WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (Kan.) – ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee – today pressed Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) leaders, VA Under Secretary for Health, Shareef Elnahal, and Under Secretary for Benefits, Joshua Jacobs, during a committee hearing regarding the nearly $15 billion shortfall at VA for FY2024 & FY2025.

In July, VA briefed Congress on a mandatory funding shortfall of approximately $3 billion for the Veterans Benefits Administration this fiscal year that, if not addressed by September 20, would delay benefits payments for more than 7 million veterans and other beneficiaries on October 1. VA also briefed Congress about an expected funding shortfall of approximately $12 billion in its medical care accounts next fiscal year. The senate is currently considering a bill to address the budget shortfall this fiscal year for veterans’ benefits before the Friday deadline so that benefits payments are delivered on time next month for veterans and their survivors.

During the hearing, Sen. Moran questioned Under Secretary Elnahal and Under Secretary Jacobs about the lack of appropriate communication and transparency with Congress and the American people about VA’s funding needs, which put services for veterans and their families in Kansas and across the country at risk.

“What happens today and tomorrow on this issue and whether veterans and their families receive their benefits on time matters,” said Sen. Moran. “It seems to me, the VA and OMB failed to pay the respects to the U.S. Senate and members of this committee. My complaint is the lack of notice, knowledge and the motives seem to be to have Congress act without having all of the facts, which is wrong.”

The video of Sen. Moran’s opening statement can be found here.

Sen. Moran also questioned Under Secretaries Elnahal and Jacobs about the timing of VA announcing the shortfall to Congress, which came a day after the Senate Appropriations Committee completed its markup for the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies (MilCon-VA) Act, which allocates funding to VA.

“You claim you didn’t know for certain about the amount of money, but you knew something was happening” said Sen. Moran. “In both a letter and testimony, the indication was that Congress would be informed. This has a lot of consequences as we do our appropriations process, and we only learned about this after we had marked up MilCon-VA”.

Sen. Moran’s line of questioning can be found here & here. 

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