The VA used supplemental COVID funding from three different bills to support expanded telehealth services and remote operations during the worst of the pandemic.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) received approximately $36.70 billion in supplemental funding outside of its annual appropriation from three COVID-19 relief laws between 2020 and 2021: the CARES Act; the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA); and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). As of August 23, 2022, VA had obligated approximately 99 percent of its funds from the CARES Act and FFCRA and 56.9 percent of funds from ARPA. The VA obligated the majority of the supplemental COVID relief funding that it received to three major operational areas, including veterans’ health care, digital operations and IT services. Funding digital operations and underlying IT services was critical during the pandemic, as VA saw a sharp increase in the number of remote veterans that it served in just the first half of 2020—from 59,000 unique daily users in February 2020 to more than 127,000 in June 2020. Given the increased reliance on telehealth services and remote operations during the COVID-19 outbreak, these funds, in part, helped to “support distance learning and to convert paper files to digital so employees could continue processing disability benefits for veterans,” as well as enhanced IT-related efforts that included “providing laptops and cell phones to support expanded telework and telehealth.”