Veterans benefits payments scheduled to go out Oct. 1 will be undisrupted after the Senate approved a bill to plug a $3 billion funding shortfall with a day to spare before the payments could have been delayed.
The Senate on Thursday approved the legislation to cover the shortfall in Department of Veterans Affairs funding for disability and education benefits by voice vote, sending the bill to President Joe Biden's desk for his expected signature. The vote came ahead of what VA officials were warning was a Friday deadline to approve the funding or else risk delaying the benefits.
"Our veterans were there for us. We have to be there for them," Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., said on the Senate floor. "Congress has a responsibility to ensure these veterans, their family members, and survivors receive the benefits they have earned, on time."
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In July, the VA told lawmakers that the department was short about $3 billion of what it needs for disability and education benefits this fiscal year, which ends at the end of the month. If the funding wasn't approved by Sept. 20, VA officials warned, payments scheduled to be sent Oct. 1 could be delayed.
VA officials have attributed the shortfall to higher-than-expected benefits claims under the PACT Act, the sweeping law that expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxins during their military service. GI Bill payments have also exceeded the department's earlier projections for this year, officials have said.
Senators had tried to approve the funding patch in late July, but some Republicans objected to passing the bill prior to a hearing on the shortfall.
That hearing was held by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday. At the hearing, senators from both parties expressed frustration that they were not informed sooner about the VA's budget woes.
"I don't know that I need to have a conversation about providing benefits," Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the ranking member of the committee, said at the top of the hearing. "We're for that. Veterans are entitled to benefits. We want them to receive them. But here's what troubles me, is the lack of budgeting accountability, knowing the facts in time to make better decisions. And what is really troubling to me is the lateness in which this issue arose."
Even with the hearing, it was unclear whether the Senate would be able to act on time. In the notoriously slow upper chamber, one senator can delay a bill by refusing to agree to waive lengthy procedures.
In the case of the veterans benefits funding bill, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was threatening to object to fast-tracking the legislation unless he got a vote on his amendment to offset the $3 billion for the VA by cutting funding from the Department of Energy.
Paul was granted a vote on his amendment, which failed 47-47. It needed 60 votes to pass. Among those who voted in support of the amendment was Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., who is in a tight reelection race.
The benefits funding cliff was averted, but the VA still faces a $12 billion shortfall in its medical budget next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. VA officials have asked Congress to include the medical funding in a stopgap spending bill that lawmakers need to approve by Sept. 30 in order to prevent a government shutdown, but it's unclear whether lawmakers will follow that request.
An initial House GOP proposal for the stopgap spending bill did not include the $12 billion for VA medical funding. That proposal was voted down in the House on Wednesday evening over issues unrelated to the VA, and lawmakers have not said what their next proposal will entail.
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