(U.S. Senate) — After urging from Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester and a bipartisan group of his colleagues, the U.S. House of Representatives today passed bipartisan legislation to provide the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) emergency funding for veterans’ disability compensation, pension, and readjustment benefits. The language in the legislation to address the Department’s current benefits funding shortfall was negotiated by Chairman Tester and a bipartisan group of his Senate and House colleagues.

This legislation now heads to the Senate for immediate consideration, ahead of Friday’s September 20^th deadline to ensure the delivery of reliable, timely benefits for veterans and their families scheduled for October 1^st.

“Funding veterans benefits is a cost of war that must always be paid—plain and simple,” said Chairman Tester. “The fact is, VA is providing more disability benefits to more veterans and survivors than ever before, including toxic exposure-related benefits, and that is a good thing. We have a sacred responsibility to provides veterans and their families certainty their benefit checks will arrive on time in 14 days, and I urge my Senate colleagues to put veterans first and pass this funding bill immediately.”

With more veterans and their families receiving VA health care and benefits than ever before, the Department currently faces a $3 billion shortfall in benefits funding for fiscal year (FY) 2024. Tester and lawmakers negotiated legislation to address this by providing the Department the funds needed to cover the FY 2024 benefits shortfall, in order to provide veterans and their families the timely benefits they have earned and rely on. They also included language requiring more transparency and reporting from the Department on its budget and spending.

VA needs the $3 billion provided by Tester and his colleagues’ funding bill before Friday, September 20^th in order to prevent a delay in compensation and pension benefit payments to as many as seven million veterans and their survivors, and to issue readjustment benefit payments to more than 800,000 veterans and their beneficiaries. These payments are scheduled for delivery on October 1, and the shortfall needs to be addressed by the end of this week to ensure the payments reach veterans and beneficiaries on time.

Tomorrow, Tester will also lead a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee oversight hearing on providing this emergency funding for veterans benefits, the lawmakers’ supplemental funding bill, and examining VA’s revised budget request for FY 2025.

Veterans Service Organizations representing millions of veterans in Montana and across the nation have endorsed the lawmakers’ bipartisan legislation to address the veterans benefits shortfall. This includes the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), Disabled American Veterans (DAV), The American Legion, Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), and the Jewish War Veterans of the USA.

“Guaranteed delivery of the benefits our veterans and surviving family members earned through their sacrifices is something they should never have to doubt,” said Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly, President and CEO of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). “Honoring their service is one of the most sacred duties we have as a nation. MOAA thanks Senators Brown, Murray, Collins, Tester, Boozman, Sinema, and Moran for taking swift action in response to VA's request.”

“Veterans should never have their financial security put at risk by late payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs for benefits they have earned,” said Jose Ramos, Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) Vice President for Government & Community Relations. “Wounded Warrior Project is proud to support the Veterans Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024 to ensure that the Veterans Benefits Administration has the resources it needs to meet its obligations to veterans while leaders in Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs sort out the issues that underlie [VA’s] budget shortfall announcement.”

“Millions of veterans and their families rely on these earned benefits each month to make ends meet, and many cannot afford to delay these payments even one day,” said Gary Ginsburg, National Commander of the Jewish War Veterans of the USA. “The bill's passage provides mandatory funding to support veterans’ pensions and benefits for the remaining months of the current fiscal year. Veterans and their beneficiaries should not be at risk of receiving VA disability compensation and other benefits.”