The Senate on Friday night adopted a 2026 spending bill for the Department of Veterans Affairs that invests in recruiting clinicians at hospitals, provides a large increase to the toxic exposures fund and sets minimum funding levels for rural health care and other critical medical programs.

Overwhelming bipartisan passage of $488 billion in federal funding masked a bigger fight ahead over funding the rest of the government before a Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.

The Senate on Friday broke a multiday impasse by passing the first three fiscal 2026 spending bills, the first time the upper chamber has passed appropriations bills before the August recess since 2018.