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 pur-
poses. 
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 mod-
ernization efforts of the Department, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Department of Vet-
erans Affairs IT Modernization Improvement Act of 
2023’’. 
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SEC. 2. INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF 
CERTAIN MODERNIZATION EFFORTS OF DE-
PARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS. 
(a) CONTRACTING AUTHORITY.—Not later than 90 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Chief 
Acquisition Officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs 
established pursuant to section 1702 of title 41, United 
States Code, shall enter into a contract with an eligible 
entity under subsection (b) to carry out the oversight func-
tions described in subsection (c). 
(b) ELIGIBILITY.—An entity is eligible under this 
subsection if the Chief Acquisition Officer of the Depart-
ment determines that, with respect to the solicitation by 
the Department for a contract under subsection (a), the 
entity— 
(1) is currently performing or has performed, 
during the three-year period preceding the date of 
the issuance of such solicitation, not fewer than 
three 
prime 
contracts 
for 
the 
independent 
verification and validation, or equivalent technical 
and program oversight support, of major defense ac-
quisition programs or priority defense business sys-
tems, in accordance with guidance of the Depart-
ment of Defense relating to such acquisition pro-
grams or such business systems; and 
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(2) is not currently performing and has not per-
formed, for at least the five-year period preceding 
the date of the issuance of such solicitation, any con-
tract or subcontract for the Department of Veterans 
Affairs (including such a contract or subcontract re-
lating to a covered program). 
(c) FUNCTIONS.—The oversight functions described 
in this subsection are the following: 
(1) Conducting an initial assessment of each 
covered program and submitting to the Secretary a 
report containing the findings of such assessment. 
(2) On an annual basis, conducting an overall 
assessment of each covered program and submitting 
to the Secretary a report containing the findings of 
each such assessment. 
(3) Conducting continuous oversight of the ac-
tivities carried out under, and the systems associated 
with, each covered program, including oversight of 
the status, compliance, performance, and implemen-
tation of recommendations with respect to, for each 
covered program, the following: 
(A) Management, including governance, 
costs, and implementation milestones and 
timelines. 
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(B) Contracts for implementation, includ-
ing financial metrics and performance bench-
marks for contractors. 
(C) Effect on the functions, business oper-
ations, or clinical organizational structure of 
the health care system of the Department. 
(D) Supply chain risk management, con-
trols, and compliance. 
(E) Data management. 
(F) With respect to associated systems, the 
following: 
(i) Technical architectural design, de-
velopment, and stability of the systems. 
(ii) System interoperability and inte-
gration with related information technology 
systems. 
(iii) System testing. 
(iv) Functional system training pro-
vided to users. 
(v) System adoption and use. 
(d) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 30 
days after the date on which the Secretary receives any 
annual report under subsection (c)(2), the Secretary shall 
submit to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the 
House of Representatives and the Senate such report. 
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(e) AWARDED AMOUNTS.—Not later than 90 days 
after the date on which the Chief Acquisition Officer of 
the Department enters into the contract under subsection 
(a), the Chief Financial Officer of the Department, in co-
ordination with the heads of such office of the Department 
responsible for the management of a covered program, 
shall ensure that amounts awarded to an eligible entity 
under such contract are derived, in proportionate 
amounts, from amounts otherwise authorized to be appro-
priated for each such office of the Department, respec-
tively. 
(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) The term ‘‘covered program’’ means the fol-
lowing: 
(A) The Electronic Health Record Mod-
ernization Program (or any successor program). 
(B) The Financial Management and Busi-
ness Transformation Program (or any successor 
program). 
(C) Any program of the Department relat-
ing to supply chain modernization. 
(D) Any program of the Department relat-
ing to the modernization of information tech-
nology systems associated with human re-
sources. 
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(E) Any program of the Department relat-
ing to the Veterans Benefits Management Sys-
tem. 
(2) The term ‘‘priority defense business sys-
tem’’ has the meaning given such term in section 
2222(i)(5) of title 10, United States Code. 
(3) The term ‘‘major defense acquisition pro-
gram’’ has the meaning given such term in section 
4201 of title 10, United States Code. 
Æ 
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