Congress has been informed that the White House’s next emergency supplemental request to fight the coronavirus outbreak is expected to involve asking for roughly $16.6 billion in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, two people familiar with the request said.
One of those individuals said the department based its request on an assumption that around one in five current VA patients will need additional care due to coronavirus, and that the request could also involve an ask related to information technology needs.
While these discussions are preliminary and focus on topline figures, a Hill source familiar with the request told CNN that the funds would be used to cover unexpected costs of coronavirus related veteran care, including testing and additional supplies, not civilians or the broader public.
But even early on, there appears to be some confusion about what exactly the additional funding would be used for, though the details will likely be ironed out as the process moves forward.
A Democratic aide on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee said the administration had not yet offered guidance on what the coming request will look like, but said aides were working off the assumption that “it will be used to test and treat first responders and civilians at VA medical centers if/when community hospitals are over capacity.”
The Senate committee source noted the agency could “be called upon to provide care to non-veterans if community health care resources are strained.”
“VA covers 51 of the 65 National Coordinating Centers for Federal response efforts, meaning that VA might have a large role in deciding where patients go, if community capacity is saturated,” they said. “At this time, VA has received no requests from HHS to surge capabilities into civilian healthcare systems or to care for non-Veteran patients in VA facilities.”
In terms of supplies and contracting, the department has their own supply chain separate from the Department of Health and Human Services and others, the committee source said, adding that the executive in charge of the Veterans Health Administration reported the VA was ordering an additional 150,000 masks and reported no issues with filling orders in a timely manner.
The VA referred all questions related to supplemental funding to the White House. The White House Office of Management and Budget, which is working on the supplemental request, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The White House emergency supplemental request is expected to include additional amounts for the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security, in addition to the VA.
It would be the second request for emergency funding from the White House. The administration’s first request for emergency aid, went much further than the White House had asked for and ultimately passed both the House and the Senate as an $8.3 billion bipartisan supplemental funding measure which President Donald Trump signed.
An Office of Management and Budget official declined to comment on the specifics of the VA request but said “We’re evaluating a number of agency submissions and will have an overall package soon.”
