but if the v.a.'s leaders keep repeating the failed ways of the past, they will burn through billions of dollars of taxpayer money, only to be left with dysfunctional systems that do nothing to improve services for veterans. today, the ranking member and i laid out the subcommittee's position based on all of the evidence we gathered in the past two years for how the v.a. should be approaching the i.t. modernization. v.a. should not be doing i.t. megaprojects. they just don't work. and they always turn into black holes sucking billions of dollars of the taxpayer's money into the contractor's pocket. put together, fbmt, and the digital g.i. bill are conservatively going to cost the v.a. at least $27 billion more than what they were initially planned. no organization, and that includes the federal government, should be allowed to operate that way. this is just not our opinion. our expert witnesses the pitfalls of buying or developing software without a clear understanding of the organization and its requi

we spent many hours in the subcommittee discussing v.a.'s three magic -- megaprojects that are racking up schedule delays. electronic health record modernization has spent nearly $10 billion already and would cost more than 37 billion dollars to implement according to the institute for defense analysis. the true cost across the v.a. is higher than that as it does not include the enormous and additional staffing requirements where the loss in productivity. v.a. and oracle are on the cusp of resuming the rollout but there is no end in sight. after six years, financial management business transformation has only installed a momentum system in a few small corners of the v.a. and its cost estimate has more than doubled to 5.8 billion dollars according to the ida. finally, the digital g.i. bill has missed its original 2024 completion date and its final price tag will likely double as well. not only have these systems gone past schedules and budgets, they are also struggling to live up to the users expectations. however, there are signs that the v.

s and addiction that would allow us to get an indication. build critical evidence on the efficacy of these things. we are working in early-stage with the v.a. who have been absolute pioneers on many problems related to behavioral health given the overlap between veterans and substance use disorders. i also think there is a broader opportunity not just to study these things for critical efficacy, but to think about their application in settings like child welfare, homeless housing. many other settings where we think about the negative consequences of addiction as washing ashore in profound ways. but beyond innovating on treatment efficacy, if you believe we will have to innovate on engagement strategies to improve medication adherence. i will give you guys one example of something we are working on outside of child welfare that has lots of implications and applications to the child welfare setting. here we are thinking about involuntary hospitalizations. just as a bit of background, every state in the country has a law on the books that allow people to be committed to voluntary hospitalization when they are at risk or a danger to themselves