WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) began administering COVID-19 vaccinations to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees Jan. 6, through an interagency agreement to support DHS’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
The agreement was initiated in response to President Donald Trump’s declaration of COVID-19 as a national emergency and falls under the Economy Act, which authorizes federal agencies to provide services or supplies to other federal agencies on a reimbursable basis.
As part of the agreement, trained VA medical professionals at certain VA medical centers are vaccinating DHS employees using DHS’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine allocations.
“This is a team effort to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible to protect our Veterans and citizens from COVID-19,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.
VA is vaccinating DHS employees who are in close proximity to the eight VA medical centers listed below. The sites were jointly agreed upon by VA and DHS. VA anticipates expanding the list of sites to provide vaccinations to DHS employees at VA locations nationwide:
- Phoenix VA Health Care System in Arizona.
- El Paso VA Health Care System in El Paso, Texas.
- South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio, Texas.
- Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System in Harlingen, Texas.
- Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center in Long Beach, California.
- Brooklyn VA Medical Center? in New York.
- Washington DC VA Medical Center.
- Miami VA Healthcare System in Florida.