Right before the Senate gaveled out for recess, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) alerted Congress that it needs an additional $15 billion. This amounts to the largest budget shortfall in the history of the agency.
In past communications to Congress, the VA has never indicated it would exceed its normal requests by an amount like this. Now, the VA is claiming that if emergency funding is not passed by Sept. 20, veterans run the risk of not receiving benefits on time.
Is this VA budget calamity due to gross mismanagement or incompetence or both? Before Congress passes another massive emergency supplemental to save the VA from itself, we need to get to the bottom of this failure. That is why I am calling on Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.), to immediately schedule a hearing. No one wants veterans’ benefits delayed, but Congress needs to get to the bottom of this before we burn more taxpayer dollars.
In July, chief financial officers from the VA quietly alerted Congress to multiple significant budget shortfalls that the agency would experience without additional immediate funding from Congress.
First, the VA briefed Congress on a shortfall of nearly $3 billion in the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2024, which ends September 30. In Fiscal Year 2025, which begins October 1, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) estimates a nearly $12 billion shortfall and the VBA projects an additional shortfall of $22 billion. Combined, this amounts to the largest budget shortfall in the history of the VA.
Further, the VA informed Congress that, should the extra $3 billion not be appropriated to the VA by Sept. 20, veterans and dependents will likely experience a delay in receiving their compensation payments. As a result, the Senate is now scrambling to move an emergency appropriations package that would keep the VA afloat.
What the Senate is not scrambling to do is to understand why the VA is saying they have shortfalls in the first place. No senator wants to delay benefits to veterans and dependents. But we also have a duty to protect the American taxpayers, and the VA clearly owes us an explanation.
These supplemental funding requests are proof of gross mismanagement of billions of taxpayer dollars by the Biden-Harris VA. In the private sector, if you mismanage funds to the tune of billions, you are likely to go out of business. More likely yet, you could go to prison. Fortunately for the Biden-Harris administration, mismanaging funds like this likely won’t result in any negative repercussions for the bureaucrats who let it happen — unless Congress takes action.
The VA’s first priority is making sure America’s veterans get the best care possible. But they also have a responsibility to ensure taxpayer dollars are well stewarded. Rather than providing an explanation for this mind-boggling accounting error or by simply accepting blame, the VA is using veterans as a political bargaining chip. This impedes Congress’ ability to ensure that the VA never again fails in its duty to responsibly deliver care and benefits to our veterans. In the coming weeks, the Biden-Harris VA, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Tester, and the media will attempt to cast the fallout of this incompetence — and the massive amount of funds required to fix the problem — as Republicans’ fault. “If Republicans don’t pass this emergency funding now, veterans will suffer,” they will say. It is as dishonest as it gets.
This political tactic flies in the face of reality. Namely, that the VA misled Congress about the true costs of the PACT Act. In 2022, the VA aggressively promoted this legislation and assured Congress that the VA would effectively budget for any increase in cost as a result of its implementation and execution. That was two years ago. And since that time, the VA has never suggested to Congress it would need additional funding outside of regular funding requests.
Why did the VA wait until the last minute to alert Congress to the shortfalls? Did the VA know about the potential budget issues months ago — while Congress was drafting spending bills — and refuse to tell Congress? It seems to me they either knew this was likely to happen (and did not say anything) or that the VA is in dire need of vastly more capable financial officers.
Americans need to know what is going on at the VA. An oversight hearing must occur to ensure Congress has an understanding of what happened to cause this significant budget shortfall and guarantee it does not happen again. This situation is a glaring misuse of taxpayer dollars and should never be tolerated — at the VA or any other agency.
That is why I, and some of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, are asking Chairman Tester to schedule an oversight hearing in September to uncover what happened at the VA before this $3 billion supplemental funding package moves forward. I don’t want assurances of a hearing. I want a VA oversight hearing noticed on the calendar. We cannot allow this crisis of agency management to be swept under the rug.
With nearly half a million veterans in the state of Alabama, I know how critical it is that they receive their health care and benefits quickly. To ensure this remains the case in Alabama and across the country, we can’t have a VA that runs the risk of financial insolvency — especially as a result of political tactics in an election year.
Veterans and taxpayers deserve answers. I hope that both the VA and Chairman Tester consider the gravity of these shortfalls and take the necessary steps to remedy them. Plugging the holes with billion-dollar band aids may work for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, but our veterans deserve better.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) was elected to the Senate in 2020. Prior to that he spent 40 years in higher education as a college football coach, including as the head coach at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, where he coached for 11 years.
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