This hearing is the first Oversight and Investigations Hearing in the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee for the 117th Congresss
Today, Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs (HVAC) led the Subcommittee's first hearing of the 117th Congress. This is the second hearing Chairman Pappas has led since joining HVAC examining supply chain issues within the VA that undermine the Department's response to COVID-19.
At the hearing entitled "The Pandemic and VA's Medical Supply Chain: Evaluating the Year-Long Response and Modernization," Pappas asked VA about its actions to address supply chain problems since the last Congressional hearing on supply chain issues. Throughout the pandemic, these supply chain issues have resulted in shortages of PPE at VA hospital. Pappas also encouraged VA to develop a comprehensive strategy to guide its key modernization efforts.
The hearing witnesses include VA Inspector General, Michael Missal, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Acting Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Support, Deborah Kramer, VHA Executive Director of Procurement and Logistics Office, Andrew Centineo, VA Deputy Executive Director for Acquisitions, Logistics, and Construction, Phillip Christy, and Government Accountability Office Director of Contracting and National Security Acquisitions, Shelby Oakley.
You can watch Chairman Pappas's full opening statement by clicking here.
Last week, Congressman Pappas joined with his Republican colleagues in introducing H.R. 2082, the VA Supply Chain Resiliency Act to help fix these issues to help address these inefficiencies. Their legislation would include the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in the Warstopper program, a proven best practice which has helped the Department of Defense (DoD) respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Original source can be found here.
