House Republicans unveiled plans Wednesday for a $453 billion Department of Veterans Affairs budget next fiscal year, with a dramatic increase in mandatory health care and benefits funding but only a 3% boost in discretionary veteran program spending .

The proposal also includes a host of controversial social items that drew immediate condemnation from Democratic lawmakers who promised a fight over the measure.

“This bill needlessly fixates on keeping guns in the hands of those who are potentially a danger to themselves or others, and restricts reproductive rights, and [includes] other cruel and pointless policy restrictions,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said in a statement.

“I cannot tell those currently serving and those who defended our nation that this is the best we

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