Congress has reached an agreement to reform the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), with the details of the deal scheduled to be released later on Monday, July 28.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL) announced the legislation, which will address short- and long-term needs of the VA, according to numerous reports, including the New York Times and politico.com.
The two lawmakers worked through the weekend to craft a deal before Congress leaves for a five-week recess on July 31.
Details of the agreement were not released at press time, but it was stated by multiple sources that this House-Senate compromise would likely allocate money for veterans to get medical treatment outside the VA system if they have been waiting for care longer than 30 days. It may also give the secretary of the VA more ability to fire senior officials accused of mismanagement.
Negotiations slowed over how to offset some of the financial aspects of the bill, likely to cost between $10 billion and $25 billion. Also at issue was how to handle a request from acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson for $17.6 billion to hire more doctors and make improvements to VA centers. While Sen. Sanders and Senate Democrats prefer the bill's costs to be treated as emergency spending, Republicans prefer to raise revenue or make other cuts to offset the bill's costs.
The House and Senate will now consider the legislation. Rep. Miller said he hopes Congress can approve a bill and have it sent to the White House for President Obama's signature by August 1.
