Highlights of 2015 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act
2014 Enacted: $73.299 billion
President's Request: $71.897 billion
Committee Mark: $71.499 billion
MILITARY CONSTRUCTION: $6.557 billion, a decrease of $3.3 billion million below 2014 and equal to the budget request, is provided for Military Construction programs.
· The Committee recommendation fully funds the 2015 budget request for all Reserve Components at $426.5 million, which is $239 million below the 2014 enacted level.
· The Committee recommendation fully funds the 2015 budget request for Family Housing construction at $1.190 billion, which is $325 million below the 2014 enacted level.
· The Committee recommendation fully funds the 2015 budget request for the BRAC account at $270 million, which is $181 million below the 2014 enacted level.
· The Committee recommendation rescinds a total of $204.5 million from prior Appropriations acts due to redundancies or changes in need or scope of projects.
VETERANS AFFAIRS: The Committee recommendation includes $64.708 billion in discretionary funding, which is $1.5 billion above the 2014 level and $419 million below the 2015 budget request.
· As authorized by Congress in 2009, the VA medical services accounts are provided funding one year in advance. The recommendation includes the budget request for 2016 advance funding of $58.7 billion.
· The Committee recommendation provides $3.870 billion for the information technology (IT) account, which is $167.2 million more than the 2014 enacted level and $32.7 million below the budget request.
· The Committee recommendation fully funds the budget request for prosthetic research at $588.9 million, which is $3.2 million more than the 2014 enacted level, and includes a 3% carve-out for research focused on female prosthetic needs.
· The Committee recommendation fully funds both the Major ($561.8 million) and Minor ($495.2 million) construction accounts for a total of $1.057 billion.
VETERANS’ MEDICAL RECORDS AND CLAIMS BACKLOG
· To ensure continuing oversight of interoperability between DoD and VA medical records systems, the Committee recommendation requires the VA to report on progress before release of 75 percent of the funding provided, and requires specific information on interoperability capability to be provided to the Committee by July 31, 2014.
· To reduce the veterans’ benefits claims backlog, the Committee recommendation fully funds the budget request of $173.3 million for the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS) and provides an additional $20 million to the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) for digitizing records and staffing needs.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
