House appropriators advanced a $228 billion budget plan covering veterans programs for military construction in fiscal 2020, but immigration issues overshadow its future.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told lawmakers that Homeland Security officials are "thousands" of people short of what they need on the border.
Democrats controlling the House are trying to use a popular veterans measure to block President Donald Trump from transferring $3.6 billion from military base construction to build his long-sought wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Podcast topics for the week: Southern border military deployments, the NDAA schedule, Congress' military budget confusion and Game of Thrones defense acquisition talk.