WASHINGTON – Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a Marine combat veteran, helped secure key priorities for service members and veterans in Arizona and nationwide in this year’s Senate Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (MilCon-VA) Appropriations bill, one of three bills included in the first funding package advanced by the Senate for fiscal year 2026 (FY26). The legislation includes Gallego-led provisions to expand access to health care and suicide prevention resources, invest in mental health and addiction treatment, protect survivor benefits, support veteran housing, and support Arizona military construction projects like the Luke AFB Child Development Center.
“At a time when our VA is under attack, I’m proud to have fought for critical programs our veterans count on, like mental health care, access to rural health care, and programs to combat veteran homelessness. I also fought to fund a new child care center at Luke Air Force Base, to support the men and women who serve in Arizona and their families,” said Senator Gallego. “I’ll keep working to make sure this bill becomes law and that these investments make it back home to Arizona.”
The MilCon-VA Appropriations bill now moves forward as part of the Senate’s full-year government funding process. Gallego will continue pushing for Arizona provisions as negotiations advance.
Read a summary of the bill HERE.
See below for a breakdown of Gallego-led priorities included in the bill:
Arizona Priorities:
Luke Air Force Base Child Care Development Center
- Gallego helped successfully secure $22 million for Luke Air Force Base to construct a new Child Development Center capable of serving 250–300 children. The current facility is aging and unable to meet the growing needs of servicemembers and their families stationed at Luke AFB.
Veterans Housing Assistance
- Includes $171 million for the Grants for Construction of State Extended Care Facilities Program, which funds new and upgraded state-run veterans’ homes.
- Provides more than $3.4 billion for programs to prevent veteran homelessness, including $702 million for the Supportive Services for Veterans Families [SSVF] Program and $670 million for Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing [HUD–VASH] Program case management.
Davis-Monthan AFB 492nd Power Projection Wing
- Provides $49 million to construct a new Communications Squadron headquarters facility, which is necessary to support the transition of new flying missions to the base.
- Provides $125 million to construct a new MC-130J hangar and maintenance facility to support the new mission coming to Davis-Monthan.
- Requires the Air Force to provide regular updates to Congress on progress transitioning the 492nd Power Projection Wing to Davis-Monthan AFB.
The bill also includes priorities to expand veterans’ health care and medical research and improve VA systems:
Veterans’ Health and Research
- Aviator Cancer Study (ACES Act): Includes language that directs the VA to study cancer rates among military aviators to better understand elevated risks for prostate cancer, melanoma, and other cancers.
- Counting Veterans’ Cancer Act: Directs a progress update on the implementation a bill requiring the VA to improve reporting of cancer diagnoses to state and national cancer registries, helping ensure veterans are included in national research and included in clinical trials.
- Non-Addictive Opioid Alternatives: Directs a report on veterans’ access to non-opioid pain relief medications and what the VA will do to ensure that coverage, cost-sharing, and access are not an impediment to veterans receiving this care.
- Medical Marijuana and Opioid Alternatives: Encourages research into how participation in state-approved medical marijuana programs may help reduce opioid use among veterans managing chronic pain.
- Addiction and Mental Health Treatment Access: Encourages the VA to consider expanding clinical education on the use of FDA-approved long-acting injectable therapies for certain treatments, where appropriate.
- Honoring Our PACT Act: The bill provides $52.7 billion for the Toxic Exposures Fund for fiscal year 2026, which funds the full request and is more than $22 billion above what was made available in fiscal year 2025.
Bolstering Veterans Mental Health Care
- Veterans Crisis Line Oversight and Expansion: Directs the VA to adopt oversight recommendations to improve staffing, training, and responsiveness of the Veterans Crisis Line and prevents any funding from this bill from being used to reduce VCL capacity. Includes $3.6 billion for suicide prevention and $698 million for outreach.
- Community-Based Suicide Prevention Partnerships: Encourages the VA to expand partnerships with trusted local organizations to better prevent veteran suicide and reach those not currently engaged with VA services.
- Firearm Safety and Suicide Prevention: Expands VA efforts to provide safe firearm storage and train Veterans Crisis Line responders in lethal means safety as part of broader suicide prevention.
- Veteran Suicide Risk Prediction Tools: Encourages broader use of data analytics and machine learning to proactively identify veterans at elevated risk of suicide before a crisis occurs.
Improving VA Systems and Benefits Access
- Rural and Tribal Health Access: Directs the VA to assess how it can expand mobile clinics and telehealth options to better serve rural and Native American veterans.
- Survivor Benefits Reform: Directs the VA to report to Congress on the feasibility and advisability of establishing a pre-approval process to help grieving spouses access survivor benefits faster and without bureaucratic delay.
- Veteran Mortgage Protections: Requires the VA to submit a report on the impact of terminating the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program and what steps are being taken to support veterans facing foreclosure.
- Health Data and Imaging Modernization: Encourages VA to expand its use of modern software to improve sharing of imaging and medical records across VA, DoD, and tribal health systems.
- Sustainable Medical Supply Use: Encourages the VA to reconsider restrictions on the use of reprocessed single-use medical devices to improve sustainability and supply chain efficiency.
8/4/25