A Republican aide pointed out that during the summer debate on the toxic exposure bill, Tester pledged that appropriators would keep funding existing benefits on the discretionary side of the ledger. When Toomey sought to amend the measure, Tester blasted his efforts as “about not even trusting the people in this body.”
“We have an Appropriations Committee, and we vote on appropriations bills, and we set the levels in the accounts based off of appropriations,” Tester said during floor debate. “Let the process work. Let’s not tie the hands of appropriators.”
Both the House and Senate fiscal 2023 Military Construction-VA bills include $135 billion in discretionary spending for the VA, 20 percent above the fiscal 2022 level. Of that, nearly $119 billion is for health care, a 22 percent increase above the fiscal 2022 level — a big driver of the overall increase in nondefense appropriations that Democrats are seeking.
Democrats on both sides of the Capitol are characterizing the dispute over toplines as a fight to support veterans. House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., “does not believe that honoring our commitment to veterans is ‘unnecessary spending,’” DeLauro spokeswoman Katelynn Thorpe said in a statement.
Time dwindling
As the talks drag on, there’s increasing chatter about what happens when the Dec. 16 government funding deadline approaches, as virtually no one thinks lawmakers will be able to wrap up a fiscal 2023 omnibus package by then. Senate Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said it would take two weeks just to write the bill once a funding framework is agreed to.
Read More: New wrinkle in veterans dispute as negotiators seek omnibus deal