The House appropriators working on 2007 funding for Veterans Affairs and military construction would provide nearly a billion less than the Administration’s 2007 request. According to the House Appropriations Committee markup, the panel would fund about $100 million less for Veterans medical services but support an overall 6.3 percent increase to offset the “spike in veterans returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The markup provides a total of $10.6 billion for military construction and $21 billion for the defense health program.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
