On Tuesday, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.), released a fourth letter he sent to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) failure to comply with the Committee’s September subpoena of documents related to Executive Order (EO) 14019 and its Related Interagency Agreement with the Michigan Department of State. To date the Biden-Harris administration has not provided the Committee with any of the requested documents and information despite the September 27, 2024, deadline.
“For VA’s entire existence it has never operated as a voter registration agency until this executive order – which means Congress has a right to know what is going on,” said Chairman Bost. “But under the Biden-Harris administration, fully complying with congressional subpoenas and oversight is viewed as optional. Further, to my knowledge, VA is only working with the Michigan Secretary of State to register veterans to vote in one specific part of the state. With just 20 days until the election, it doesn’t take a political scientist to understand why my committee would have some questions about this arrangement. I have been asking for the full story on this issue for months and have acted in good faith to try and get some answers. It’s time for the department to step up and do their part. If VA continues to not comply, we will be forced to consider taking further action such as holding the Secretary in contempt of Congress.”
Full text of the letter Chairman Bost sent can be found here and below:
Dear Secretary McDonough:
I am writing to you regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) failure to comply with the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs’ (the Committee’s) recent subpoena. Over a month has passed since the Committee issued a subpoena requiring VA to produce documents related to VA’s Executive Order (EO) 14019 implementation and VA’s related interagency agreement with the Michigan Department of State (MDOS). The deadline for VA to produce this information was September 27, 2024. Disappointingly, VA has yet to deliver a single document.
VA’s complete disregard of its obligation to respond to the Committee’s subpoena is unacceptable, but not surprising. The Committee has sought information related to VA’s EO 14019 implementation and partnership with MDOS since June 2024. Over the next two months, the Committee reiterated its requests to VA in three different letters. Unfortunately, instead of full transparency with the Committee as VA recently claimed, VA only produced eight pages of documents directly related to the Committee’s inquiry. VA could not even provide answers to Committee staff’s questions during a briefing provided to Committee staff on EO 14019.
This lack of transparency led the Committee to take the rare step of issuing a subpoena, however, not even this has led VA to be more transparent. Instead, VA continues to give excuses for not providing the Committee with the requested information. The information the Committee seeks from the subpoena is not a surprise to VA. Much of the information sought is information the Committee requested in June 2024. VA has had at least four months to produce this information. Further, many requests outlined in the subpoena involve documents VA should have readily available. Despite this, VA has failed to provide the Committee with a single document.
The Committee has broad legislative and oversight jurisdiction over the administration of VA and its operations per House Rule X.1(s). VA’s failure to respond to the Committee’s subpoena undermines the Committee’s investigation into VA’s implementation of EO 14019 and its partnership with MDOS. VA’s consistent failure to cooperate with the Committee’s investigation is extremely concerning. I expect that, moving forward, VA will begin to provide documents to the Committee as it is obliged to do.
Sincerely,
MIKE BOST
Chairman
