Additionally, the department has still not decided what to do about the main contract vehicle its centers use to order supplies. It decided back in 2020 to switch to the Defense Logistics Agency’s Medical-Surgical Prime Vendor (MSPV) contract from its own MSPV vehicle, MSPV 2.0. Medline, one of the prime vendor awardees under the VA's MSPV 2.0 Program, sued the department and won in 2021 when the court prohibited the VA from moving its requirements to the DLA contract, reported Reuters.

The congressmen and women ask that the VA start a new selection process for picking a medical logistics system that is more efficient than the DMLSS and to consult Congress before deciding which to adopt. “We would also like to reiterate the committees’ requests made in 2018, 2019, and 2020 that VA present us with the available supply chain modernization alternatives, each indicating cost, schedule, dependencies and any other considerations before beginning to implement another system. This is the information we need to discharge our responsibility as authorizing committees to authorize major acquisitions.”


The VA declined to answer specific questions from Federal News Network about the current state of its supply chain management program and did not specify if the department has chosen to cancel DMLSS. It did say that it has received the letter and “will respond appropriately.”

In a testimony presented to the House Veterans Affairs Committee on VA IT infrastructure issues, Kurt DelBene, the assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs for information technology did not mention the DMLSS but did say that chief acquisition officer Mike Parrish is continuing to conduct an enterprisewide assessment to create a broader supply chain management strategy for the department.

The Coalition for Government Procurement also wrote to Parrish in January, urging the department to start a new selection process for the MSPV 2.0 procurement. It said doing so will allow the VA to use five-year blanket purchase agreements it already has with 121 suppliers made for 70,000 medical products at fair and reasonable pricing.

The VA has run into similar issues with the implementation of its new EHR system, a $16 billion project being built by Cerner for the last three years. The agency underestimated the cost of infrastructure upgrades by as much as $2.6 billion due to not understanding the actual needs of its facilities. It is now working with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to improve planning and coordination.

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