Congress has issued subpoenas to two senior Oracle Health executives after the cost of a major Veterans Affairs technology contract nearly tripled in value.
The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee voted 19-0 to compel Oracle Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison and Co-CEO Mike Sicilia to testify before lawmakers.
The committee’s unanimous vote came after a hearing into the VA’s electronic health records modernisation project turned deeply contentious, drawing anger from both Republican and Democratic members.
The VA’s contract with Oracle Health has ballooned from its original $10 billion ceiling to more than $27 billion following a no-bid extension agreed in August.
That extension added $17 billion to the contract ceiling and introduced three one-year expansion options, all without a competitive bidding process.
The origins of the contract date to 2018, when the VA first signed an EHR modernisation deal with Cerner at a cost of $10 billion.
Oracle acquired Cerner in 2022 for $28.3 billion, inheriting the VA contract and all its obligations in the process.
Following the acquisition, the VA paused the rollout to renegotiate the deal, citing “unanticipated complexity” in the project, though the underlying contract price was not changed at that time.
The price increase is particularly striking because Sicilia told the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee in 2022 that Oracle would absorb any additional costs beyond the original ceiling.
“Oracle is committed to delivering the VA an EHR system that exceeds expectations without exceeding the contracted cost,” Sicilia’s statement said at the time.
“If there are issues with performance or workflow we commit to fixing those issues at our expense,” the statement continued, a pledge that now sits at the centre of the congressional dispute.
Oracle’s absence from the most recent hearing only inflamed tensions further, with Committee Chairman Mike Bost of Illinois having previously invited Oracle to appear before later declining.
Oracle executive Seema Verma declined to attend the hearing, citing scheduling conflicts as the reason for pulling out of the planned appearance.
Representative Maxine Dexter of Oregon, who put forward the motion to subpoena the executives, made clear she viewed the company’s non-appearance as an obstruction of congressional oversight.
“When the company responsible for a taxpayer-funded contract that could grow from $10 billion to roughly $27 billion refuses to sit before Congress and answer questions, this committee cannot fully do its job,” Dexter said.
“Veterans deserve a health records system that works, and taxpayers deserve to know their money is being spent responsibly,” she continued, adding that “a private, closed-door roundtable cannot replace public congressional oversight.”
Dexter also raised questions about potential conflicts of interest, noting that President Trump’s 2026 financial disclosures included transactions involving Oracle securities.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Ellison contributed roughly $45 million to a political nonprofit that supported Trump’s 2024 election campaign.
It remains unclear whether Oracle will comply with the subpoenas or when Ellison and Sicilia might appear before the committee.
More than 160 VA medical centres are still awaiting deployment of the new system, with the contract running until a 2031 end date.