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Senate Democrats Press VA on 2026 EHR Rollout as Agency Cites Improvements

The lawmakers seek a January briefing on patient-safety fixes before the first post-pause deployments in Michigan.

The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs Medical Center is shown in Portland, Oregon, Tuesday, March 31, 2015.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., speaks during a news conference following a weekly Democratic policy luncheon on Capitol Hill on October 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. The government remains shut down after Congress failed to reach a funding on October 1. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Overview

  • Senators Patty Murray, Richard Blumenthal, and Elissa Slotkin sent a Dec. 19 letter urging the VA to address persistent problems in its Electronic Health Record Modernization program.
  • The VA plans to restart deployments in 2026 at 13 facilities, beginning with four Michigan sites in April, with full implementation targeted for early 2031.
  • The senators highlighted watchdog findings, including a 2024 VA OIG report tying a scheduling error to a 2022 veteran death and a GAO survey showing widespread safety and efficiency concerns with a large backlog of configuration changes.
  • VA officials disputed the characterization of ongoing risks, pointing to a 96.68% incident-free rate over the past 18 months and reporting that staff satisfaction has doubled since 2024.
  • Recent oversight raised additional questions as GAO said 12 priority recommendations remain open and House investigators flagged cost, staffing, and the plan to launch four Michigan sites simultaneously.