Hearing of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Veterans Affairs Committee - Opening Statement of Rep. Pappas, Hearing on Modernizing VA's Medical Supply Chain: Lessons Learned from the Pandemic

Hearing

Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01), Chair of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs held a hearing today examining supply chain issues within the VA that continue to undermine the Department's response to COVID-19.

At a hearing entitled "Modernizing VA's Medical Supply Chain: Lessons Learned from the Pandemic" Pappas sought to understand the lack of accountability and other shortcomings that continue to hinder the VA's ability to manage its supply chain more efficiently and effectively.

These supply chain issues have resulted in shortages of PPE at VA hospitals, forcing the Department to turn to the private sector for help.

"The ongoing pandemic dramatically exposed the weaknesses of the supply chain. First, VA struggled to get a handle on which hospitals were facing shortages. Because of an antiquated inventory system, VA established a new--but still manual--system for gathering and reporting daily supply levels from its hospitals. They used common spreadsheets, to track supplies with information phoned in by each hospital.

As a result, during the early weeks of the pandemic, VA scrambled to contract with inexperienced vendors, and when some were unable to fill orders, supply deliveries were delayed.

It is important to point out that VA hospital staff and leadership worked tirelessly to procure the needed supplies as the severity of the pandemic grew. We all should commend their dedication and creativity during an extraordinarily challenging time.

We also saw many other examples of dedicated people helping our veterans during the pandemic. I can report with pride that New Hampshire stepped up. Since the pandemic began, New Hampshire arranged 15 shipments of Personal Protective Equipment sourced from across the globe and through the close partnership of the public and private sectors. Ten of those shipments included PPE specifically for VA, including one with 4.5 million masks and another with 400 thousand gowns. These PPE deliveries -- reimbursed by the state to private partners with CARES Act funding - made a big difference to many of our veterans and is one of many examples where Americans went the extra mile to help stem the challenges of COVID-19.

However, our veterans deserve a permanent solution. The Department needs a modern and effective acquisition and inventory system."

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