As some of you may have seen, the House Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee this afternoon released text of its draft FY 2020 spending bill and an accompanying press release. The subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its draft spending bill today, Wednesday, May 1 at 3 p.m. in HT-2 in the Capitol (the subcommittee also will be airing the markup live via webcast).
Based on a preliminary review of the text, the draft bill appears to provide a total of $840 million for the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research program in FY 2020, in line with FOVA’s funding request for FY 2020. This total funding level would represent a $61 million or 7.8 percent increase over the comparable FY 2019 funding level.
Additional details will be available in report language once the full House Appropriations Committee considers the spending bill, currently expected on Thursday, May 9.
Also of note, both House and Senate “Dear Colleague” letters for the VA research program are now posted on the FOVA website. Again, the House letter was led by Reps. Hastings (D-Fla.) and González-Colón (R-P.R.), and closed with 84 signatories, an increase from 67 in FY 2019. The Senate letter was led by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and closed with 23 signatories, an increase from 19 in FY 2019. Please be sure to thank your delegation for their support of VA research!
Promoting Partnerships To Improve Veterans’ Health