DAV had pushed hard and hoped for inclusion of veterans provisions for the Choice program and expansion of caregiver benefits in the omnibus spending package released this week. Unfortunately, neither made it into the final bill. While we understand the impetus to create passable legislation, we believed this to be a historic opportunity to incorporate two much-needed, long-awaited reform policies that would have dramatically improved the quality of life of our nation’s veterans.

We are heartened, however, to have the commitment of House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee leaders to continue working together on these issues over the coming weeks and months. Together, we will stay the course to ensure we are able to successfully get both caregiver program expansion and sensible health care reform legislation over the finish line.

Overall, we are grateful for the funding secured by this bill to continue the delivery of timely access to VA health care and benefits, as well as several provisions contained within the package that aim to help keep the nation’s promise to its veterans. This includes additional funding for gender-specific care for women veterans and enhanced access for rural veterans, extra staffing to address the backlog of disability claims and appeals and $2 billion allocated for VA infrastructure.

We recognize—as do veterans’ champions in the House and Senate—that the inclusion of both health care reform and caregiver legislation would have been major wins for the veteran community. DAV remains firmly committed to this fight and looks forward to working with congressional leaders, the White House, VA and our VSO partners as we continue the push for these critical reforms.