The ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, has called for details from the IG’s office at Veterans Affairs on its efforts to improve oversight over major construction projects at the department.

“The VA has dropped the ball on its construction projects too many times, endangering the health and safety of the veterans who depend on these facilities and wasting money that should be going to improve care,” McCaskill said in a statement.

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She pointed reports by the IG and the GAO concluding that the department had weaknesses in how it managed major construction projects, “including the inability to appropriately monitor contracts and estimate costs.”

In response, the IG’s office is forming a new construction oversight division; McCaskill said that is “clearly needed” and suggested that the IG’s budget might need an increase to accomplish that work.