Can go. We are going to leave this here for live coverage of the house hearing on president bidens request for the 2025 budget. Officials are testifying. Live coverage on cspan for you. As mentioned in this hearing before, i am starting to feel like i have walked into a brick wall. Congress always elicits testimony from the executive Branch Agencies and gives it great respect, even when we fiercely disagree. This exchange of views between the legislative branch and the executive branch is fundamental under the constitution. When the vas testimony is so late that we may not be able to read it in advance, that is disrespectful and it undermines this process. I urge witnesses with all the people in all the layers of the va and the white house bureaucracy who wrote the testimony to do better, not just for this committees sake but for the benefit of all the veterans who ultimately will be impacted by this. Good afternoon. Today we will examine the biden administrations budget requests for the da information and technology. I want to thank our witnesses from oit for joining us to help understand this request. It is by far the most unusual Va Information Technology budget that we have seen since the subcommittee was created. Factoring in all the funding sources, including the Toxic Exposure Fund, onetime dollars, transfers, reimbursement and carryover, it constitutes a 3. 3 cut to 7. 9 billion. I have no doubt there is waste in the va budget and there is at least 3 of unproductive bureaucracy and padded contracts that should be cut. If our administration seems to be proposing the cut, then incredibly lopsided damaging way. Development would take a 99 cut. I am all for reducing spending but even i dont make recommendation without a 99 cut, especially in development. I. T. Modernization which is one of the Top Priorities of the federal chief Information Officer would take an 81 cut. The infrastructure Readiness Program, which we have heard is vital on many occasions is being proposed a 66 cut. Technology for the Veterans Benefits administration, which has had Serious Problems as of last year, would get a 41 cut. Meanwhile, staffing and Administrative Expenses would increase by 5 and operations and maintenance takes about a 100 million or a 2 cut in the base budget request but then gets boosted i more than 1. 3 billion from the Toxic Exposure Fund. It is hard to make sense of what would increase and what would actually be cut. We may hear that the fiscal responsibility act, which was a top line budget agreement between the president and the former speaker, forced these cuts. That explanation does not stand scrutiny. That budget agreement and the current budget agreement specifically exempted veterans healthcare, which is about 80 of the vas discretionary spending. It is true that the administration decides to spend above the negotiated levels, they would need to make cuts in other levels of the va. That may be what we are seeing happen right now. Congress has always meant vas budget requests but i dont think any congress should ever appropriate more money than an agency asks for. Therefore, even though i do not have much confidence in this oit budget, i need to understand in detail how it would be implemented. We need to know whether the special salary rate is accomplishing its objective to recruit superior talent and we need to understand what kind of pressure it is putting on the payroll at oits overall budget. As we recently saw with the Critical Skills incentive payment to the bba and dha executives, this pay increase can get out of control. The original purpose can quickly be forgotten and it can be easy to hand out raises with other peoples money. I am very concerned that an unstable payroll can undermine recruitment and retention and drive away top talent. Strong management would be very important to navigate through the next few years. Once again, i want to welcome our witnesses to discuss these important issues. With that, i yield for Opening Statements. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you for holding this hearing to discuss the i. T. s budget request for fiscal year 2025. The deferment of veteran affairs is tasked with providing worldclass healthcare and benefits to our nations veterans. It is part of the path that we make with young people when they sign up to serve and defend our nation. However, given the rapidly increasing cost of community care, i am concerned that we are creating a situation where va will have to cannibalize other Service Lines and programs to pay the bills. Unfortunately, in this situation and throughout healthcare, this is one of the most frequent victims. I. T. Is the backbone of va. Everything they do happens on computers. It is critical that we ensure that this budget properly reflects a commitment to our veterans. During last months hearing on vas overall budget, we heard about the growth and other parts of va but it appears that the i. T. Budget is not keeping pace. If we are not ensuring that front line staff has appropriate tools to do their job, we are not doing right by our veterans. We have heard Horror Stories of them taking upwards of 10 minutes for an employee to log into their computer. 