House Passes Fiscal Year 2015 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Legislation

The U.S. House tonight approved the fiscal year 2015 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill (H.R. 4486) on a nearly unanimous 416-1 vote. The bill contains funding to help train and equip our troops, provide housing and services to military personnel and their families, maintain base infrastructure, and fund veterans’ benefits and programs.

In total, the legislation provides $71.5 billion in discretionary funding – a cut of $1.8 billion below the fiscal year 2014 level. This reduction will not negatively affect projects or services on which troops and veterans rely. Instead, the bill provides less funding than the previous year for military construction, largely due to a lack of new need for such projects, while increasing funding for veterans programs by $1.5 billion.

Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers made the following statement on the legislation:

“I applaud the passage of this extremely important, bipartisan legislation for our troops and vets. This bill will provide the men and women of our armed forces with the quality of life and resources that they need during their service, and meets our commitments to our veterans – ensuring that in exchange for their service and sacrifice, we will take care of their health and well-being,” Chairman Rogers said.

“This is a bipartisan bill that provides for the peace of mind and quality of life for our military – and that ensures that our veterans receive the benefits that they have earned as a result of the sacrifices that they have made for our freedom,” Subcommittee Chairman John Culberson said.

For a list of approved amendments to H.R. 4486, please visit: /uploadedfiles/04.30.14_fy_2015_milconva_bill_-_floor_adopted_amendments.pdf

For the text of the bill, please visit: http://beta.congress.gov/113/bills/hr4486/BILLS-113hr4486rh.pdf

For the bill report, please visit: http://beta.congress.gov/113/crpt/hrpt416/CRPT-113hrpt416.pdf

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