This article by Linda F. Hersey originally appeared on Stripes.com. Stars and Stripes serves the U.S. military community by providing editorially independent news and information around the world.

WASHINGTON — Mega-projects to modernize technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs continually stumble and fail, when the agency should take an iterative approach for updating computer systems one piece at a time, House lawmakers told VA officials Thursday.

While the electronic health records system update and several other major projects sound good in theory, they have been over budget by billions of dollars and fail to function properly, Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said during a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee subpanel hearing that identified mistakes delaying the VA’s technology updates.

“The larger the project gets, the harder it is to manage and the less likely it is to ever deliver useful capability,” said Rosendale, chairman of the committee’s subpanel on modernization. “As we close out this session of Congress, I want to emphasize lessons learned. We need to build a nimbler VA that is more responsive to the VA’s needs.”

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At the two-hour hearing, technology specialists and a representative from the Government Accountability Office discussed repeated missteps the VA has made and emphasized the importance of adapting new strategies in modernizing technology systems.

Describing large technology upgrades as “black holes that suck money,” Rosendale warned the projects often span decades but render products that are obsolete by the time they are delivered.

Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, the top Democrat on the subpanel, said many of the VA’s computer systems are operating beyond their service life and create challenges for VA staff to do their jobs.

“We need to ensure that VA employees have the best tools to do their jobs,” she said.

Management of the VA’s technology modernization efforts continue to pose high risks, said Carol Harris, director of the information technology and cybersecurity team at the GAO.

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The federal watchdog’s recommended approach to the VA is to break complex technology projects into smaller, more manageable pieces, Harris said.

“You are delivering system functionality within weeks and months instead of years,” she said.

The GAO has made 20 recommendations from recent reviews to improve technology acquisitions and management, though none has been implemented, Harris said.

They cover health care and financial management systems, among other areas, she said, and the VA’s “monolithic approach” to projects requires developing requirements at the start of a project.

“But then when you deploy five to seven years out, you realize it is not going to meet your mission needs. You are set up to fail,” Harris said.

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Lynn Overmann, director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University, told lawmakers that the only large technology project she can think of that was rolled out on time as planned was the Defense Department’s cloud migration project.

But she said the development also used an iterative approach — first testing the system with 11,000 users before scaling it to 3.2 million people.

Reynold Schweickhardt, a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, said there needs to be a continual process for updating computer systems and not a one-time effort.

When organizations undertake a single, large technology project, the staff sees it as their only opportunity to make improvements and they add on even more requests.

“Everything depends on the success or failure of that single large project,” Schweickhardt said.

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Kurt DelBene, the VA assistant secretary for information and technology, testified on a second panel later in the hearing. He said the VA recognizes its recent mistakes in trying to execute large technology projects.

DelBene said the agency is changing strategies to approach projects in pieces, introduce changes and test them with users.

“We are resetting to get it right,” he said.

But DelBene also warned the VA’s technology budget in 2025 is down from last year in areas that include technology development, modernization and infrastructure readiness.

The VA’s fiscal 2025 budget request for the Office of Information and Technology is $6.2 billion, which includes $4.5 billion for operations and maintenance and $1.7 billion for staffing and administrative support. Modernization efforts are down more than 60% from 2024, he said.

DelBene said the Office of Information and Technology is focused on maintaining services and improving execution in 2025.

“It’s a very challenging budget,” he said, adding decisions are being made about which projects to invest in for 2025.