CCAGW Urges House of Representatives to Oppose H.R. 8371
The WasteWatcher
May 16, 2024
The Honorable Mike Johnson The Honorable Hakeem Jeffries
Speaker of the House House Democratic Leader
U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives
The U.S. Capitol The U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Speaker Johnson and Democratic Leader Jeffries,
On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to oppose bringing up H.R. 8371, the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, under suspension of the rules. This legislation includes provisions for which amendments should be allowed, including Title 5.
CCAGW has been supportive of the need for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to create an interoperable electronic health records management system (EHRM) to facilitate the transition from the Department of Defense to the VA. Unfortunately, the language in Title 5 would harm the VA’s current modernization plans.
In March 2024, the first deployment of the VA’s new EHRM system since the VA implemented a halt and reset of the program in 2023 took place at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Illinois. An April 16, 2024, NextGov article stated that feedback on the new system from the VA, “continues to be positive as the department looks to restart additional rollouts of the new software in the coming fiscal year.” In his April 16, 2024, testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, VA Secretary Denis McDonough agreed that the rollout “has been successful so far,” and “One measure of success there is the speed with which we’ve returned to a higher level of pre-deployment appointments for veterans. So, overall, that deployment has been on the high level of expectations.”
Rather than adopting the provisions of Title V, which would slow down further deployment and improvements to the EHRM system rollout and imposing additional reporting and certification requirements beyond the initial requirements, Congress should agree to let the VA move forward as planned in fiscal year 2025.
Again, I strongly urge you to oppose placing H.R. 8371 on the suspension calendar, and allow for amendments to improve the legislation, including the removal of Title 5 from the bill. All votes related to H.R. 8371 may be among those considered for CCAGW’s 2024 Congressional Ratings.
Sincerely,
Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW
