The Senate has passed the Fiscal 2007 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriation Act, providing nearly $9 billion above the amount allocated to VA last year, said Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), head of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Of the $78 billion for the VA, $38 billion would go to compensation and pensions, an increase of $4.11 billion over the 2006 enacted amount. VA’s medical services stands to receive $28.69 billion, up $4.51 billion from 2006. Craig noted, “These large increases cannot continue forever, but we have made a large improvement for veterans in the past few years.”
The Pentagon's list of 14 top technology priorities has been slimmed to six, to ensure they get the attention they need, Defense Research and Engineering director Emil Michael announced. Changes may be coming in authorities for funding them, as well.
