ICYMI: Tuberville op ed: The Biden Harris Department of Veterans Affairs Created A Crisis We Can’t Ignore

"Plugging the holes with billion-dollar band-aids may work for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, but our veterans deserve better."

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) penned an op-ed in the Daily Caller about the importance of protecting veterans and taxpayers from mismanagement at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The VA recently alerted Congress that it is experiencing a $15 billion budget shortfall. In the op-ed, Sen. Tuberville sounds the alarm on the lack of transparency from top VA leaders and calls on Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester (D-MT) to hold an immediate oversight hearing.

Before the Senate went into recess, Sen. Tuberville and his colleagues sent a letter to Chairman Tester demanding a hearing to evaluate the budget lapse and the extent to which mismanagement contributed to it.

Read excerpts below or the full article here.

"Why did the VA wait until the last minute to alert Congress to the shortfalls? Did the VA know about the potential budget issues months ago - while Congress was drafting spending bills - and refuse to tell Congress? It seems to me they either knew this was likely to happen (and did not say anything) or that the VA is in dire need of vastly more capable financial officers.

Americans need to know what is going on at the VA. An oversight hearing must occur to ensure Congress has an understanding of what happened to cause this significant budget shortfall and guarantee it does not happen again. This situation is a glaring misuse of taxpayer dollars and should never be tolerated - at the VA or any other agency.

That is why I, and some of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, are asking Chairman Tester to schedule an oversight hearing in September to uncover what happened at the VA before this $3 billion supplemental funding package moves forward. I don't want assurances of a hearing. I want a VA oversight hearing noticed on the calendar. We cannot allow this crisis of agency management to be swept under the rug.

With nearly half a million veterans in the state of Alabama, I know how critical it is that they receive their health care and benefits quickly. To ensure this remains the case in Alabama and across the country, we can't have a VA that runs the risk of financial insolvency - especially as a result of political tactics in an election year.

Veterans and taxpayers deserve answers. I hope that both the VA and Chairman Tester consider the gravity of these shortfalls and take the necessary steps to remedy them. Plugging the holes with billion-dollar band-aids may work for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, but our veterans deserve better."

Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans' Affairs, and HELP Committees.

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