Senators on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs pressed Department of Veterans Affairs officials on implementation steps for major department decisions and on the status of contracts and rulemaking that they said threaten veteran services.

The concern came during a hearing on a package of bills affecting veterans, when Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal raised recent reporting that the VA planned to cancel contracts, including research work with universities, and said oversight questions had gone unanswered. “The VA has no more foundational and essential purpose than stopping veterans suicide,” Blumenthal said, adding that the committee had received no information on the cancelled contracts and that he had placed holds on nominations as a result.

The issue matters because senators said contract cancellations, delays to clinical trials and a departmental hiring-cut goal could prevent the VA from implementing statutes and running programs Congress has already passed. “Laws are dead letter if there are no rules and regulation,” Blumenthal said, warning that proposed workforce reductions could leave previously enacted laws without personnel to enforce them.

Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Health Thomas O'Toole told the committee he had seen news coverage of contract concerns and said he would take the specific questions for the record rather than speak for the entire department. "I would have to take it for the record," O'Toole said when asked for details on the status of contracts and analyses. He also declined to confirm whether he had been consulted about the department's reported plan to reduce staff, saying some analyses were “pre-decisional” and that other senior clinicians were participating in related work.

Senators also pressed the VA about a 90-day pause on new clinical trials and asked whether paused or canceled trials and their research participants had been tracked and notified. O'Toole said he did not have that information available in the hearing and would provide details for the record. Senator Patty Murray asked specifically for lists of trials that were canceled or delayed; O'Toole said VA would provide the information as quickly as possible.

Senators from New Hampshire and other states pressed for clarity on a presidential executive order directing the VA to study establishing a full-service medical center in New Hampshire. O'Toole said he could not provide specifics at the hearing and would supply planning details for the record.

The committee requested prompt answers and follow-up. Chairman Jerry Moran closed the panel by asking that witnesses respond to follow-up questions for the record and reminded them that the hearing record would remain open for five legislative days.

The hearing did not produce any committee votes; members repeatedly asked the VA to provide documents and named information for oversight purposes.