Jerry Moran - Ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee | Official U.S. Senate headshot
Jerry Moran - Ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee | Official U.S. Senate headshot
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (Kan.), ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, questioned Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) leaders regarding a nearly $15 billion shortfall for FY2024 and FY2025 during a committee hearing on September 18, 2024. The VA officials present were Under Secretary for Health Shareef Elnahal and Under Secretary for Benefits Joshua Jacobs.
In July, the VA informed Congress of a mandatory funding shortfall of approximately $3 billion for the Veterans Benefits Administration for this fiscal year. If unaddressed by September 20, this shortfall would delay benefits payments for over 7 million veterans and other beneficiaries starting October 1. Additionally, the VA projected an expected funding shortfall of around $12 billion in its medical care accounts for the next fiscal year. The Senate is currently considering legislation to address this budget gap to ensure timely benefits payments next month.
During the hearing, Sen. Moran expressed concerns about the lack of communication and transparency from the VA regarding its funding needs. He emphasized that this issue jeopardizes services for veterans and their families nationwide.
“What happens today and tomorrow on this issue and whether veterans and their families receive their benefits on time matters,” said Sen. Moran. “It seems to me, the VA and OMB failed to pay respects to the U.S. Senate and members of this committee. My complaint is the lack of notice, knowledge, and the motives seem to be to have Congress act without having all of the facts, which is wrong.”
Senator Moran also raised questions about the timing of the VA's announcement concerning the shortfall, which occurred a day after the Senate Appropriations Committee completed its markup for the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilCon-VA) Act.
“You claim you didn’t know for certain about the amount of money, but you knew something was happening,” said Sen. Moran. “In both a letter and testimony, the indication was that Congress would be informed. This has a lot of consequences as we do our appropriations process, and we only learned about this after we had marked up MilCon-VA.”
The video links to Sen. Moran’s opening statement and his line of questioning are available online.
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