The Department of Veterans Affairs has transferred nearly $2 billion in funding for its health care system to pay for care from private providers, the agency told CNN.

The reallocation represents a transfer of nearly 5% of the VA’s total budget for money allocated to private care.

It is the largest single move to private sector health care the VA has made in several years, according to a congressional source familiar with the process. Unusually, it was made without a formal request for approval from Congress, as is the normal procedure followed by previous administrations, including during the first Trump administration.

The money shift comes amid a larger trend to increase private care options for veterans, which has drawn mixed results for the VA and the veterans it serves, and has

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