The Senate has passed the Fiscal 2007 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriation Act, providing nearly $9 billion above the amount allocated to VA last year, said Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), head of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Of the $78 billion for the VA, $38 billion would go to compensation and pensions, an increase of $4.11 billion over the 2006 enacted amount. VA’s medical services stands to receive $28.69 billion, up $4.51 billion from 2006. Craig noted, “These large increases cannot continue forever, but we have made a large improvement for veterans in the past few years.”
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at TRANSCOM.