WASHINGTON — Senior lawmakers on Thursday traveled from Capitol Hill to the Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters to hear firsthand why the agency is threatening to shut down some hospitals next month if Congress does not address a $2.5 billion shortfall.
The visit by the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate committees that oversee veterans care was the agency’s latest effort to increase pressure on Congress to fill a $3 billion hole in its budget before the August recess.
VA officials and congressional aides say privately they’re confident they’ll reach a resolution by the end of July that will avoid cutting services to veterans. But a short-term plan does not look like it will quell tensions between Capitol Hill and VA leaders over money and management of veterans care.
On Monday, VA officials sent their latest plan to Congress to shift $3 billion from the underused Choice Card program to cover shortfalls in the department’s Care in the Community program, which provides veterans with outside medical care. A year after a scandal over long wait times at VA clinics, veterans’ demand for health care is growing again, with wait times up 50 percent over last year, the agency says.
The demand for care has pulled $2.5 billion from other VA accounts, including money the agency must pay for clinical salaries, medical equipment and other operations, officials say.
“If these program funds are not restored, VA will face shutting down hospital operations during August 2015,” Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson warned in a letter to lawmakers. Furloughs and hiring freezes also are on the table, he has said.
The agency first requested a fix for the budget gap three weeks ago, but has not seen progress on Capitol Hill.
The VA has also been struggling to deal with massive construction costs at its new facility in Aurora. The VA revealed in March the total cost had ballooned to $1.73 billion, from $589 million in 2011.
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