In this article
With more than two decades of working with and inside the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), I have seen first-hand how hard it is to change a system that is large, complex, ingrained, and always in motion. But change is no longer optional — it’s the mandate.
With the recent passage of the Protecting Regular Order (PRO) for Veterans Act, Congress has sent a clear message: it’s time to restore transparency, discipline, and accountability across the VA’s planning and oversight processes. For those of us who have worked tirelessly to improve the way the VA serves Veterans, this law isn’t just encouraging — it’s long overdue.
But as we all know, passing a law is just the beginning. The real challenge: How do we turn this policy into progress?
The PRO Veterans Act Is the Wake-Up Call We’ve Needed
The PRO Veterans Act, signed into law by President Trump and led by Senator Dan Sullivan, mandates a series of strategic reforms aimed at restoring “regular order” in how the VA plans, prioritizes, and reports on its programs and spending. That includes requiring multi-year strategic plans, documented cost estimates for major initiatives, and clear justifications for budget requests.
In short: the VA is being asked to be a mission-driven, performance-oriented organization — transforming itself to better serve our Veterans. This will only succeed if it’s matched with the right leadership and technology.
Now the vision needs to be operationalized. The VA’s mission is immense, and each Administration is already driving clear transformation lines of effort—the PRO for Veterans Act brings added clarity, structure, and momentum to these efforts.
Across the enterprise, leaders are advancing well-defined priority workstreams to transform services, data, and decision-making, expand digital access and care coordination, and accelerate benefits delivery and intelligent automation across enterprise services. These aren’t one-offs; they’re a sustained agenda.
Support for Internal Champions: The Unsung Heroes of Reform
Anyone who has worked in or with the VA knows this truth: transformation starts with the creation of internal champions who are willing to step up and push for change.
These are the directors, advisors, and analysts who:
- Stay late trying to make sense of disconnected spreadsheets
- Push for transformation even when it’s unpopular
- Want to defend their recommendations with data, not politics
Decision Lens will provide these champions the tool, transparency, and traceability they need to make faster and smarter decisions — and defend them. It transforms ad-hoc planning into a collaborative, auditable, and continuously updated process. The PRO Veterans Act gives us the mandate, but it’s going to take leadership, courage, and the right tools to deliver results for the Veterans we serve.
Let’s Not Waste This Moment
With the PRO Veterans Act now in law, the VA has both the legislative mandate and the organizational urgency to transform how it plans and executes on behalf of Veterans.
The VA’s strategic priorities are strong, but execution will be the difference between incremental progress and transformational impact.
Now is the time to equip VA’s workforce—from headquarters to the front line—with the systems, processes, and support needed to move from manual, episodic activity to continuous, data-driven decision-making.
Transforming VA’s prioritization and planning processes is more than a compliance exercise, it is a commitment to deliver outcomes to Veterans.
Over the next few weeks, we will dive into specific modernization lines of effort—how leaders are structuring priorities and where opportunities emerge, showing how purpose-built tools (e.g., continuous intake, scenario planning, and spend-plan tracking) can turn policy into measurable results. We’ll share practical examples and experienced perspectives in driving transformation.
Let’s get it right.
Joe Nay is Senior Vice President, Veterans Affairs at Decision Lens. Joe has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the federal sector, including over 17 years as a civil servant, including serving as a Senior Leader within the VA’s Office of Information and Technology (OIT) supporting VBA and NCA.
