Â鶹ŮÓÅ

House lawmakers on Monday finalized a sweeping veterans bill to expand caregiver benefits for elderly and infirm veterans and update medical options for veterans outside the department’s health care system, sending the legislative package to the White House to become law. The legislation was originally passed by the chamber last month but had to be reapproved this week after technical changes were added by the Senate last week. The measure now heads to the White House, where President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law in the coming days. (Shane III, 12/16)

Fourteen Democratic senators will introduce an amendment Monday evening to remove language from Congress’ massive defense spending bill that seeks to ban coverage of gender-affirming care for transgender children of service members, the office of Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., told NBC News. ... The $895 billion bill authorizes the annual budget for the Defense Department and sets defense policies for the upcoming year. (Lavietes, 12/16)

A bipartisan framework to put off a government shutdown appeared to hit snags over the weekend, and lawmakers continued bickering Monday over a federal funding bill that will lay the groundwork for the early days of the incoming Trump administration. Without new legislation, government agencies will shutter just after midnight Saturday. Lawmakers are on the cusp of approving a stopgap bill to extend federal funds into mid-March, but new disputes over farm aid and disaster recovery spending have stalled progress near the final stages. (Bogage, 12/16)

Lawmakers spent much of 2024 bemoaning the role of financial giants in health care as hospital chain Steward Health Care, long bankrolled by a private equity firm, collapsed into bankruptcy, putting thousands of jobs and the care of tens of thousands of patients in jeopardy. ... Yet as the grim Steward saga ended this fall, those bills bogged down both in Congress and on Beacon Hill, while regulators approved the sale of Steward’s national physicians group — which includes about 2,500 doctors in Massachusetts — to another private equity firm. (Weisman, 12/16)