10 minutes in this digital era in 2024. That is totally ridiculous. It is a clear symptom of the longterm neglect of the i. T. Infrastructure. Despite these issues, it appears va is cutting the budget for the infrastructure Readiness Program by 65 . Crucially, the irp was intended to cause chronic neglect of its i. T. Infrastructure. Im afraid this budget request will only handicap the irts efforts. If we are not irritating these infrastructure, none of the other modernization efforts are likely to be make any meaningful difference. It is like buying a new sports car and driving it on a dirt road. Eventually, it will fall apart. While we are only half of the modernization, i notice there are near 50 cuts to va i. T. Monetization budget at a time when there are several major efforts underway. This budget comes slightly to cause major issues. I how the va can keep progress of this veterans Management System and digital g. I. Bill moving with this budget cut. I hope to hear from cio how this is going to work and perhaps, most importantly, i am concerned about the workforce budget. While there was a modest 5 increase, i am afraid it does not keep pace with the expanded authority to provide special salary rates for its people. I fear supporting those will force oit to decrease the number of people it has, expecting the i. T. Folks to do more work with less people. It is going to have a Lasting Impact on retention. The pay raises wont be enough to prevent people from resigning. On an opposite note, i will say i am happy to see that the va is increasing its investment in private security. Healthcare organizations are prime it is critical that bas massive trove of veteran stata, that it has been entrusted with, it is also critical that the va protect its ability to provide care and benefits to veterans. This became incredibly apparent in the aftermath of the healthcare cyber attack. Va is still dealing with the fallout of that incident as they attempt to identify what is in use by va. Now, it has been more than two months since the breach and we still dont know what, if any data that was exposed. I understand that change wants to be certain but i am concerned the risk to veterans and their families rose every day that they failed to disclose the impact. We cannot allow this to be decimated by the attack on its va partner. I expect better from the va contractors and hope that this gets justified soon. That said, i would like to think the witnesses for being here today and i look forward to hearing your testimony. Thank you braking member sheila cherfilusmccormick. I will now introduce the witnesses on our first and only panel. First on the department of Veterans Affairs, we have a sick and secretary for Information Technology. We also have the Principal Deputy chief Information Officer, mr. Duane beard. Finally, we have the oit chief financial officer, mr. Tim pitts and the chief people officer mr. Nathan tierney. I asked the witnesses to please stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear under penalty of perjury that the testimony about to provide is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . Thank you and let the record reflect that each of the witnesses have answered in the affirmative. You are now recognized for five minutes to deliver your Opening Statement on behalf of the va. Thank you. The first thing i would like to say is we apologize for the lateness of the testimony. I will assure you that it is not through a lack of respect for the committee and a great deal of work went on to create those but you have my apologies for the lack of timeliness. Chairman rosendale and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on Information Technology request from the department of Veterans Affairs and for your long standing support for veterans and their families. I am accompanied by dewaine beard , dr. Tim puetz and mr. Nathan tierney, the chief people officer. Va is committed to providing veterans secured digital experience through stateofthe art technology. Technology has become the very foundation of the vas ability to determine on its the fiscal year 25 budget provides for va i. T. Systems and communication support including 6. 2 billion in base discretionary funding. In addition, there is 1. 4 alien dollars and mandatory toxic funding to continue the monitoring of oit will make focused i. T. Investments and Cyber Security, the i. T. Workforce and modernization. The total fy25 budget is 49 million or down by 49 million below the fy24 enacted level. Discretionary funding is 169 million or 2. 6 below the fiscal year 2024 enacted level. 9. 7 above the fiscal year enacted . The fiscal year 25 staffing and Administration ReportServices Request of 1. 686 billion funds 8310 full time employees or fte. That is 160, or 2 ahead of the enacted level. The fy25 budget provides 671 million for cybersecurity and va to accelerate the zero trust acceleration efforts, 118 million or 21 increase in the base funding relative to fiscal year 24 level. Oit will bridge the enacted level in the budget request to ensure consistent report of the initiative. We are practical oit will accelerate investments based on the operating plan and scale back other investments in technology roadmap. This ensures we have an Investment Plan imbalances resources with key initiatives to support continuity of veteran healthcare and benefits to represent the consistent strategy over the years. To successfully execute on the budget, va will continue to manage its i. T. Budget with transparency. Oit is taking a critical look at all legacy projects, establish projects and newly proposed programs as well. We are evaluating the values of those projects bringing and determining if those funds can better be used elsewhere, especially in areas of i. T. Modernization, cybersecurity and i. T. Workforce which are vital in maintaining bas Digital Transformation efforts in pursuit of more efficient and Impactful Service delivery to our veterans. It is that funding from congress that is instrumental in furthering the i. T. Modernization efforts. Oit is exercising extreme discipline in allocating investments and ensuring a strong investment relative to toxic exposure when modernizing related i. T. Systems. We recognize the necessity of tradeoffs and remain committed to the strategic strategically scrutinizing where we deploy those investments. When veterans levers technology axis