The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
Sen. Tommy Tuberville in Dothan
August 9, 2024 U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) penned an op-ed in the Daily Caller about the importance of protecting veterans and taxpayers from mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The VA has recently notified Congress that it is experiencing a $15 billion budget shortfall.
"Why did the VA wait until the last minute to alert Congress to the shortfalls?," Tuberville wrote. "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," said Tuberville. "This situation is a glaring misuse of taxpayer dollars and should never be tolerated - at the VA or any other agency."
Tuberville and his Republican colleagues on the committee have written a letter to Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jim Tester (D-Montana) demanding an oversight hearing.
"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," continued Tuberville. "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," continued Tuberville. "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," stated Tuberville. "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."
The Department of Veterans Affairs told lawmakers that it is facing a nearly $15 billion shortfall between now and the end of the next fiscal year.
House VA Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Illinois) said that chief financial officers from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) told the committee that they face a $2.88 billion shortfall for the rest of this fiscal year, and a nearly $12 billion shortfall for fiscal 2025.
The VA gets funding for its mandatory health and benefits programs a year before the current fiscal year to avoid any disruption from a government shutdown.
The CFOs attributed the funding discrepancy to increased hiring and pharmaceutical costs.
In a letter to VA Secretary Denis McDonough, Bost said the $15 billion funding gap is the VA's largest budget shortfall, "and a repudiation of the FY 2025 budget request that the Biden-Harris administration presented just four months ago."
"Not only have your chief financial officers thrown out the dollar amounts requested for many key accounts, they have abandoned many of the estimates and projections that underpinned their budget," Bost wrote. "This is not just fiscal mismanagement; it is strategic whiplash."
VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes confirmed the department's projected budget deficits in a statement to reporters
"VA is working closely with Congress and the Office of Management and Budget to resolve these potential shortfalls in a way that prevents any adverse impacts on veterans - and allows us to continue to deliver care and benefits to veterans at record rates," Hayes said.
Tommy Tuberville was elected to the Senate in 2020.
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