Republicans controlling the House want to boost spending for veterans' health care and for maintaining the safety of aging nuclear weapons.
The House GOP is getting started on a dozen spending bills to implement budget plans for next year.
Plans include an almost $1 billion increase for weapons modernization. That's a 12 percent increase. It would be under Pentagon accounts that have been are allowed to exceed tight budget "caps" that would otherwise freeze defense accounts.
The spending bills arrived even though negotiations on a broader GOP budget blueprint have yet to officially begin. Republicans are seeking to boost defense spending while holding other spending flat.
In the veterans and energy and water projects measures released Tuesday, however, Republicans would provide greater than inflation increases.
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