Addressing Longstanding Challenges with the VA Offices of Congressional and Legislative Affairs (VA-OCLA)
BY ANNE MEEKER
The Problem
VA-OCLA has suffered a dramatic staffing decline, now operating with only two full-time employees assigned to handle approximately 70,000 annual inquiries. By mid-June 2025, over 900 Congressional inquiries awaited entry into VA-OCLA’s Salesforce system for managing casework. While most Congressional offices work directly with local VHA and VBA facilities, VA-OCLA serves as a critical resource for urgent or complex cases and offices facing challenges with regional facilities. This lack of responsiveness undermines Congress' constitutional responsibilities — especially its ability to utilize casework as a tool for oversight into how the VA implements laws. Congress should act to signal that casework is a priority and work with the VA to ensure adequate support.
Background: VA OCLA Staffing, Budget, and Management
The Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs manages the VA's legislative agenda, information requests, hearing witnesses, and Congressional casework inquiries, receiving its own budget line item. Over five years, VA-OCLA has consistently grown in budget and staff, but new hires have been assigned to non-casework functions. The 2026 budget contains the largest-ever VA-OCLA request, citing "increased workloads" and a need to "improve relationships with associations and elected officials," but doesn't specify how staff will be allocated between casework and other functions.
| Fiscal Year | Amount Requested | Amount Enacted | FTE Headcount |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | $13,500,000 | - | 63 requested |
| FY2025 | $9,980,000 | $9,900,000 | 43 enacted |
| FY2024 | $9,980,000 | $9,980,000 | 46 enacted, 51 requested |
| FY2023 | $9,500,000 | $9,550,000 | 44 enacted, 51 requested |
| FY2022 | $7,480,000 | $7,480,000 | 40 enacted, 42 requested |
| FY2021 | $8,966,000 | $7,000,000 | 46 enacted, 55 requested |
A recent report from the American Federation of Government Employees local 17, covering VA OCLA, also raises disturbing allegations of mismanagement within VA-OCLA, including:
Religious discrimination
Blocking legitimate comp time, overtime, and in-grade step increase requests, and
Privacy Act violations.
Policy Options
Congress has a wide range of investigative and oversight tools at its disposal to address these issues, some of which may also happen parallel or in sequence. For example:
Joint letter to SecVA raising this casework responsiveness and VA-OCLA understaffing/management challenges as a problem and requesting attention to the matter. This letter could also be an opportunity to gather information directly from the VA, on the office’s open number of inquiries, number of cases per employee, average number of days for a case to be entered into Salesforce, and average number of days for a case to be resolved.
Joint letter to VA OIG raising casework responsiveness and VA-OCLA management challenges for investigation. This letter could underline the role VA-OCLA plays in triaging urgent/exceptional cases, and/or request that VA-OCLA functions and caseloads be included in VA-OIG’s Major Management Challenges reporting to Congress.
Liaise with Senate counterparts to ensure that challenges with OCLA casework responsiveness are addressed in the pending nomination hearing for the VA’s new Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs, Donald Bergin III.
Request a meeting with SecVA to address casework responsiveness issues.
Work with the House and/or Senate VA Committees to convene an oversight hearing focused on VA OCLA and VA casework responsiveness. This hearing could not only call witnesses from VA OCLA and VACO, but could also convene experts and liaisons from other agencies to discuss best practices and take steps toward establishing minimum standards for responsiveness to Congress.
Liaise with the House or Senate Appropriations Committees to insert a request for additional FTEs or language expressing the sense of Congress that additional FTEs should be prioritized to address casework responsiveness into the FY2026 budget bills.
Commission a GAO or VA OIG report or quarterly briefing into challenges with VA OCLA. POPVOX Foundation has previously made a similar request in the annual appropriations process, but it was not included in FY2026. This request may have additional weight coming from a Committee/Subcommittee chair and/or ranking Member.
