The U.S. House has approved H.R. 3944, the first fiscal-year 2026 appropriations bill, providing nearly $18 billion for military construction and fully funding the Department of Veterans Affairs. The measure allocates more than $400 billion for veterans’ health care, benefits and related programs, expands spending on military housing and child-development centers, and advances efforts to reduce veteran homelessness. Separately, the House Armed Services Committee voted 55-2 to advance its draft fiscal-year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The panel’s version authorizes a 3.8 % pay raise for service members, accelerates weapons-system modernization and adopts cybersecurity provisions requiring a formal vulnerability-disclosure process and updates to the Pentagon’s CMMC framework. The bill now moves to the House floor. In the Senate, lawmakers cleared the bipartisan VA Home Loan Program Reform Act, which would let the Department of Veterans Affairs offer a partial-claim option expected to help roughly 20,000 seriously delinquent borrowers keep their homes and expand support for transitional housing for homeless veterans. The legislation heads to President Trump for signature.