Va Hospital Inventory Management System Authorization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in cautious--I emphasize cautious--support for H.R. 3494, the VA Hospital Inventory Management System Authorization Act, as amended.

Throughout my time on this committee, I have seen the importance and necessity of an accessible and efficient supply chain system. Without these tools, hospitals remain ill-equipped to handle demand.

This became painfully evident during the COVID-19 pandemic when VA facilities were forced to use Excel spreadsheets to report PPE inventory up to the central office.

VA patients and providers deserve a modernized supply chain, and it has yet to be proven that VA has the capacity to provide this solution. I emphasize this has occurred, regardless of which party was in charge of the Department.

After a canceled procurement effort last year, VA has told us that it plans to restart its supply chain modernization effort for a fifth time. As far as I can tell, they have not done much of the work needed to avoid making the same expensive mistakes again.

Representative Kiggans' bill in its introduced form would have authorized tens of millions of dollars to VA for a pilot on a program VA does not even yet have a plan for. That is millions of dollars to the Department simply with the hope that VA was ready to get it right this time.

However, I am glad my Republican colleagues chose to incorporate critical accountability measures initially proposed by my colleague, Representative Nikki Budzinski, for consideration on the floor today after these measures were voted down on party lines in our most recent committee markup.

With the help of committee Democrats, this bill will now ensure that the Department has critical measures in place before it embarks on implementing the untested and unproven pilot program this bill authorizes.

Representative Budzinski's input requires that VA develop a comprehensive strategy for its supply chain program, a cost estimate and implementation schedule, reports on VA's internal staffing levels after support workforces were heavily depleted by the Deferred Resignation Program and other attrition, and an assessment of its recent failures in this modernization effort.

These updates represent just the most basic levels of oversight and planning that VA should have done once it decided to restart this modernization effort. I am glad my Republican colleagues are joining us in pushing for the Department to conduct these necessary assessments and plans before overhauling such an important program as supply chain management.

I also applaud Representative Budzinski for inserting these commonsense checks into this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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Mr. TAKANO. Madam Speaker, I ask all my colleagues to join me in voting ``yes'' on H.R. 3494, the VA Hospital Inventory Management System Act, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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