The Senate passed legislation Wednesday to overhaul military health care and increase troop pay, rescuing those popular provisions from the stalled fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill.

The Senate passed the bill (HR 1538) by voice vote after substituting the text of its own version and adding a 3.5 percent pay raise for members of the military. Both were pulled from the broader defense authorization measure (HR 1585). The pay raise would take effect at the beginning of 2008.

The “wounded warrior” legislation was drafted in response to media reports earlier this year about dilapidated facilities and poorly managed care for wounded service personnel at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. It is designed to upgrade military health care and improve the transition of wounded soldiers from the Pentagon’s health care system to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Meanwhile, a presidential commission on veterans’ health care presented its findings to President Bush in advance of formally approving them. The nine-member panel, led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Donna Shalala, Health and Human Services secretary during the Clinton administration, urged changes to boost benefits for family members caring for the wounded, set up a Web site for medical records and alter the system for awarding disability pay.