Senators push increased legislative oversight of VA

(The Center Square) – Legislation to strengthen oversight and accountability by Congress for the fiscally struggling Veterans Administration has been filed in the U.S. Senate, with Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn joining as one of 14 cosponsors.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, authored Protecting Regular Order for Veterans Act in the wake of the Veterans Benefits Administration facing a $2.88 billion budget shortfall for disability and education benefits for the year ending Monday, and $11.97 billion for medical care in fiscal year 2025 that begins Tuesday.

“Telling Congress we have to provide $3 billion to the VA in a matter of days or our constituents won’t get their benefits – without any accountability or reforms – is a shocking failure in leadership and management,” Sullivan said. “It is incumbent upon the secretary to appear before the committee and answer questions, but remarkably, he declined to do so.”

Sullivan was referring to Denis McDonough, an appointee of President Joe Biden in 2021 to be the secretary of Veterans Affairs. The Senate hearing last week was of the Veterans Affairs Committee , where Under Secretary for Benefits Joshua Jacobs and Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal appeared rather than McDonough.

Last week, the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives passed the Veterans Benefits Continuity and Accountability Supplemental Appropriations Act and President Joe Biden signed it into law on Friday. The measure solves only the fiscal year ending on Monday.

“The VA’s budget shortfall that put millions of veterans’ benefits at risk is only the agency’s latest failure to responsibly manage federal funds under the Biden-Harris administration’s leadership, and it proves the VA needs to be subject to greater accountability and oversight,” Blackburn said in a release. “This legislation would require the VA to provide regular, in-person budget reports to Congress to ensure they are properly managing taxpayer dollars.”

According to the bill text , the legislation would require the VA to submit quarterly in-person budget reports to Congress. Questions could be asked by the lawmakers. If there are budget shortfalls outside of regular order, restrictions would be in place on senior executive service employees in the VA’s central office, and in the Office of Management and Budget.

The VA, awarded $10.8 million in bonuses to senior executives at its central office, according to a report from earlier this year.