The Senate Appropriations committee approved the fiscal 2014 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and related agencies bill. The spending package provides $74.4 billion in discretionary funding and $84.5 billion in mandatory funding.

Discretionary funding is $2.5 billion above the fiscal year 2013 enacted level for discretionary funding, the committee said.

The House previously passed its version of the Milcon/VA legislation, which included $73.3 billion in discretionary funding, which is $1.4 billion above the enacted level for fiscal year 2013.

In related news, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved its own version of the fiscal 2014 national defense authorization act, totaling $625.1 billion for the Defense Department and for defense activities of the Energy Department.

That amount includes $526.6 billion for DOD and $17.8 billion for DOE, which are the same levels as in the House defense authorization bill that passed on June 14 (HR1960).

Once the full Senate passes a final version, House and Senate lawmakers will write a joint bill.

The Senate panel’s bill (S1197), would authorize a 1% across-the-board pay raise. The House version calls for a 1.8% pay raise.

The House bill also adopts the “FITARA” federal information technology consolidation and transparency legislation forwarded by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Supporters say it will eliminate redundant CIO positions and drastically reduce the number of federal CIOs with direct authority over IT budgets, leading to greater efficiency and reduced waste. Some critics have asserted that the new authorities are not necessary.