In the wake of two more data losses at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations brought in officials from the Government Accountability Office, the Inspector General’s Office at the VA, and the VA itself.

Subcommittee Chairman Harry Mitchell said in his opening statement that “just recently, we have learned of two data breaches: In Texas, 3, 265 veteran’s records were compromised when information went missing from a facility conducting lab tests. In a second instance in Texas, a VA contracted company had a laptop stolen compromising the records of 644 veterans. These recent data breaches are proof that the VA still has a long ways to go in ensuring our nation’s veterans that their most sensitive information is being safely stored and handled.”

The first panel included Greg Wilshusen, Director of Information Security Issues at the GAO, accompanied by Valerie Melvin, Director of Information Management and Human Capital Issues, at the GAO; and Belinda Finn, Assistant Inspector General for Audits and Evaluations in the Office of Inspector General at VA, accompanied by Michael Bowman, Director of Information Technology and Security Audits in the Office of Inspector General at VA.

The second panel was anchored by Roger Baker, Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer at the VA, accompanied by Jaren Doherty, Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Protection and Risk Management in the Office of Information and Technology at VA; Jan Frye, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Logistics in the Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction at VA; and Frederick Downs, Chief Procurement and Clinical Logistics Officer at the Veterans Health Administration at the VA.

You can watch the entire hearing here:

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