to be a services, they trust that the underlying Digital Ecosystem is safe, reliable, and secure. For this reason, oit has remained cybersecurity as a priority through 2025. This will help us to deliver a robust and resilient Security Posture to the 9 million veterans using va care and benefits and hundreds of thousands of va employees and contractors who access the Network Every day. Is va prioritizes the investment, we must also recruit, retain, and upscale current i. T. Workforce for over 8000 individuals. The va is working hard to monetize this with targeted strategy. These include hiring cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, continuously developing incentives and focused field staff expansion to support veteran health and benefits. I. T. Modernization is essential for achieving our goals at the 21st century and the va. Where va stands in the forefront of delivering better and seamless digital experience, the va will prioritize these funds in the most essential modernization initiatives that bolster the departments ability to serve veterans. The model of addressing i. T. Improvements incrementally, rather it be a large system replacement project will help us manage i. T. Spending, reduce polar ability to Cyber Threats and strategically scale i. T. Modernization. Chairman rosendale and members of the subcommittee, i want to thank you for allowing us to appear today. We become responsible stewards and committed to maximizing investments to the da enterprise. I look forward to continuing to work with you in this subcommittee to address the greatest priorities of Digital Transformation in fiscal year 25. That concludes my testimony and i look forward to answering your questions. Many the written statement will be entered into the record. We will now proceed to questioning and i will recognize myself for five minutes. When everything is factored in, the white houses budget for oit amounts to a 3. 3 cut, which i mentioned in my Opening Statement. Within that development it is being cut by 99 . Operation and maintenance is cut and imposed by the Toxic Exposure Fund. Staffing is increasing by about 5 . Do you see a budget request and what are the consequences of that going, as far as you said . The integration of healthcare and its reliance on oit . Thank you for the question. As you know, and Everybody Knows from their own experiences, the budgets are accounting for things that involve tradeoffs, investments here in modulation there. The financial responsibility act certainly creates an overall top level budget that we need to respect. We think there are difficult choices that have to be across the entire administration. I respect the challenges of making those cuts. How is that going to impact the delivery of healthcare and this integration of the information and the benefits that the veterans have earned . It will require rest it is a challenging budget for us. I will say that up front. It will require us to be very focused in where we invest. We have taken the initiatives that the Administration Overall wants to focus on and we agree with those initiatives. The areas like cybersecurity, we are full stream because that is critical in the complexity of our organization, particularly the growing threat actors, sophistication. At the same time, what we will have to do is take the modernization funds and judiciously allocate those against the highest priority projects that we have. My goal, and i think this is accomplished, we will not hamper veteran care to develop this but i will tell you, we will have to be very targeted in our investment. 40, 60, 99 cuts in the areas of i. T. That are going to be instrumental in making sure that we have smooth delivery of those services. I think you have more than a challenge. Again, it seems like we are shifting it over. We are letting the cuts fall heavily on the development subaccount. How was that decision made . Is that something that you make . Is that something that you make these recommendations . Thank you for the question. Moving over to hr, it is not a significant move. We will go into that later on. How was that decision made on this funding being stripped away . As you know, we submit a budget to the administration and there is a backandforth project. The initial submittal you made to the administration, did it reflect that reduction . It did not. By 99 . Did not. What was the initial reduction you recommended . I would have to take that for the record. Please do. I would like to know without original reduction if i may back let me move on. Who decided to spend nearly all the Toxic Exposure Fund dollars on operation and maintenance but zero on development . Was this another one of your decisions . No. I am glad you asked that. I want to clarify the distinction between development and maintenance is actually a little bit more sophisticated then the terms apply. We can do a lot of development under what would be called a maintenance budget because those are programs that that is great but i have sheets here that show i have to go by the spreadsheet, okay . Again, who decided that nearly all the Toxic Exposure Fund dollars on operation and maintenance but zero on development . That is what i was trying to explain. Because systems like this are established programs, we are enabled to do you might are you telling me that you are using funds for development that most people i thinking are going to be used for operation and maintenance . Not exactly. I am saying that what is defined as maintenance, others may think a best of element because it is an established program. I am going by the spreadsheet. Does the spreadsheet reflect the information that is not accurate and that you are moving funds into development that are supposed to go to operation and maintenance . It absolutely does not