{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://budzinski.house.gov/posts/27-billion-and-counting-budzinski-demands-answers-from-va-admin-on-exploding-oracle-costs", "$27 Billion and Counting: Budzinski Demands Answers from VA Admin on Exploding Oracle Costs", "2026-09-02", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "House", "IL", "Nikki Budzinski", "B001315", "budzinski.house.gov", "budzinski", "https://budzinski.house.gov/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC\u2014 Today, Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) pressed U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence during a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on the VA\u2019s plans to give Oracle an additional $17 billion for the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program. Budzinski, who has been overseeing the VA\u2019s EHRM program as Ranking Member of the Technology Modernization Subcommittee, questioned the growing cost of the Department\u2019s contract with Oracle \u2014 and what it means for veterans, taxpayers, and working families. Budzinski voted with her colleagues to subpoena Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, to come before the committee and speak to these concerns.\n\nThe VA\u2019s contract ceiling with Oracle has grown by $17.6 billion on top of the original $10 billion agreement signed in 2018 \u2014 bringing the total to over $27 billion. This does not account for the additional $439 million paid to Accenture or ongoing sustainment and infrastructure costs shouldered separately by the VA.\n\n\u201cThis is a program that was promised to Congress in 2022 as on-time and on-budget. That didn\u2019t happen,\u201d said Budzinski. \u201cIt makes no sense that this Administration wants to provide billions more for Oracle, without any clear success, while cutting billions from SNAP and Medicaid. Taxpayers should not have to shoulder billions more for one of the richest companies in the world, while they are struggling to make ends meet in this economy. We have to get this program under control and that\u2019s why I voted to subpoena Larry Ellison to come before the committee and answer these basic questions.\u201d\n\nBudzinski noted that Oracle reported record fiscal year 2026 revenue of $67.4 billion, up 17 percent, even as the company has cited \u201cunanticipated complexities\u201d to justify repeated cost increases on the VA contract.\n\nWATCH: $27 Billion and Counting: Budzinski Demands Answers from VA Admin on Exploding Oracle Costs\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-04T09:19:37Z", "2026-09-04T09:20:58Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://budzinski.house.gov/posts/27-billion-and-counting-budzinski-demands-answers-from-va-admin-on-exploding-oracle-costs"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4638323336839676, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}