WASHINGTON — Demanding explanations for a $1 billion cost overrun, a House panel has issued a subpoena to the Department of Veterans Affairs for documents on how the cost of a Denver-area VA hospital ballooned to almost $1.7 billion. That figure was nearly triple earlier estimates.
The subpoena by the House Veterans Affairs Committee also seeks documents related to millions of dollars spent on artwork and ornamental furnishings at VA offices nationwide, including more than $6.4 million spent on the Palo Alto, California, health care system.
The chairman of the veterans panel, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said it was “unfortunate that VA’s continued lack of transparency has led us to this decision” to issue the subpoena, but contended that lawmakers had little choice.
“We will not accept VA trying to pull the wool over the eyes of this committee and the American people for poor decision-making and waste of funds,” Miller said.
The subpoena was served Wednesday and gives the VA until Sept. 28 to respond.
The subpoena is at least the fourth the House panel has issued since 2014 amid continuing frustration over the VA’s performance following the wait-time scandal that led to the ouster of the VA secretary and a $16 billion overhaul approved by Congress.
Veterans on secret waiting lists faced scheduling delays of up to a year, and as many as 40 veterans died while awaiting care at the Phoenix hospital, according to an investigation by the VA’s inspector general.
Miller and other Republicans say the VA has been slow to fix problems and should have fired some employees for wrongdoing.
The GOP-led panel approved Wednesday’s subpoena by voice vote. Democrats objected, saying they worried that documents related to the Aurora, Colorado, hospital could jeopardize agency whistleblowers who have helped officials learn the true scope of the cost overruns at the facility, considered one of the biggest boondoggles in the agency’s history.
