VA cyber, telehealth programs to be adversely impacted by budget cap, says secretary

Republican lawmakers' plans to limit the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs budget at fiscal 2022 levels have been noted by Secretary Denis McDonough to be detrimental to the agency's cybersecurity and telehealth programs, reports FedScoop. Such proposed budget cuts would result in a $465 million shortfall in infrastructure and technology spending, as well as a $345 million deficit for the department's Office of Information Technology, said McDonough during a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the VA's budget. "The EHRM is our 3rd biggest outlay in our office in our Office of Infrastructure and Technology, so the cut would be indiscriminate across that account. Remember that the other and biggest request in that account is for cybersecurity which when we're increasingly reliant on for telehealth so I'd be really worried about the effect on cybersecurity too," noted McDonough, who also emphasized the significant effect of the budget cuts on telehealth network reliability.