We are here today to examine the President’s proposed budgets for fiscal year 2009 for the Inspector General (IG) of the VA and for the VA’s Office of Information and Technology (IT).  These budgets are not related, but are equally important.

Our first panel will address the IG’s proposed budget.  The President’s budget proposes $76 million for the IG for fiscal year 2009, which is $4 million below their fiscal year 2008 budget.  I believe this cut is absolutely irresponsible.

The Inspector General is an essential, independent, nonpartisan check against waste, fraud and abuse, and is one of the best ways of ensuring accountability at the VA during a time of war.

This reduction would result in a 10 percent cut in IG staffing, which would weaken the VA’s watchdog when hundreds of thousands of veterans need the VA to make improvements.

This subcommittee held a hearing just two weeks ago where Dr. David Daigh, one of the IG witnesses today, and his team in the Office of Healthcare Inspections testified to the shocking and tragic events at the VA hospital in Marion, Illinois.  The VA Medical Inspector and Dr. Daigh’s group found nine patients who died in the past two years as a result of substandard care.

I will be asking Dr. Daigh what additional resources are needed to look at the whole VA hospital system to make sure there are no more Marions out there.  I know he does not have those resources now and the President’s budget would reduce the IG even further.

The federal government has 25 statutorily-mandated Inspectors General.  If you compare the number of IG employees with the number of employees in the agency, the VA has the lowest ratio in the entire government.  The same comparison of budget for the IG and budget for the agency puts the VA near the bottom.

Unfortunately, the President’s proposed cut does not account for the IG’s return on investment.  In fiscal year 2007, the VA’s Inspector General had hard dollar recoveries – money taken from illegal activities and placed into the United States treasury – of $237.9 million.  Return on investment just on hard dollar recoveries was over three to one.  The IG also saved over three hundred million dollars by cutting off benefits payments to fugitive felons – people receiving benefits who have outstanding arrest warrants for felonies.

Our second and third panels will address the President’s budget proposal for VA’s Office of Information and Technology.  Congress has mandated a separate budget line so that the amounts and purposes of IT expenditures are visible and can be evaluated.

The VA is doing a better job of categorizing its IT expenditures but there is more work to be done.  In order for Congress to provide effective oversight – IT costs must be allocated to cost centers as precisely and accurately as possible.

One specific topic this Subcommittee will explore is the funding for IT resources to support the innovation and creativity of VA’s health care providers.

The Office of Information and Technology has set aside $8 million this year to provide IT support to the clinicians in the field to continue to improve VistA.  Unfortunately, there is nothing set aside for this in the President’s proposed fiscal year 2009 budget.  I think that is a mistake.

There are benefits to centralization of IT, but centralization has hurt the way VA personnel use new technology to take care of our veterans.  VA must do all it can to preserve and promote the unique talents of its health care providers to innovate and keep VistA and VA at the forefront of medical care.

Our veterans have fought for our freedom, and the least we can do is provide adequate resources to ensure they receive the highest quality of care when they become veterans.