July 11, 2014

Congress has 15 working days left in Washington before legislators head home to their states and districts for five weeks of August recess. A number of major pieces of legislation have yet to be finished, including:

• defense authorization bill
• defense appropriation bill
• military construction and VA appropriations bill
• VA health care access bill

There’s almost no chance Congress will debate and pass all four pieces of legislation in the next three weeks. Here’s MOAA’s prediction on what’s to come on each of the four bills:

• Defense Authorization bill: The House already passed its version of the defense authorization bill in May. The Senate Armed Services Committee also agreed on its version of the legislation. It’s unlikely the full Senate will debate and pass the bill by August. That could mean the final passage of the defense authorization bill could be delayed until the fall or as late as after the November elections.

• Defense, and Military Construction/VA appropriations bills: With the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act in late 2013, many on Capitol Hill were optimistic that all 15 appropriations bills that fund the government would be passed before the start of the next fiscal year on October 1. However, to date the House has passed only six appropriations bills, and the Senate none. With time running short it’s likely that Congress will once again need to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government until Congress can focus on the budget instead of the November 4 elections.

• VA health care access bill: The VA scandal in Phoenix exposed widespread health care access issues for veterans. The House and Senate are working on a bipartisan approach to fix the health care access problems. This bill has some chance of clearing before the August recess.