Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chair Bernie Sanders
After being at odds last week, Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chair Bernie Sanders and House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chair Jeff Miller have reportedly reached a
compromise on VA funding:
According to a summary of the agreement obtained by CQ Roll Call, the negotiators agreed to $15 billion in emergency mandatory spending — $10 billion for a new private care option for veterans and another $5 billion for improvements within the VA, like hiring doctors and nurses and upgrading facilities. That’s $5 billion more than Miller offered on Thursday and about $10 billion less than Sanders sought.
To qualify for the private care option, veterans would have to be experiencing long wait times or be located more than 40 miles from a VA facility. They would be able to access providers who already participate in Medicare. [...]
The compromise legislation also permits the VA secretary to dismiss or downgrade employees in an expedited fashion based on performance or misconduct. It would also prevent wait-time metrics from being used in determining a VA employee’s eligibility for a bonus, and would authorize the VA to enter into 27 major medical facility leases throughout the country.
With Congress itching to get to its August recess, it's likely this will move quickly, with relatively few procedural delays.