VA can pay doctors and nurses more for five years.
S. 5406 — VA Salary Cap Waiver Adjustment Act · Filed by Angus King (I-ME) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill lets the VA Secretary pay doctors and nurses more money. It removes one rule that blocked this power. The Secretary can use this power for five years from when the bill becomes law.
Who it affects
Veterans get better care when the VA can hire and keep good doctors and nurses. The VA can offer higher pay to fill open medical jobs.
One thing to notice
The bill lets the power end after five years unless Congress votes to keep it. The bill does not say how much extra money the VA can spend.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Sep 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- VA Secretary — The leader of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs hospitals and care for veterans.
- doctors and nurses — Medical staff the VA needs most to serve veterans.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (637 characters) on Sep 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,985 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-25.
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