Congress orders review of VA budget shortfalls for five years
H.R. 1823 — VA Budget Shortfall Accountability Act · Filed by Jack Bergman (R-MI) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Mar 4, 2025 · Signed
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill tells the Government Accountability Office to study why the VA ran out of money. This covers fiscal 2024 and 2025. The GAO will look at how the VA spent money and moved money between accounts. The GAO will also check how well the VA guessed future costs. The VA Secretary must report what the GAO finds to Congress within 30 days. The GAO will do the same review every year for five years.
Who it affects
Veterans and taxpayers are affected. The bill makes the VA explain why it keeps running short on money. This can hurt veteran services.
One thing to notice
The bill does not give the VA any new money. It only requires reports and reviews.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Mar 4, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 4, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs”
- Mar 25, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- May 17, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 74”
- May 19, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H2129)”
- May 19, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Bost moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
- Dec 18, 2025 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8895)”
- Jan 12, 2026 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
- Jan 20, 2026 — Signed into law · Congress.gov: “Became Public Law No: 119-71”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 2 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $310,451 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 170 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Jack Bergman, who sponsored the bill, received $856,675 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Disabled American Veterans — $310,451 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Government Accountability Office — An agency that checks how the government spends money and reports to Congress.
- fiscal 2024 and 2025 — The government's budget years 2024 and 2025.
- VA Secretary — The leader of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,495 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 21, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-02.
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