By René Campos and Jeff Goldberg

The House version of the FY 2026 VA appropriations bill reflects a $67 billion increase over FY 2025 and includes critical investments across health care, benefits, infrastructure, and toxic exposure programs — many of which align directly with MOAA’s veteran priorities.

The legislation, which passed the chamber June 25 by a 218-206 margin, also includes advance appropriations for the VA’s health and benefits programs. These funds are authorized by Congress a year ahead of time, ensuring veterans continue to receive uninterrupted medical care and benefits even during delays in the federal budget process. This approach ensures consistent funding and enhances the VA’s ability to plan and deliver essential services such as health care, compensation, and pensions with greater reliability.

The $435 billion funding level rivals the combined annual budgets of the Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force for FY 2025, underscoring the growing demand among veterans for VA health and benefits programs.

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While the president’s full budget justification is still pending, Congress acted on the bill to ensure funding stability heading into the next fiscal year. Here’s a breakdown:

VA Health Care

Funding Totals: About $154 billion for FY 2026, plus $122 billion in advance appropriations for FY 2027.

Purpose: Covers a full continuum of medical services, including primary, specialty, and inpatient care; mental health and substance use treatment; women veterans’ care; community care; infrastructure; and medical and prosthetic research.

Key Provisions:

• Toxic Exposure Care and Research: Supports ongoing research and improved treatment protocols for veterans affected by military environmental exposures.
  
  
• Mental Health and Suicide Prevention: Expands access to mental health treatment options, including research into psychedelic-assisted therapies and support for veterans participating in state-approved medical marijuana programs. Strengthens suicide prevention initiatives, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use treatment, and the Veterans Crisis Line.
  
  
• Cancer and Rare Diseases: Enhances the VA’s ability to screen for and treat complex conditions.
  
  
• Homeless Veterans Programs: Provides increased funding for housing and health care support for at-risk veterans.
  
  
• Support for Survivors of Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence: Expands programs to identify, prevent, and treat sexual assault and intimate partner violence among veterans, including dedicated services for survivors and enhanced staff training across VA medical facilities.
  
  
• Family Caregiver Support: Directs the VA to evaluate the feasibility of expanding the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) and the Program of General Caregiver Support Services (PGCSS) to include veterans with lower disability ratings and care needs.

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VA Benefits

Funding Totals: About $227 billion in FY 2026 funding, plus about $242 billion in advance appropriations for FY 2027.  

Purpose: Covers a full spectrum of benefits services to include improved customer experience, increased Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) access for veterans, GI bill benefits, and transition coordination.

Key Provisions: 

• Customer Experience: Supports the implementation of proper customer experience standards. Also supports the identification of target customers, establishment of effective experience standards, and tracking internal performance against those standards.
  
  
• VBA Access for Veterans: Directs the VA to report VBA offices at risk of closure 180 days prior to VBA realignment, including analysis used as justification of closure, necessary resources needed to prevent closure, and the projected realignment of VBA staffers to nearby facilities to impacted congressional districts, as well as corresponding efforts to ensure continued services for impacted veterans in the area.
  
  
• Veteran Readiness and Employment Program (VR&E): Requests additional information and briefing from the VA on the 15 regional offices with the longest VR&E wait times, outlining steps that have been taken to date to reduce wait times and providing policy recommendations to address the problem.
  
  
• GI Bill: Provides funding for the online GI Bill Comparison Tool so veterans have all of the necessary information to make informed decisions when selecting institutions of higher education.
  
  
• Transition Assistance: Supports ongoing efforts to ensure a successful transition to civilian life. Encourages VA collaboration with DoD and the Labor Department, including the sharing of resources and information.
    

What’s Next

The Senate must now act on its version of the bill. Additional hearings and negotiations between chambers will shape a final compromise package before the measure is sent to the president.

MOAA is pleased to see the House address several of our priorities with its version of the appropriations legislation, and we will monitor progress on the bill through the Senate. We urge swift passage of VA funding to avoid any delay in critical VA programs and services.

René Campos is MOAA’s senior director of Government Relations. Jeff Goldberg is MOAA’s director of Government Relations for Veteran and Retired Affairs.