Democrats Highlight How Republican Funding Bill Fails to Meet the Needs of Veterans, Servicemembers, and Their Families

WASHINGTON — During this evening's House Appropriations Subcommittee markup of the 2025 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, House Democrats highlighted how the bill fails to meet veterans' needs fully and falls short of adequately funding military construction projects.

This bill:

• Worsens the quality of life for servicemembers and their families and hurts military readiness by cutting military construction $718 million below last year.
• Further limits women's access to abortion, harming women veterans' health.
• Leaves military installations, servicemembers, and their families vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and worsening natural disasters by failing to include dedicated Climate Change and Resilience funding and walking back on investments in Natural Disaster Recovery construction.
• Undermines the ability to keep guns out of the hands of those prohibited under Federal law from purchasing or possessing firearms.
• Repeats the same extreme House Republican tactics attempted in fiscal year 2024 by including partisan changes to existing law, known as "riders," that hurt Americans and create chaos. Once again, Republicans are disenfranchising veterans rather than making VA a welcoming and inclusive place for all those who volunteer to serve our country. We did not make promises to certain servicemembers in exchange for their service and sacrifice; we made promises to everyone.

"I thought last year's extremely partisan House bill would be an anomaly – that reaching an agreement in conference for fiscal year 2024 would set us on a path for a more agreeable process this year. Unfortunately, that is not the case, and I sadly cannot support this bill," Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-25) said. "On the military construction side, this bill cuts funding for servicemembers and their families by $718 million compared to the enacted level – compared to current services. We have a recruitment and retention problem, and Republicans are cutting funding for military construction. We have a major quality of life problem for our servicemembers and their families, and Republicans are cutting funding for military construction. We are in a climate crisis, and Republicans are cutting dedicated funding for resiliency…I hope that we can work together in good faith going forward to take care of our veterans, servicemembers, and their families in the way they deserve. This bill, sadly, does not achieve that."

Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz's full remarks as prepared for delivery are here.

"Like last year, final 2025 spending bills will be the product of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. And we can either do that now, or we can squander another summer on bills that will never see the light of day," Appropriations Committee Ranking Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) said. "The bill before this subcommittee today would hurt our veterans and military readiness and worsen quality of life for servicemembers and their families. It leaves our military construction, servicemembers, veterans, and their families vulnerable to the impact of climate change and worsening natural disasters. And it harms women and moves us closer to a national abortion ban…I cannot support this bill. And I hope Republicans will reconsider their strategy and join us at the table to support our veterans, our servicemembers, and to support workers and families. Above all, it is time to govern."

Congresswoman DeLauro's full remarks as prepared for delivery are here.

A summary of the bill can be found here. A fact sheet of the bill is here. The full text of the bill is here. Information on Community Project Funding in the bill is here.

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