H.R. 5418 would require the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to use multiple vendors in procuring medical supplies and ensure that the employees responsible for selecting the supplies have medical expertise regarding those items. VA currently uses four vendors to purchase its medical supplies and employs clinicians on its integrated product teams to select those supplies. The bill also would require VA to submit quarterly reports to the Congress identifying the individual employees at VA who determine which items to purchase for VA’s formulary and describing their medical expertise. CBO believes that most of the requirements in the bill would codify VA’s existing practice. Therefore, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost less than $500,000 over the 2019-2023 period to prepare the necessary reports for the Congress. That spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Enacting H.R. 5418 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 5418 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029.
H.R. 5418 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
