Blumenthal & Committee Minority Back Up House Subpoenas, Demand Answers from Larry Ellison on Ballooning Costs of Oracle's VA Electronic Health Record Contract

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Senate Veterans’ 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’s contract with Oracle was recently modified, increasing the no-bid contract’s cost ceiling from $10 billion to approximately $27 billion. The Senators’ 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’ Affairs to subpoena the two Oracle officials. “We 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…Oracle has a responsibility to deliver a functioning EHRM to veterans, yet there have been years of delays and ballooning costs under your leadership,” wrote the Senators in a letter to Ellison and Sicilia. “Even more concerning, Oracle officials failed to attend a recent House Veterans’ 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’s 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.” The Senators backed up the House Committee’s subpoenas to Ellison and Sicilia: “ Given 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.” Blumenthal’s 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). The 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: All documents relevant to the increase in cost of the EHRM contract ceiling; A 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; Oracle’s internal lifecycle cost projections for completing the EHRM deployment through 2031; and An accounting for broken promises from Sicilia at a Senate hearing in 2022, where he pledged to deliver “an EHR system that exceeds expectations without exceeding the contracted cost.” In 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: “Given 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.” The full text of the Committee member’s letter is available HERE and copied below. Dear Mr. Ellison and Mr. Sicilia: We 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’ 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’s 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. Given 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’s 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. All documents and analyses supporting the recent increase in the ceiling of Oracle’s EHRM contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs from $10 billion to approximately $27 billion, including a full itemization of the “unanticipated complexities” cited as the basis for the increase. An explanation, in light of Mr. Sicilia’s 2022 testimony to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee that Oracle was “committed to delivering the VA an EHR system that exceeds expectations without exceeding the contracted cost” and would “fix issues at [Oracle’s] expense,” of what has changed to result in the current cost increase, and a reconciliation of that commitment with the current contract terms. Oracle’s own lifecycle cost projections for completing EHRM deployment and sustainment through 2031, including how these compare to the Department’s approximately $48 billion estimate and the Institute for Defense Analyses’ 2022 estimate of $49.8 billion. A description of Oracle’s role in, and timeline for, addressing the 14 outstanding GAO recommendations related to EHRM that remain not fully implemented, as identified at the hearing. Documentation of the cybersecurity performance measures Oracle has implemented or plans to implement for the EHR system, in light of GAO’s finding that the program currently lacks adequate cyber performance measures. A 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. Any 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. Veterans and taxpayers have invested significant resources in this program, and Oracle’s cooperation is necessary to ensure effective congressional oversight. We look forward to your timely response. -30-