The Department of Veterans Affairs can't account for at least $187 million in supplementary COVID-19 funding spread across more than 10,000 transactions related to the pandemic, according to a House oversight committee.
Congress and the VA are at odds over the department's handling of nearly $37 billion in additional funding it received to address the COVID-19 pandemic, with House Veterans Affairs Committee leaders on both sides of the aisle critical of its failure to account for every dime.
Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., and ranking member Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., praised the department for its pandemic response overall but called the VA out for its inability to account for the money, during a hearing sidetracked by GOP rancor over the department's messaging on debt ceiling legislation.
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“We need to make sure that the money is being spent wisely. You can say it's a paperwork error. You can say whatever. But that's why we have oversight,” Bost said. “No offense to sailors, but the last three years during COVID, we've spent money like drunken sailors, and the oversight has not occurred. It is going to occur.”
Between 2020 and 2021, the VA received roughly $37 billion to address COVID-19 response, including an initial $60 million, followed by $19.6 billion in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and another $17 billion in the American…
