Protecting Regular Order for Veterans Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, openness and transparency in the budgeting process are crucial to enabling Members of Congress to exercise our constitutional power of the purse, conducting proper oversight and ensuring that we are good stewards of the taxpayers' money.

That is why I have been extremely frustrated by the lack of budget information put forward by the current administration. Just this week, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, in a statement that was both insulting and condescending, said that ``it wasn't in our interest'' to release a full budget plan to the American people.

Yet, we have not heard a peep of objection from my colleagues across the aisle, not even a hint that they might rise from their knees after having been browbeaten by this administration time and time again, and stand up for the constitutional prerogatives of the United States Congress, a coequal branch of government. In the context of this bill, which was proposed to demand more budget information, it is confounding.

Nevertheless, here we are. To understand why we are considering this bill at this moment, we have to go back to last Congress and the end of the Biden administration.

In mid-July 2024, the VA informed the committee of expected funding shortfalls for the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Veterans Health Administration. At the time, VBA was facing a projected shortfall of $2.9 billion for fiscal year 2024, and VHA was facing a potential shortfall of $12 billion for fiscal year 2025.

Now, out of an abundance of caution and to ensure veterans' benefits weren't disrupted, Congress quickly passed H.R. 9468, the Veterans Benefits Continuity and Accountability Supplemental Appropriations Act, which provided VBA with additional funding of roughly $2.9 billion.

The bill also included accountability measures that required additional reporting by the Secretary and an inspector general review of the circumstances surrounding the projected shortfalls.

A few weeks later, on October 30, 2024, VA notified the committee that it had reviewed its calculations at the conclusion of fiscal year 2024 and determined that it would not have experienced a shortfall at VBA, and, in fact, had carryover funding in addition to the funding provided by the supplemental. VA also determined at the close of fiscal year 2024 that its projected budget shortfall in fiscal year 2025 for VHA would not be as significant as originally projected in July.

Its revised estimate for the fiscal year 2025 shortfall provided on Monday, November 25, 2024, was $6.6 billion, much less than originally projected. This was largely because of higher than expected carryover and extreme belt-tightening at local VA clinics and hospitals.

However, here is where paths diverge. In the wake of the passage of H.R. 9468, both VA's Office of Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office conducted and released their respective reports on the circumstances surrounding these real and projected shortfalls. These reports though have become a bit of an inkblot test. Where I and my Democratic colleagues see an accounting process that could be improved, as all processes can be, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle see criminal behavior and a malicious intent to deceive Congress and scare veterans. I encourage the public to read these reports and judge for themselves.

In one of the most egregious and politically naked overreactions I have seen in some time, the chairman sent a letter to the Department of Justice urging the Attorney General to investigate three former Biden administration officials for criminal wrongdoing in handling last year's budget shortfall. To say the least, I was shocked by this letter. We thoroughly addressed VA budget issues last year, and neither the inspector general nor GAO found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing--none, Mr. Speaker.

So why call on Trump's Attorney General to revisit it? The answer seems very clear to me: political payback. This was a spurious attempt to tarnish the reputations of officials who led one of the most successful periods in VA history, marked by high veteran satisfaction, strong performance, and the largest expansion of veterans' benefits ever, by way of the PACT Act.

Rather than hold President Trump and Secretary Collins accountable for the ongoing decline at VA over the last several months, my colleagues pushed a baseless investigation, a clear distraction meant to deflect from the damage being done under their watch.

Nevertheless, more information is always better. As I said, we should demand transparency from whatever administration is in charge. While I find the impetus behind this bill to be retaliatory in nature, I do agree with my majority colleagues that the Trump administration budget formulation and execution process warrants scrutiny.

Secretary Collins has already broken the law by redirecting funds without congressional approval. I worry that the trend will continue over the next few years. I hope my colleagues will join me in rigorous oversight of the Trump administration's approach to VA's budget.

There are two other provisions in this bill I would like to discuss very briefly. This legislation would codify the Veterans Experience Office, or VEO, which was first established during the Obama administration. I appreciate that the Senate incorporated changes we had suggested to their text that would strengthen the functions of VEO so that it serves as an office truly focused on improving the veteran experience with data-driven approaches.

Additionally, in the Honoring our PACT Act, Congress authorized VA to utilize critical skills incentives to attract and retain the workforce it needed to implement the largest expansion of veteran benefits in recent history. While use of those incentives has been overwhelmingly successful, VA did make some initial missteps in oversight and utilization of the awards for senior executives. These missteps were corrected during the last administration. Despite what my colleague says about investigations, the administration was quite forthcoming and transparent about those missteps. The language in this legislation would tighten the circumstances under which critical skills incentives can be used to retain high-level VA employees.

While I am generally supportive of this additional oversight to ensure these awards are being used appropriately, I continue to be concerned with Secretary Collins' ability to recruit and retain the top-level talent we need for caring for veterans at VA.

Earlier this month, Secretary Collins celebrated, celebrated that 30,000 VA employees will be departing the agency by the end of this fiscal year under his tenure. Can you imagine that, Mr. Speaker? The head of an organization was patting themselves on the back for making their organization so toxic that nearly 10 percent of their workforce quits? This is something to be proud of? It is unconscionable. What is worse are the absurd assertions that veterans won't be negatively affected by such drastic reductions.

There is simply no way that the delivery of veteran care and benefits will not be affected by Secretary Collins' continued efforts to demonize and demoralize the VA workforce.

Again, I am pleased to see that with this bill my colleagues have finally decided to demand transparency from this administration. I wait with bated breath for their reaction when the White House simply chooses to ignore it, as they have repeatedly done with this Congress. My suspicion is that we will continue to see my colleagues on the other side of the aisle hide in fear of their master, but I would love to be proven wrong.

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