VA Budget Shortfall Accountability Act
Requires the VA and Congress's auditor to report on the causes of VA budget shortfalls.
What this law changes
From a secondary sourceRequires the VA and Congress's auditor to report on the causes of VA budget shortfalls.
This account is written from the official description of the bill. We have saved the law's official text and have not finished checking the account against it.
Transparency Score
The Transparency Score is the share of this law’s dollars that goes to what the law says it is for.
Transparency Score
Share of the text within the stated purpose:Not checked yetThe text of this law provides and authorizes no dollar amount. The score is the share of its text within the stated intent. That share is "Not checked yet": no reading of this law is approved by a person yet.
How this is counted
- Transparency Score: dollars in sections a person approved as within the stated intent, divided by total dollars in the law. Shown as a percentage. Higher means more of the money goes to what the law says it is for.
- Beside it, the same two numbers the other way round: total dollars divided by dollars within the stated intent. 1.00 means every dollar is within the stated intent. When no dollar is within the stated intent this ratio cannot be computed, and the answer says so.
- Total dollars: appropriated dollars plus authorized dollars, read from the law's text by the rules below. Dollars in a section whose reading is unclear or was not read count in the total and are shown apart as unclear.
- A law whose text provides and authorizes no dollar amount reads "No money in this law". Its score is the share of its words that are in sections within the stated intent.
- The score reads "Not checked yet" until a person approves the law's reading of which sections are within the stated intent. The dollar totals need no reading and are shown before that.
- The dollar totals read "Not checked yet" when more than 10 percent of the dollars read could not be sorted by the rules.
- Every dollar amount in our saved text of the law is read: "$1,234,567", "$5 billion", "$2.5 million". Margin notes, page marks and the table of contents are left out. Each amount is kept with the words printed around it.
- Appropriated: the sentence says "there is appropriated", "is hereby appropriated" or "out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated"; or the amount is the one an appropriations paragraph ("For ..., $X") provides under an account heading of an appropriations act.
- Authorized: the sentence says "authorized to be appropriated". An authorization lets a later law provide the money. It provides none itself.
- A list under such a sentence ("there is appropriated the following: (1) ...; (2) ..."): an amount that begins an item is counted the same way as the sentence says, unless the sentence gives a total first. Then the items are parts of that total.
- "$X for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030" is counted as X times the number of years named (here 5). The yearly figure, the years and the product are all kept. "For each fiscal year" with no years named is counted once, and the answer says so.
- Open-ended: "such sums as may be necessary" names no amount. It is counted as an item and adds no dollars.
- Rescinded: "is hereby rescinded", "permanently cancelled", or an item of a list headed "the following funds are hereby rescinded". Shown apart. Not subtracted from the total.
- Not spending, and left out of the total: an amount after "not to exceed", "not more than", "up to", "less than", "in excess of" and like words; a fine or penalty; a limit the law raises ("the limitation is increased by $X"); a figure the law strikes from another law; and a figure inside words it writes into another law ("striking $X and inserting $Y"), unless the same sentence says the figure is authorized or appropriated.
- Counted once: an amount after "of which", after "Provided, That", or after "of the amounts made available" is a part of a total already counted. Where a paragraph ends "in all, $X", that total is counted and the amounts before it are its parts.
- An amount the rules cannot sort is "not classified". It is listed with its words and left out of the total. Nothing is guessed.
- Total dollars: appropriated dollars plus authorized dollars. The two are also shown apart.
What the law says it is for
Confirmed from the official recordThese are the law’s own words, and the words of Congress’s records, about what the law is for.
Official title
“To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Comptroller General of the United States to report on certain funding shortfalls in the Department of Veterans Affairs.”
The words under "An Act", Public Law 119-71, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint f94d784674ab5f06
Short title
“VA Budget Shortfall Accountability Act”
The sentence that names the Act, Public Law 119-71, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint f94d784674ab5f06
Congress's summary · Congressional Research Service
“VA Budget Shortfall Accountability Act This act requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review and report on the circumstances and causes of the shortfall in funding of the Veterans Benefits Administration for FY2024 and the expected shortfall in funding of the Veterans Health Administration in FY2025. The Department of Veterans Affairs must submit such GAO report to Congress. For each of the five fiscal years following the date of enactment of this act, GAO must conduct subsequent reviews and reports regarding the funding of the VA.”
Summary of the version: Public Law, Congressional Research Service summary: Public Law · Saved October 6, 2026 · Fingerprint 5460822f4387f7cb
Committee report, purpose · House committee
“H.R. 1823, the ``VA Budget Shortfall Accountability Act,'' was introduced by Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigan on March 4, 2025. The bill, as amended, would require the Comptroller General to conduct a review of the circumstances surrounding the expected shortfall for Fiscal Year 2024 and require an annual review thereafter of the funding situation at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Specifically, it would require the Comptroller General to perform an audit of various accounting systems and procedures at VA that led to inaccurate financial projections and false claims of a funding shortfall in fiscal year (FY) 2024 and 2025. This bill, as amended, would ensure that such budgeting mistakes do not happen again and would prevent the overall mismanagement of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.”
