Veterans Affairs officials told lawmakers Tuesday that the special call center VA established following the May 3 theft of information on some 26.5 million veterans and another 2.2 million active and reserve personnel is costing about $200,000 a day to operate. The tally so far is around $7 million. And, the letters the VA has sent out to some 17.5 million veterans has cost about $7 million—$1 million for printing and $6 million for postage. So, the VA has spent, so far, some $14 million out of the $25 million that Congress authorized it to reprogram to help cover this fiasco. Now, the VA is working to get a contract to provide a year’s worth of free credit monitoring for all its victims. VA officials told Stars & Stripes that the contracting effort would take through July.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
