Pelosi sets spending requirements for two-year budget agreement



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FILE PHOTO: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks to the media at her weekly Capitol Hill press conference in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2019. REUTERS / Leah Millis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday that a two-year budget deal with the Trump administration should provide for an equal increase in defense spending and non-defense spending. defenses, as well as additional funding for a program to improve veterans' health care.

"We all agree on the need to deal with the debt ceiling, but we must also reach agreement as soon as possible on spending priorities based on the principle of parity," said the top Democrat at the time. House of Representatives to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. a letter of July 13th.

The Pelosi office announced the publication of the letter after she and Mnuchin had spoken by telephone on Saturday night for 12 minutes.

"The two-year budget agreement for which we are working should provide for equal increases in the defense base and non-defense base over the next two years," said the speaker in his letter. .

"But she must also provide $ 9 billion in additional funding to the VA MISSION Act for the 2020 fiscal year and $ 13 billion in additional funding by 2021," she wrote.

The VA Mission Act, adopted by Congress with bipartisan support, aims to reorganize the health services provided by the Veterans Administration by allowing veterans to obtain private care, by expanding assistance for caregivers and incentives for health professionals, and other changes.

Pelosi told Mnuchin that the agreements on parity between defense spending and other spending did not take into account the rising cost of implementing the program.

Reportage of David Morgan; Edited by Jonathan Oatis and Andrea Ricci

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