Description:
S. 887 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to participate in the Warstopper Program of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Through that program, the agency contracts with manufacturers to quickly obtain critical medical supplies such as ventilators, surgical masks, and other items. The bill also would prohibit VA from solely relying on regional physical inventories of critical items in order to respond to public health emergencies. VA can contract through DLA under current law and has taken steps to do so. Thus, satisfying that requirement would not affect the federal budget. Finally, the bill would require VA to report to the Congress about the availability of and need for critical supplies during the current coronavirus pandemic and in future emergencies. VA would further be required to report to the Congress for three years on its participation in the Warstopper Program. Based on the cost of similar reports, CBO estimates that satisfying those reporting requirements would cost less than $500,000. Such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds. On June 10, 2021, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 2082, the VA Supply Chain Resiliency Act, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on May 4, 2021. The two bills are similar, and CBO’s estimates of the cost of implementing them are the same.
