My guess, yes to the former.
More from the article...
... The changes have long been sought by caregivers and their advocates who say that veterans should be able to live out their final days at home if they choose.
On veterans homelessness, the bill would increase the per diem rate the VA can pay to organizations providing short-term transitional housing from 115% of costs to 133%. It would also give the VA flexibility to provide unhoused veterans with bedding, shelter, food, hygiene items, blankets and rideshare services to medical appointments. Both changes would sunset in September 2027.
The VA had those authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they were credited with reducing the veterans homelessness rate. But the authorities expired when the public health emergency did.
Those two aspects of the bill always had broad bipartisan support, but other aspects of the bill became political lightning rods.
Democrats argued that some language in the bill amounted to backdoor efforts to privatize the VA, while some Republicans argued that the bill did not go far enough in expanding veterans' ability to seek private health care using VA funding. Veterans groups maintained both sides were playing politics with a much-needed bill ahead of a hotly contested election.
One of the sections caught in that fight -- which would have established new access standards for veterans to get treatment at residential mental health and substance abuse programs and allow veterans to go to non-VA programs if the wait for a VA program is too long -- was taken out of the bill approved Monday.
But another of the contentious sections made it into the approved bill. That section would ban the department from overriding a VA doctor's referral for their patient to get outside care. The ban would last two years, after which the VA would need to report to Congress on its effects.
The tweak was enough to get Democrats to support the bill. ...
