, barracks, and other important resources. In total, 215 military construction projects across the country and overseas receive funding in the bill.

Military Family Housing – The bill provides $1.4 billion to fund construction, operation, and maintenance of military family housing for fiscal year 2018. This is $131 million above the fiscal year 2017 level and the same as the budget request. The funding will ensure quality housing is sustained for all 1,388,028 military families currently served by the program.

Military Medical Facilities – The bill includes $737 million for construction and alterations for new or existing military medical facilities, an increase of $433 million above the fiscal year 2017 level. This funding will allow for continued support and care for 9.8 million eligible beneficiaries, including our wounded troops abroad.

DOD Education Facilities – The bill includes $249 million for essential safety improvements and infrastructure work at four DOD Education Activities facilities located within the U.S. and overseas.

Guard and Reserve – The bill includes $575 million for construction or alteration of Guard and Reserve facilities in 22 states, the same as the requested level.

Veterans Affairs (VA) – The legislation includes a total of $182.3 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding for the VA, an increase of $5.3 billion above the fiscal year 2017 level. This funding will help address many of the problems currently facing the VA, and provide for better and increased access to care for our veterans.

Discretionary funding alone for VA programs in the bill totals $78.3 billion, an increase of $3.9 billion above the fiscal year 2017 level. Approximately $66.4 billion of this discretionary total was provided last year via advance funding in the fiscal year 2017 Appropriations bill.

These additional funds will provide resources for important priorities within the VA, such as suicide prevention, claims processing, homeless prevention and care, opioid addiction, and medical research.

VA Medical Care – The bill funds VA medical care at $69 billion – providing for approximately seven million patients to be treated in fiscal year 2018. Within this total, funding includes: $8.4 billion in mental health care services; $186 million in suicide prevention activities; $316 million for traumatic brain injury treatment; $7.3 billion in homeless veterans treatment, services, housing, and job training; $751 million for hepatitis C treatment; $50 million for opioid abuse prevention; and $250 million in rural health initiatives. This total also includes full funding of the President's additional $2.6 billion request to meet higher-than-anticipated medical needs.

VA Electronic Health Record – The bill contains $65 million for the modernization of the VA electronic health record system, the same as the President's request. This will ensure the swift implementation of the plan for the VA to use an identical electronic record system as the DOD. This will also ensure our veterans get proper care, with timely and accurate medical data transferred between the VA, DOD, and the private sector.

Disability Claims Processing Backlog – Reducing the disability claims backlog is essential to ensuring adequate compensation and care for the 312,000 veterans still wading through the VA bureaucracy to get a final decision on their claims. The bill will help speed this process and get these veterans the decisions they are awaiting by providing $50 million above the request to be used for digital scanning of health records and overtime pay. In addition, the bill continues rigorous reporting requirements to track each regional office's performance on claims processing and appeals backlogs.

Construction – Major and minor construction within the VA is funded at $753 million. The bill provides the full request for the construction of major medical facilities, and expansion of cemeteries that are reaching capacity before 2022.

VA Mandatory Funding – The bill fulfills mandatory funding requirements such as: veteran disability compensation programs for 4.5 million veterans and their survivors; education benefits for one million veterans; and vocational rehabilitation and employment training for more than 145,000 veterans.

Advance Appropriations – The bill contains $70.7 billion in advance fiscal year 2019 funding for veterans' medical programs – the same level as the President's request. This funding will provide for medical services, medical support and compliance, and medical facilities, and ensure that our veterans have continued, full access to their medical care needs. The bill includes $107.7 billion in advance funding for VA mandatory benefit programs, as requested in the President's budget.

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