{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-and-committee-minority-back-up-house-subpoenas-demand-answers-from-larry-ellison-on-ballooning-costs-of-oracles-va-electronic-health-record-contract", "Blumenthal & Committee Minority Back Up House Subpoenas, Demand Answers from Larry Ellison on Ballooning Costs of Oracle's VA Electronic Health Record Contract", "2026-09-25", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CT", "Richard Blumenthal", "B001277", "www.blumenthal.senate.gov", "blumenthal", "https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press", "scraper", "[WASHINGTON, D.C.] \u2013 Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Minority Committee members are demanding immediate answers and comprehensive documentation from Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and CEO Mike Sicilia on the ballooning cost of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program. VA\u2019s contract with Oracle was recently modified, increasing the no-bid contract\u2019s cost ceiling from $10 billion to approximately $27 billion. The Senators\u2019 letter follows the failure of Ellison and Sicilia to testify before a Congressional oversight hearing on the EHRM program, a refusal that triggered a unanimous vote in the House Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs to subpoena the two Oracle officials.\n\n\u201cWe write today to demand immediate answers following news the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program will now cost $27 billion\u2026Oracle has a responsibility to deliver a functioning EHRM to veterans, yet there have been years of delays and ballooning costs under your leadership,\u201d wrote the Senators in a letter to Ellison and Sicilia. \u201cEven more concerning, Oracle officials failed to attend a recent House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee oversight hearing on September 2, 2026, to answer questions on the timeline and cost of the EHRM. You have a responsibility to America\u2019s veterans and taxpayers to explain what is happening with this project and its increasing costs. Your failure to appear in Congress is a failure to uphold your commitment to veterans and we need immediate answers on this project.\u201d\n\nThe Senators backed up the House Committee\u2019s subpoenas to Ellison and Sicilia: \u201cGiven your absence from the oversight hearing, the House Committee subsequently voted 19-0 to subpoena you to explain the status of the project and excessive costs. We support this subpoena and expect you to comply with it.\u201d\n\nBlumenthal\u2019s letter was joined by fellow Committee members U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Angus King (I-ME), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).\n\nThe Committee members requested immediate information from Ellison and Scillia regarding the long-term cost and status of the project, underscoring the failure of Oracle to be transparent about the project. This includes requesting the following:\n\nAll documents relevant to the increase in cost of the EHRM contract ceiling;\n\nA record of all communications between Oracle and VA regarding the contract ceiling increase prior to public disclosure and an explanation for why Congress was not notified of the increase before the press reporting;\n\nOracle\u2019s internal lifecycle cost projections for completing the EHRM deployment through 2031; and\n\nAn accounting for broken promises from Sicilia at a Senate hearing in 2022, where he pledged to deliver \u201can EHR system that exceeds expectations without exceeding the contracted cost.\u201d\n\nIn an additional letter to Republican leadership, the Committee members separately called on Chairman Jerry Moran (R-KS) to hold a full committee oversight hearing on the VA EHRM program, citing the significant cost overruns, repeated schedule delays, and patient safety concerns with the system: \u201cGiven the scale of federal investment in this program and, more importantly, the risks it poses to the health and safety of the veterans who rely on VA care, we believe the Committee has a responsibility to conduct rigorous oversight at this juncture. Veterans and the taxpayers who fund this program deserve a clear, public accounting of where EHRM stands today and what concrete steps the Department is taking to correct course. A full committee hearing would ensure the transparency and level of scrutiny this program warrants.\u201d\n\nThe full text of the Committee member\u2019s letter is available HERE and copied below.\n\nDear Mr. Ellison and Mr. Sicilia:\n\nWe write today to demand immediate answers following news the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program will now cost $27 billion. This reflects a recent modification to the VA-Oracle EHRM contract, which increased the cost ceiling from $10 billion to approximately $27 billion. Oracle has a responsibility to deliver a functioning EHRM to veterans, yet there have been years of delays and ballooning costs under your leadership. Even more concerning, Oracle officials failed to attend a recent House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee oversight hearing on September 2, 2026, to answer questions on the timeline and cost of the EHRM. You have a responsibility to America\u2019s veterans and taxpayers to explain what is happening with this project and its increasing costs. Your failure to appear in Congress is a failure to uphold your commitment to veterans and we need immediate answers on this project.\n\nGiven your absence from the oversight hearing, the House Committee subsequently voted 19-0 to subpoena you to explain the status of the project and excessive costs. We support this subpoena and expect you to comply with it. Given the Senate\u2019s own oversight responsibility for this program and the questions Oracle was unable to answer at that hearing, we request that Oracle provide the following documents and information no later than October 23, 2026.\n\nAll documents and analyses supporting the recent increase in the ceiling of Oracle\u2019s EHRM contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs from $10 billion to approximately $27 billion, including a full itemization of the \u201cunanticipated complexities\u201d cited as the basis for the increase.\n\nAn explanation, in light of Mr. Sicilia\u2019s 2022 testimony to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee that Oracle was \u201ccommitted to delivering the VA an EHR system that exceeds expectations without exceeding the contracted cost\u201d and would \u201cfix issues at [Oracle\u2019s] expense,\u201d of what has changed to result in the current cost increase, and a reconciliation of that commitment with the current contract terms.\n\nOracle\u2019s own lifecycle cost projections for completing EHRM deployment and sustainment through 2031, including how these compare to the Department\u2019s approximately $48 billion estimate and the Institute for Defense Analyses\u2019 2022 estimate of $49.8 billion.\n\nA description of Oracle\u2019s role in, and timeline for, addressing the 14 outstanding GAO recommendations related to EHRM that remain not fully implemented, as identified at the hearing.\n\nDocumentation of the cybersecurity performance measures Oracle has implemented or plans to implement for the EHR system, in light of GAO\u2019s finding that the program currently lacks adequate cyber performance measures.\n\nA record of all communications between Oracle and the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding the contract ceiling increase prior to its public disclosure, and an explanation of why Congress was not notified directly by Oracle or VA before the increase became public through press reporting.\n\nAny internal or external assessments Oracle has conducted of system performance, outages, medication-ordering errors, or data migration issues at deployment sites, including the sites that went live on or after April 11, 2026.\n\nVeterans and taxpayers have invested significant resources in this program, and Oracle\u2019s cooperation is necessary to ensure effective congressional oversight. We look forward to your timely response.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-09-26T09:43:57Z", "2026-09-26T09:44:55Z"]], "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://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-and-committee-minority-back-up-house-subpoenas-demand-answers-from-larry-ellison-on-ballooning-costs-of-oracles-va-electronic-health-record-contract"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.3586819879710674, "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"}