I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1659 

To direct the Chief Acquisition Officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs 

to enter into a contract for the independent verification and validation 

of certain modernization efforts of the Department, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 17, 2023 

Mr. TAKANO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 

A BILL 

To direct the Chief Acquisition Officer of the Department 

of Veterans Affairs to enter into a contract for the 

independent verification and validation of certain modernization efforts of the Department, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Department of Vet5 erans Affairs IT Modernization Improvement Act of 

6 2023’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF 

2 CERTAIN MODERNIZATION EFFORTS OF DE3 PARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. 

4 (a) CONTRACTING AUTHORITY.—Not later than 90 

5 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Chief 

6 Acquisition Officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs 

7 established pursuant to section 1702 of title 41, United 

8 States Code, shall enter into a contract with an eligible 

9 entity under subsection (b) to carry out the oversight func10 tions described in subsection (c). 

11 (b) ELIGIBILITY.—An entity is eligible under this 

12 subsection if the Chief Acquisition Officer of the Depart13 ment determines that, with respect to the solicitation by 

14 the Department for a contract under subsection (a), the 

15 entity— 

16 (1) is currently performing or has performed, 

17 during the three-year period preceding the date of 

18 the issuance of such solicitation, not fewer than 

19 three prime contracts for the independent 

20 verification and validation, or equivalent technical 

21 and program oversight support, of major defense ac22 quisition programs or priority defense business sys23 tems, in accordance with guidance of the Depart24 ment of Defense relating to such acquisition pro25 grams or such business systems; and 


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1 (2) is not currently performing and has not per2 formed, for at least the five-year period preceding 

3 the date of the issuance of such solicitation, any con4 tract or subcontract for the Department of Veterans 

5 Affairs (including such a contract or subcontract re6 lating to a covered program). 

7 (c) FUNCTIONS.—The oversight functions described 

8 in this subsection are the following: 

9 (1) Conducting an initial assessment of each 

10 covered program and submitting to the Secretary a 

11 report containing the findings of such assessment. 

12 (2) On an annual basis, conducting an overall 

13 assessment of each covered program and submitting 

14 to the Secretary a report containing the findings of 

15 each such assessment. 

16 (3) Conducting continuous oversight of the ac17 tivities carried out under, and the systems associated 

18 with, each covered program, including oversight of 

19 the status, compliance, performance, and implemen20 tation of recommendations with respect to, for each 

21 covered program, the following: 

22 (A) Management, including governance, 

23 costs, and implementation milestones and 

24 timelines. 


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1 (B) Contracts for implementation, includ2 ing financial metrics and performance bench3 marks for contractors. 

4 (C) Effect on the functions, business oper5 ations, or clinical organizational structure of 

6 the health care system of the Department. 

7 (D) Supply chain risk management, con8 trols, and compliance. 

9 (E) Data management. 

10 (F) With respect to associated systems, the 

11 following: 

12 (i) Technical architectural design, de13 velopment, and stability of the systems. 

14 (ii) System interoperability and inte15 gration with related information technology 

16 systems. 

17 (iii) System testing. 

18 (iv) Functional system training pro19 vided to users. 

20 (v) System adoption and use. 

21 (d) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 30 

22 days after the date on which the Secretary receives any 

23 annual report under subsection (c)(2), the Secretary shall 

24 submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the 

25 House of Representatives and the Senate such report. 


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1 (e) AWARDED AMOUNTS.—Not later than 90 days 

2 after the date on which the Chief Acquisition Officer of 

3 the Department enters into the contract under subsection 

4 (a), the Chief Financial Officer of the Department, in co5 ordination with the heads of such office of the Department 

6 responsible for the management of a covered program, 

7 shall ensure that amounts awarded to an eligible entity 

8 under such contract are derived, in proportionate 

9 amounts, from amounts otherwise authorized to be appro10 priated for each such office of the Department, respec11 tively. 

12 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

13 (1) The term ‘‘covered program’’ means the fol14 lowing: 

15 (A) The Electronic Health Record Mod16 ernization Program (or any successor program). 

17 (B) The Financial Management and Busi18 ness Transformation Program (or any successor 

19 program). 

20 (C) Any program of the Department relat21 ing to supply chain modernization. 

22 (D) Any program of the Department relat23 ing to the modernization of information tech24 nology systems associated with human re25 sources. 


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1 (E) Any program of the Department relat2 ing to the Veterans Benefits Management Sys3 tem. 

4 (2) The term ‘‘priority defense business sys5 tem’’ has the meaning given such term in section 

6 2222(i)(5) of title 10, United States Code. 

7 (3) The term ‘‘major defense acquisition pro8 gram’’ has the meaning given such term in section 

9 4201 of title 10, United States Code. 

Æ 


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