"PURPOSE AND SUMMARY", House Report 119-101: VA BUDGET SHORTFALL ACCOUNTABILITY ACT · Saved October 6, 2026 · Fingerprint 8aa9c63eda25bfa1
The law has no findings or purpose section.
Dollars in this law
Confirmed from the official recordThe text of this law provides and authorizes no dollar amount.
Source: Public Law 119-71, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint f94d784674ab5f06
Other measures
Each measure has its own status. None is added into the score.
- Dollars in sections added along the way
- No money in this law
- Member-requested dollars as a share of appropriated dollars
- $0Confirmed from the official record
House Report 119-101: VA BUDGET SHORTFALL ACCOUNTABILITY ACT says the bill carries none. The sentence is quoted.
- Open-ended amounts (“such sums as may be necessary”)
- 0 passagesConfirmed from the official record
- Other bills whose text this law contains
- 0 billsConfirmed from the official record
- How the House passed it
- Voice vote, May 19, 2025Confirmed from the official record
- How the Senate passed it
- Unanimous consent, December 18, 2025Confirmed from the official record
- Committee report saved
- 1 reportConfirmed from the official record
- Hearing saved
- None in the official recordConfirmed from the official record
The bill's official record names no hearing.
A voice vote or unanimous consent leaves no record of how each member voted.
How these are counted
- Added along the way, sections: sections of the final law marked "added later", divided by the sections compared.
- Added along the way, words: words in those sections, divided by the words in the sections compared.
- Each text is read as a list of words. A run is 5 words in a row. For each section of the final law we count the share of its runs that appear anywhere in the first published text of the bill. 90 percent or more: in the first text. From 20 to 90 percent: changed. Under 20 percent: added later. A section with fewer than 20 words is not compared.
- Sections outside the stated intent: sections a person approved as outside the stated intent, divided by the sections read. The same count is given in words.
- Member-requested spending: the number of items in the lists Congress printed for the law, and the sum of their dollar amounts.
- A part that is not checked yet is shown as "Not checked yet". It is never counted as zero. No single blended number is given.
Added along the way
Confirmed from the official record0 of the 1 section compared are added after the first published text of the bill. 1 is changed. None is in the first text. 1 heading or short section is too short to compare.
A section counts as added later when under 20 percent of its wording appears in the first published text.
The first published text (Introduced in House, March 4, 2025): H.R. 1823, Introduced in House · Saved October 7, 2026 · Fingerprint 6ff27534aa2e22f2
Published texts of this bill, in order: Introduced in House (March 4, 2025), Reported in House (May 17, 2025), Engrossed in House (May 19, 2025), Referred in Senate (May 20, 2025), Enrolled Bill.
Sections added later
No section compared is added later.
Amendments adopted
The record lists no adopted amendment to this bill.
Other bills whose text this law contains
The Congressional Research Service marks no other bill as one whose text this law contains.
Member-requested spending
Confirmed from the official recordA committee report on this bill says the bill, as the committee reported it, carries no spending item requested by a member.
“H.R. 1823, as amended, does not contain any Congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined in clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives.”
House Report 119-101: VA BUDGET SHORTFALL ACCOUNTABILITY ACT · Saved October 6, 2026 · Fingerprint 8aa9c63eda25bfa1
Sections outside the stated intent
Not checked yetA person reviews each reading before it appears here.
On the record
On the record: Not started.
What it touches
Kind of law: Requires a report or data. Budget effect: No direct effect on agency budgets.
Government
- Budgets and expenditures
- Audits and corrective action
The economy
- Federal spending
Daily life
- Veterans and military families
Agencies it funds or directs
Dollar amounts:Not checked yetHow it passed
The House passed it by voice vote on May 19, 2025. A voice vote records no individual votes.
The Senate passed it without objection on December 18, 2025. No individual votes are recorded.
How each member votes
Both chambers passed this law without a recorded vote, so no individual votes exist. The House: passed by voice vote (no individual votes recorded). The Senate: passed without objection (no individual votes recorded).
Lobbying reports that name this bill
Confirmed from the official record2 saved lobbying reports name H.R. 1823. The amount is what the report gives for the whole quarter: everything the registrant did for that client, all issues together. A linked name opens that organization’s page on this site.
| Registrant | Client | Amount for the whole quarter | Quarter | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA | PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA | $112,137.00reported as expenses | April to June 2026 | Open the report |
| DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS | DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS | $149,180.00reported as expenses | April to June 2026 | Open the report |
See the lobbying page for H.R. 1823
Senate Office of Public Records cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from LDA.gov.
Lobbying Disclosure Act reports, LDA.gov. This copy was read October 7, 2026 at 5:59 PM Eastern.
Where this comes from
The links below open the official files for this law. A code beside a file is its fingerprint, a short code that changes if the file's contents change.