Letters

Today, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), released the following letter he sent to Department of Justice (DOJ) Attorney General Pam Bondi urging DOJ to review the pattern of troubling actions taken by former Biden administration Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials: Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, Under Secretary for Benefits Joshua Jacobs, Under Secretary for Health Dr. Sheeref Elnahal, and any other officials involved in the formulation, justification, and communication of VA’s supplemental appropriations funding requests for fiscal year 2024 that misled Congress on VA’s fake budget shortfall. The new letter was first reported by the Washington Examiner.

In March, the VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report entitled, “Review of VA’s $2.9 Billion Supplemental Funds Request for FY 2024 to Support Veterans’ Benefits Payments,” which confirmed Chairman Bost and House Republicans concerns that senior Biden-Harris administration VA officials knew that VA was not ever in danger of adequately providing veterans with the benefits they have earned last year and Congress did not need to appropriate $3 billion in additional emergency taxpayer funds to VA for benefits to account for the fake shortfall.

As Chairman Bost previously stated following VA OIG’s report, “The Biden administration’s budget accounting mess last year spread fear among veterans and their families that their benefits were in jeopardy. Unfortunately, the VA Inspector General confirmed what we always feared, that it appears that senior Biden VA officials repeatedly misled Congress on the reality of the situation. This is incredibly concerning given that President Biden urged Congress to provide billions of additional taxpayer dollars to account for something that never even existed,” said Chairman Bost. “My Committee will continue to review all information associated with this budget mess to get answers for veterans and taxpayers. I will not shy away from compulsory action to ensure that those who may have misled Congress are held accountable for their actions including reviewing possible perjury by VA officials for lying to Congress,” Chairman Bost continued. “Luckily for veterans and their families, there is a new sheriff in town at the agency and I have full confidence in Secretary Collins to manage VA’s budget properly and get to the bottom of this to ensure that nothing like this happens again.”

Last Congress, Chairman Bost sent multiple letters to then-VA Secretary Denis McDonough on this topic to get answers for veterans and their families who feared their benefits were in jeopardy. The Committee also held multiple hearings on this issue. Repeatedly, Biden-Harris administration VA officials doubled down in testimony before the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees that VA needed the additional funds to successfully deliver benefits. In November 2024, it was revealed that no Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) $3 billion shortfall existed, and Congress did not need to appropriate additional funds – despite already doing so in response to pleas from the previous administration – to deliver benefits to veterans.

Full text of the letter Chairman Bost sent can be found here and below:

Dear Attorney General Bondi:

As part of the committee's oversight responsibilities, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs continuously conducts oversight of the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) management of taxpayer resources and its obligation to deliver timely and effective care and benefits to our nation's veterans. In line with this oversight, I respectfully request that you review a pattern of troubling actions taken by the following former Biden administration VA officials: Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, Under Secretary for Benefits Joshua Jacobs, Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal, and any other officials involved in the formulation, justification, and communication of VA's supplemental appropriations funding requests for fiscal year (FY) 2024.

According to two recent reports released by the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG), the Biden administration's $12 billion supplemental appropriations request for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and its $2.9 billion supplemental appropriations request for the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) were marred by financial mismanagement, internal communication failures, and potentially misleading representations to both Congress and the public. These OIG reports raise significant concerns about whether VA leadership under the Biden administration knowingly withheld material budget information, submitted inflated funding requests, provided false testimony to Congress, or otherwise acted to obstruct congressional oversight. Most concerningly, Congress appropriated almost $9 billion in additional funds for VBA and VHA because of these misrepresentations.

The OIG found that VHA's $12 billion request was based on flawed budget modeling and inaccurate staffing and care projections. Throughout 2023and early 2024, VHA's Chief Financial Officer and various program offices raised internal warnings about higher-than­ expected costs, especially in staffing, community care, pharmacy, and prosthetics.3 Further, internal mitigation efforts initiated during a January 2024 "financial sequester" failed to achieve their goals. Despite this, VHA did not inform Congress of the alleged shortfall until July 2024 and moved forward with a $12 billion supplemental appropriations request in August 2024.4 In November 2024, VHA acknowledged the actual shortfall was most likely closer to $6.6 billion, suggesting the original request had been significantly overstated.

The facts surrounding VBA's $2.9 billion supplemental request are equally concerning.
On July 19, 2024, Secretary McDonough informed Congress that without immediate supplemental funding, over seven million veterans and beneficiaries risked not receiving their earned benefits. The repeated refrain from VA officials being: "If we are one dollar short, we can't pay any veteran [their benefits]". At face value, this request appeared to Congress to most likely be justified, in part due to a recent expanded eligibility for benefits to millions of veterans suffering from toxic exposure as authorized by the PACT Act [P.L. 117-168}, as well as the Rudisill v. McDonough Supreme Court ruling which changed how qualifying periods of service impact beneficiaries benefits allowing veterans to receive benefits from multiple eligible service periods without forfeiting any.

However, OIG investigators later found that VBA failed to include over $1.2 billion in prior-year recoveries in its internal budget status reports-funds that could have offset most, if not all, of the alleged shortfall. Although VBA leadership knew by late September that additional funds were unnecessary, they did not notify Congress until October 28, 2024, after Congress appropriated additional funds to VBA to account for the alleged shortfall. This delayed disclosure and the omission of available resources in key budget documents call into question the accuracy and integrity of VBA's budget justification process.

My committee takes seriously its responsibility to oversee how VA manages the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars entrusted to its care. The suggestion that senior VA officials submitted materially inaccurate funding requests, failed to disclose critical budget information in testimony before Congress and letters written by the former VA Secretary, and delays in informing Congress of revised funding needs, in my opinion, warrant immediate and independent review by your office. These failures undermined the appropriations process, misled lawmakers, and-most importantly put the benefits and services America's veterans rely on at risk.

I respectfully request that the Department of Justice review whether Secretary McDonough, Under Secretary Jacobs, Under Secretary Dr. Elnahal, or any other VA officials engaged in conduct that violated federal law, including the submission of false statements to Congress, obstruction of oversight, fraud, or misappropriation of federal funds. If any criminal or civil violations occurred, those responsible must be held accountable.

My committee remains committed to ensuring transparency for the taxpayers we serve, while doing our part to restore integrity to VA's budget processes, and safeguarding veterans' access to the care and benefits they have earned.

Please have your staff contact mine if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

MIKE BOST
Chairman

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