House VA committee to subpoena Oracle executives over $27 billion EHR contract cost overruns

The House Veterans Affairs Committee voted unanimously to subpoena Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and CEO Mike Sicilia after the company refused to testify at an oversight hearing. Lawmakers are demanding accountability for a massive $16.9 billion contract ceiling increase that raised the project's total cost to $27 billion. Despite the soaring expenses, only 17 of 170 VA medical centers have deployed the electronic health record system since 2018, leading to intense bipartisan frustration.

Claims

• ▪The motion to subpoena Oracle executives Larry Ellison and Mike Sicilia was presented by Representative Maxine Dexter, a Democrat from Oregon, during a committee hearing.
• ▪The Department of Veterans Affairs' contract extension with Oracle includes three one-year expansion options and is structured as a time and materials contract where each task will be negotiated up to the $17 billion maximum.
• ▪Representative Morgan Luttrell questioned the $17 billion contract increase by noting that Oracle Health CEO Mike Sicilia testified in June 2022 that Oracle was prepared to bear any cost overruns, while Oracle reported a record net profit of $17 billion for fiscal year 2026.
• ▪Representative Mark Takano sent a letter to Oracle on August 28, 2026, stating that its refusal to appear was unacceptable, to which Oracle responded on August 31, 2026, reiterating its refusal.
• ▪The House Veterans Affairs Committee voted unanimously to subpoena Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison and CEO Mike Sicilia to compel their testimony regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs' electronic health record modernization project.
• ▪Oracle withdrew from the House Veterans Affairs Committee oversight hearing scheduled for September 2, 2026, after initially accepting an invitation to testify.
• ▪The Government Accountability Office and lawmakers stated that the Department of Veterans Affairs has still not provided a complete, documented lifecycle cost estimate or a full integrated master schedule for the electronic health record rollout.
• ▪The Department of Veterans Affairs aims to implement the Oracle electronic health record system at 13 sites in 2026 and at all agency sites by 2031.
• ▪The Government Accountability Office reported that the Department of Veterans Affairs has fully implemented only four of the 18 recommendations issued by the watchdog since 2020.
• ▪The Department of Veterans Affairs increased its electronic health record contract ceiling with Oracle by $16.9 billion in August 2026, raising the total contract ceiling from $10 billion to approximately $27 billion.
• ▪Department of Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence testified that the total lifecycle cost of the electronic health records management rollout and sustainment is estimated at $48 billion.
• ▪The Department of Veterans Affairs paused the electronic health record project in 2023 to address performance issues, outages, and negative feedback before resuming and deploying the system at 11 hospitals in 2026.
• ▪Oracle Executive Vice President Seema Verma declined to attend the congressional hearing, citing scheduling conflicts, while the company later cited "time constraints and the two panel structure" for its withdrawal.
• ▪Since the electronic health record modernization contract was signed with Cerner in 2018, only 17 out of 170 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers have deployed the new system.

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