House Republicans’ Military Construction-VA Funding Bill Raises the Costs of Veterans Health Care, Hurts Military Readiness

Legislation Worsens the Quality of Life for Servicemembers and Military Families and Limits Women’s Access to Abortion

WASHINGTON — Today, the House passed Republicans’ extreme 2026 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies funding bill that fails to fully meet veterans’ needs 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 funding military construction $904 million below what is needed.
• Enacts the Project 2025 goal to privatize medical care for veterans by transferring billions to private hospitals and clinics, which will only lead to higher costs, longer wait times, poor communication and coordination, and diminished quality of care.
• 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 funding to strengthen military installations against these threats.
• Does not fulfill the United States’ commitments to our allies by providing $188 million less than what is needed for NATO infrastructure.
• 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 last year 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.

“Sadly, this Military Construction and Veterans Affairs funding bill prioritized - above all else - the privatization of VA healthcare for our veterans, a top goal of the unpopular Project 2025. Additionally, it will make the quality of life for servicemembers and their families worse. It harms overall military readiness, especially in failing to fund resiliency projects in the face of significant climate risk impacts to base infrastructure and cuts infrastructure funding to NATO. Like the larger Republican-DOGE agenda, the legacy of this 2026 funding bill will be higher costs, longer wait times and diminished quality of care, and therefore I could not support it,” Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-25) said. “Other key components are equally distressing. Defying its title, it shortchanges military construction funding. And once again, Republicans laced this historic bipartisan bill with poisonous riders. To name just two, it undermines servicemembers’ reproductive rights and makes it harder to keep guns out of the hands of those prohibited from possessing firearms due to the danger they pose to themselves or others. Right now, budget freezes, contract cancellations, and mass firings have unleashed havoc in VA healthcare and on basic services our veterans count on. But this funding bill fails to restrain that chaos or make life better for all those who risked it all for us. Our veterans, servicemembers and their families deserve so much better than this bill will deliver.”   

Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz’s floor remarks are here.

“While President Trump fires veterans and dismantles the services and programs across the federal government that they depend on, House Republicans have decided to make it worse by raising costs for veterans and worsening the quality of life for servicemembers and their families. They have introduced a funding bill that transfers billions of taxpayer dollars to private hospitals and clinics, leading to longer wait times, poor communication and coordination, a diminished quality of care for our veterans, and higher costs for taxpayers,” Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) said. “This bill does nothing to remedy the chaos and pain this administration has caused thousands of veterans and falls short of honoring our commitment to veterans, servicemembers, and their families by underfunding military construction and leaving our military installations vulnerable to the impact of worsening natural disasters. Just like last year, this bill is built on a framework that harms veterans. Veterans rely on programs across the entire federal government. House Republicans’ proposal to slash critical domestic investments in other funding bills will strip away education, job opportunities, housing, and food assistance that veterans and their families depend on. House Republicans cannot claim to support veterans while making it harder for them to find jobs, feed their families, and keep roofs over their heads.”

Congresswoman DeLauro’s floor remarks are here.

A summary of the bill can be found here. A fact sheet of the bill is here.

The text and accompanying report of the legislation, before action on the House Floor, is available here. Information on Community Project Funding in the bill is here.

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