What happened: On Tuesday, the trio of lawmakers demanded the transparency of the veterans department, saying that the Trump administration continues “stone” requests for details on the recent cancellation of the agency of hundreds of contracts for services.
The group that included Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Angus King, as well as representative Mark Takano, said that, despite repeated requests, the agency has revealed incomplete and inaccurate lists that failed to determine which contracts had been canceled. Blumental and Takana are Democrats, and King is independent. They made their comments on a special forum in Washington.
A review of the democratic members of the Senate Committee on veterans identified 655 contracts, withdrawn by VA, where previous lists opened by the agency included dozens less and contained significant mistakes.
Quoted by legislators A recent PROPUBLICA investigation In the use of an unsuccessful artificial intelligence agency to evaluate VA contracts. This analysis was conducted by a government officer’s employee without health care and government experience. VA uses contractors for a number of services, including to support hospitals, research and other services aimed at taking care of sick veterans.
What did they say: Lists of contracts previously disclosed by the Committee, “GobledyGook” and filled with mistakes, said lawmakers. “This hearing should not even be necessary,” said King, who is sitting in the VA supervision committee. “The simplest is to send us a list.”
Senators emphasized the damage caused by the abolition of contracts, including the one that decided to fail between VA systems that prevent veterans from receiving benefits. Without this contract, Benjamin Ambrose said, whose task was to solve these mistakes, no one remains to do this work. “In this case, the veterans close forever,” he said.
Scott of Amy, the general lawyer of a two -party government project, said: “There are many dominoes that go with the abolition of only one contract.”
Amy expressed doubts that the necessary work was done to ensure the canceled contracts duplicate or waste. “From the stone snack we heard from VA, you can’t have the confidence that this work was done,” he said.
Legislators also questioned the use of II for evaluating contracts for possible cancellation, citing Investigation PROPUBLICA. Blumenthal said he promised, but he “should be thoughtfully used.”
Prerequisites: Propublica reported on Friday that VA used AI tool, prone to errors to identify contracts for possible cancellation. The tool, written by former Doge Sahil Lavingi, used outdated AI models for “desire” contracts based on conflicting instructions and created vivid errors, showed the analysis of propublica.
Experts in the field of II and public procurement have agreed that the analysis of DOGE was not redefined, and one called it “deeply problematic”. Lavingia acknowledged that there were problems. “I am sure that mistakes have been made. Errors are always made. I never recommend anyone -do not run my code and do what is written. It’s like an” office “episode where Steve Karel goes to the lake because Google Maps says that go to the lake.”
PROPUBLICA has identified at least two dozen contracts in the Dogel list that has been canceled so far. Among them is an agreement on the maintenance of the sequence of genes used to develop an improvement in cancer treatment. Another one at the Colombian University to analyze blood samples to support the VA research project. Others were still related to the solution of the outdated problems, including for the development of social media tools for a medical staff and more to help evaluate and improve the assistance they provide.
Democrats in Congress are looking for additional information in the canceled contracts to try to evaluate whether the veterans are threatened.
Answer: VA press -secretary Pete Kasrovich defended his work on contracts, saying that Vetting establishes a “precedent of common sense”. He and Laving stated that VA staff examined everything on the “Munchable” list before deciding which contracts would cut.
A statement on Tuesday said Kasrovich said the agency’s contracts were a careful process aimed at the veterans and effectively use taxpayers’ money. “Decisions on maintaining, reducing or Descope contracts are based on careful and methodical multilevel VA reviews, including career experts responsible for contracts, as well as high-ranking VA leaders and contract officials,” he said.
He challenged any proposals of the legislators that the contract review could reduce the necessary services. “The termination or non -lengthening of these contracts will not adversely affect veterans, payments and services,” he said. “In fact, these decisions will allow VA to redirect billions of dollars back to health, payments and services for the VA beneficiaries.”
Why is it important: More than 9 million veterans in the US are counting on health care through a network of 170 hospitals and 1,200 clinics. One of the largest healthcare providers in the country is a training ground for doctors and nurses and a medical engine. Since the return to the post in January, the Trump administration has launched a massive overhaul of the agency, seeking an increase in the overall budget, announcing the layoffs that may require jobs about 80,000 employees.
VA studies all its approximately 76,000 contracts within this overhaul and in accordance with the press of Trump administration to technology. PROPBLICA analysis has identified more than 2000 contracts indicated by AI for termination. It is unclear how much more on this list is on the way to the cancellation. The decisions of the Trump administration under VA contracts were largely a black box.
