The White House is requesting $4.24 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2027 funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program, as the department plans to deploy the system to 26 additional sites that year.
The funding request, included in the administration’s FY2027 budget proposal, marks an increase of $840 million, or 24.7%, from the 2026 enacted level.
The proposal maintains congressional guardrails on the program, according to the budget appendix. It reminds the VA that Congress is withholding 30% of the appropriated EHRM funds until July 1, 2026, contingent on the VA meeting a series of requirements.
VA’s EHRM program – which has faced scrutiny from lawmakers over cost estimates and deployment readiness – is scheduled to resume deployments this month.
The program has spent nearly three years in “reset” mode after pausing deployments in April 2023 alongside contractor Oracle Health – formerly Oracle Cerner – to address user concerns.
So far, the VA has deployed the new EHR system to six medical centers. The department plans to deploy the Federal EHR to 13 sites in fiscal year 2026, beginning this month with four Michigan facilities. Later in 2026, it plans to deploy the system to nine additional medical facilities with sites located in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Alaska.
“VA’s EHRM program is underway after being paused for longer than it should have been,” the VA said in a newly released budget document.
“This year, VA is actively working on the deployment of the EHRM at 13 more VA Medical Centers in addition to the six that are already using it. That progress will be followed by an updated deployment schedule across all VA facilities by the end of 2031: 26 additional sites in 2027; 28 in 2028; 32 in 2029; 32 in 2030; and 33 in 2033,” the VA said.
In a separate budget document from the VA, the department said pre-deployment planning will start this year for the additional 26 sites expected to go live in FY 2027, “utilizing operating funding from 2026.”
The department has not yet released a detailed, site-by-site deployment schedule for the FY 2027 deployments.
Congress has given the VA until June 1, 2026, to provide that schedule, along with staffing projections, certification that currently deployed sites have met baseline performance metrics, and confirmation of four consecutive incident-free deployments.