STAR Act

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

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.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 423) to protect regular order for budgeting for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 423, introduced by my colleague and fellow marine from across the Capitol, Senator Dan Sullivan from Alaska.

S. 423 would require the Secretary of the VA to provide quarterly briefings to Congress on the budget execution and any projected budget shortfalls. It also creates new guardrails on the use of critical skills incentive bonuses to make sure they only go to the employees whom they are intended for.

Finally, it would codify the Veterans Experience Office to improve the delivery of benefits to veterans and their beneficiaries.

These efforts already exist at the VA, and this legislation simply makes these efforts permanent. This bill is a straightforward, commonsense effort that partners with Secretary Collins and the Trump administration to establish greater accountability and oversight of career senior executives at the Department.

The need for this legislation comes in the wake of the critical skills incentive payments scheme uncovered by my committee during the last Congress. The days of waste, fraud, and abuse are over.

After the OIG identified over $10 million in improper critical skills incentive payments awarded to VA executives, Congress recognized the need for accountability. Let me be clear. I believe the VA employees deserve to be recognized for the extraordinary work they do.

Critical skills incentive bonuses are useful tools for the VA to attract talented staff who are dedicated to serving veterans. However, some of these bonuses were as high as $100,000 for D.C. office staff employees, more than double what a single veteran who is 100 percent disabled would receive in an entire year.

Additionally, during the investigation, my staff identified employees who

received these critical skills bonuses while they were under investigation for misconduct at the VA.

Mr. Speaker, it is time to make sure this never happens again. I am proud of the work done by my friend, Secretary Collins, and I believe the PRO Veterans Act will support his mission to build up the VA's workforce and put veterans first.

In addition to stopping the glut of critical skills payments from going to executives, this legislation would require the VA to provide in-person budget briefings to Congress every quarter for 3 years, detailing the agency's financial projections and budget management strategy.

After the Veterans Benefits Administration's shortfall crisis manufactured by the Biden administration cost the government billions of dollars, increasing the frequency of these conversations will help Congress execute its constitutional oversight and appropriations responsibilities.

While leadership in the Biden White House was replaced with the veterans-first Trump administration by the American people, many of the career VA employees who contributed to the crisis remain. Some of these employees have operated far too long without scrutiny and with no consequences for planning failures that total billions of dollars.

Without some ways of tying poor performance to outcomes for these employees, what message does the business-as-usual status quo send to rank-and-file employees?

When they hear of senior executives filling each other's pockets with improper bonuses, what does that tell the frontline VA police officer, the hospital housekeepers, and the food service staff?

It tells them that the efforts they bring to the job really don't matter. It tells them that executives will score a nice bonus despite terrible performance and that they are being held to a different standard.

That is the wrong message to send to VA employees and to the veterans who rely on the VA for lifesaving healthcare.

Now, I applaud both parties in this Congress and the current administration for taking the right steps and working together to pass this bill and begin the work of restoring that trust.

This is commonsense legislation that ensures the VA operates with basic accountability and protects the future of benefits for our veterans who have earned them.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support S. 423, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time, and I will take this time in closing to bring up a few things.

One, for the people listening to the rhetoric that came from the other side of the aisle, they need to understand that the VA has 477,000 employees. With that massive amount of employees, over the last several years, many of the jobs were not getting done correctly even though we put out a lot of money and hired a lot of employees.

Secretary Collins has said that he will reduce staffing based on attrition--attrition, mind you. We won't lose docs. We won't lose nurses. We won't lose frontline workers. We will be good stewards of the taxpayers' dollars.

So as the rhetoric comes from the other side on this administration and the fact that when they were in the majority and it was the Biden administration they didn't push for this legislation shows that it is more about the politics than it is about taking care of our veterans.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of our Members to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.