Veterans Affairs Purchase Card Misuse Mitigation Act

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5215, the Veterans Affairs Purchase Card Mitigation Act.

I have often said I am the VA's staunchest supporter, but I will be their harshest critic. On this one, I will be their harshest critic.

Time and again when we hear reports of VA employees misusing purchase cards, that cannot stand. Every dollar that is misused, whether it is through fraud, waste, or abuse, is one less dollar that is not being used towards veterans, and it is the taxpayers' dollars that need to be guarded. This misuse erodes Congress' ability to oversee the VA budget and the use of the money.

Employees who misuse purchase cards should be held accountable and should be prevented from being a purchase card holder or authorizing official, because they can't be trusted to follow the regulations or be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

This legislation will ensure that taxpayer dollars are protected from purchase card misuse. If you are doing it right, you can still use the card and it can serve veterans. If you choose to ignore the rules, you are not going to be able to do it anymore.

It is pretty simple. It is a smart piece of legislation. I urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the gentleman whether he has any further speakers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to note, on this, there are other issues at hand here. There are certainly some of these cases where people are just blatantly misusing them. That is a small percentage. The vast majority is of leadership not implementing policies. Especially we were talking about the medical-surgical supply formulary, and people are taking the shortcut to getting things instead of getting--we had this conversation on contracts and the way it should be done.

The part about this is it isn't somebody going out and buying themselves a new phone or something; it is them going out and buying things that are actually going to be used, but it is a stupid way to do it because we end up paying more money. We don't have certain contracts. It is just is not the way to budget.

So I think this has a lot of really good things that it can do. One of them that it should continue to do is force VA leadership to have a better plan in place. We see it right here in the D.C. VA, not having this supply management piece down right.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage support of this piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5215) to amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to prohibit employees found to have knowingly misused Department of Veterans Affairs purchase cards from serving as purchase card holders or approving officials.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the record on H.R. 5215.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5215, the Veterans Affairs Purchase Card Misuse Mitigation Act.

This legislation is sponsored by my Veterans' Affairs Committee colleagues Jack Bergman, Kathleen Rice, Mike Bost, Dr. Neal Dunn, and Mike Coffman.

H.R. 5215 would implement an additional safeguard in VA's multibillion-dollar government purchase card program, which has too often lacked adequate controls and has periodically been abused. The legislation directs the Secretary to revoke the purchase card from any employee who is found to have intentionally misused it.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5215, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), our Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee chair.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5215, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, government purchase cards are issued to Federal employees to make small, simple purchases. Their transaction limit was $3,500, but the fiscal year 2018 NDAA increased that limit to $10,000. This increase will cause purchase card usage to go up, thereby increasing the chance for misuse.

Purchase card transactions already total roughly $4 billion annually in the VA, and the program has been found repeatedly to lack adequate controls related to waste, fraud, and abuse.

As chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, it is my job to monitor programs involving taxpayer dollars and veterans. That is why I introduced the Veterans Affairs Purchase Card Misuse Mitigation Act. It will mitigate the potential for misuse of purchase card spending by requiring the VA Secretary to revoke a purchase card from any employee found to have knowingly misused their card or approval authority.

Currently, penalties are applied slowly, if at all, and employees are very rarely terminated for purchase card misuse or abuse. H.R. 5215 creates a safeguard to stop purchase card misuse once it begins and holds bad actors accountable for all of their actions.

Mr. Speaker, being a good steward of taxpayers' dollars is my top priority, and this bill brings accountability to the necessary but problematic purchase card structure.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this bill.