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.
The KC-Z4, a blended wing body tanker concept being developed by startup JetZero, could fuel larger groups of aircraft at longer range to hold more targets at risk, company officials say.