Good Morning, Mr. Chairman,

Thank you for holding this hearing to discuss the FY 2011 budgets for the Office of Information and Technology and the VA Inspector General.

As we all know, both these components of the VA are critical to operations at the VA – OI&T for their IT infrastructure responsibility and OIG for their oversight responsibilities.  I will tell you, I am very interested in where the resources are going that have been delegated to OI&T, and am quite concerned that the budget for the VAOIG has been flat-lined for FY 2011, particularly given the amount of oversight this office has had to perform.

The VA OI&T, under Assistant Secretary Baker, has undergone a top-down review of all the ongoing IT projects, and at this point has put on hold the development on approximately 45 IT projects.  I am interested in learning the down-stream prospects for these projects, including the stalled FLITE project, which we have invested a large amount of resources since 2000.  I am also interested in future planning for OI&T.  How are we going to advance the joint ventures, such as those being used up at the North Chicago/Great Lakes Naval venture that Chairman Mitchell and I visited earlier this year?

I am concerned about funding for VA to stop the practice of cutting and pasting and altering the VA’s electronic medical record.  I find it disturbing that VA has not learned its $26 million lesson from its data security breach in May 2006.  I understand VA still allows personal unencrypted laptops and other devices on VA’s secure network.

I am also concerned that the VA OIG budget has remained at the FY 2010 level.  With the increased responsibility of conducting VBA Regional Office reviews similar to the CAP reports issued for VA Medical facilities, I am uncertain that the resources allocated to VA OIG will be enough for them to adequately complete their mission in FY 2011.  These reports are an invaluable resource to review and correct inadequacies within the VA system.  Without the oversight of the VA OIG, we would not be able to conduct proper oversight here at this committee.

Mr. Chairman, I look forward to hearing the testimony today, and work with you on making certain that both the VA OI&T and the VA OIG both have adequate resources with which to perform their duties.

Thank you.