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House Passes NDAA

Yesterday the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act for FY22 with strong bipartisan support. The legislation authorized a $770 billion funding level for the Department of Defense and made key changes to defense policy. Read more here.

Veterans Package Passes Both Chambers

The Senate and House have now both passed the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020 (H.R.7105). The legislation provides assistance to veterans during the COVID-19 crisis and also includes provisions from the Protect GI Bill making certain changes to education benefits. Specifically, a new dual certification process, risk-based surveys, and monthly reporting for schools would be implemented. Although changes would aim to reduce overpayment risks, colleges would assume liability for such overpayments. Public colleges would also have to provide in-state tuition rates to all GI Bill students.

Now the bill will go to President Trump to be signed into law.

The full text of the bill is available here.

First Batch of Spending Bills Clears House Floor

As expected, the House cleared its first package of FY2021 spending bills earlier this afternoon.  The four-bill batch, H. R. 7608, combines four separate pieces of legislation:  State-Foreign Operations; Agriculture; Interior and Environment; and Military Construction- Veterans Affairs.  It was adopted by a vote of 224 to 189.  A summary of H. R. 7608 is available here.

Next week, the House is currently scheduled to take up a second “minibus”, made up of seven appropriations bills:  Defense; Labor-HHS-Education; Commerce-Justice-Science; Homeland Security; Financial Services-General Government; Energy and Water; and Transportation-HUD.  That would leave the Legislative Branch measure as the only one of the 12 that will not have been taken up by the full chamber by the end of next week.

On the other side of the Hill, the Senate has yet to act on any of its bills, and with negotiations around the next COVID-relief bill expected to take up all of the time before the August recess, it is not expected do so until September at the earliest.

House Clears Bill to Protect GI Bill Benefits, Sends It to White House

By Unanimous Consent, the House cleared early this morning S. 3503, a bill aimed at ensuring that the disbursement of GI Bill benefits is not disrupted as a result of the coronavirus and COVID-19.  The Senate approved the measure quickly earlier this week.

The bill now heads to the White House for the President’s signature.

A large coalition of groups and individual institutions asked for the bill’s quick adoption.