“As lawmakers attempt to return to some semblance of “normal” business in the summer months, Congress is contemplating just how it’ll possibly plan out a budget for the next year with all the unknowns of the ongoing pandemic.”
“The challenge is no more difficult than at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where the rapidly changing nature of the pandemic has forced leadership to reevaluate its budget needs and re-prioritize previously existing projects…”
“As the department prepares for the possibility of significantly more cases in the fall, it’s also balancing the need to catch up on a few VA initiatives that were delayed or stalled during the pandemic.
Those projects will take some extra cash, VA said; it just needs the transfer authority to move funds from one priority to another.”
“We did not get all the money in the right places, Jon Rychalski, VA’s chief financial officer, said of the CARES Act supplemental funding. “We do have a real need to move some of that CARES money into the Veterans Benefits Administration, not a large amount, some into the National Cemetery Administration and some into IT as well. Those are three areas where we’re going to be short.”
“VBA, for example, is now facing a backlog…” Read the full article here.
Source: VA preparing for potential coronavirus ‘rebound’ in the fall – By Nicole Ogrysko, June 4, 2020. Federal News Network.
