The Senate approved (93-3 vote) a bipartisan bill aimed to address recent allegations of delayed care of Veterans Affairs health centers across the country. The bipartisan bill would allow the VA to contract with private providers to help meet veterans' medical care needs and allow the VA to use $500 million of its current budget to hire more medical staff. In addition, the bill would allow the VA secretary broader authority to fire or demote senior employees for low job performance. The House unanimously passed a similar measure earlier this week. Lawmakers will now begin consolidating the bills into a single unified measure.
The House and Senate bills do not include the 3-year lookback period (Wyden/Burr).
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