Legislation

Military children will benefit from some provisions that were included in the education bill that is on its way to President Obama's desk for his signature.

The Senate passed the "Every Student Succeeds Act” Wednesday; the House passed it last week.

After an extra month wait, the annual defense authorization bill is finally law.

President Obama signed the budget and policy bill on Wednesday, marking the 54th consecutive year the measure has survived Washington political fights to become law.

The most significant result for troops is the renewal of dozens of specialty pay and bonus authorities, and a massive overhaul of the military retirement system.

The Department of Veterans Affairs will unveil a wide-reaching plan to Congress Wednesday to merge its unwieldy network of private doctors, an acknowledgement that the government cannot address a surging demand from veterans for medical care alone.

The goal of the New Veterans Choice Program, which would combine seven of the agency’s existing private health-care programs into a single system, is to eliminate gaps in care created by a tangled bureaucracy that has inadvertently reduced rather than broaden veterans’ access to care.

The Veterans Affairs Department will meet veterans’ health care needs through closer coordination with outside hospitals, clinics and doctors, the department says in a plan its sending to Congress on Sunday .

It is an admission that VA will never be able to meet all of veterans’ health care demands on its own. Rather, the department will focus on specialized care related to veterans’ service that other facilities cannot replicate. It may stop providing services commonly found in the health care industry.