Sen. Moran Statement on VA’s Latest Budgeting Debacle

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) - ranking member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee - today released the following statement after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) revealed that none of the supplemental funding for the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) in FY2024 was actually needed, and a projected shortfall for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in FY2024 did not occur, despite earlier claims from the VA:

"VA has a sacred duty to care for veterans and a responsibility to faithfully use the resources entrusted to the department by Congress. For a second time this year, VA has miscounted billions of dollars and found that, despite telling Congress that the department was on the verge of running out of funds for veterans' benefits, it in fact had a surplus of funds for FY2024. VA further reported that VHA spending for FY2024 is not $3 billion over budget as they previously claimed. Even after these significant budgeting errors, VA insists it will need as much as $12 billion in additional funding for VHA in 2025. VA has yet to answer my questions on how this additional need arose. These accounting failures are irresponsible and costly."

After the VA alerted Congress to an anticipated $2.9 billion budget shortfall in September, Congress passed supplemental funding to protect the benefits of millions of veterans.

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