House Republicans next week are expected to call up and pass a last-minute bill that would let the Department of Veterans Affairs repurpose more than $3 billion in its budget, a change that's needed to ensure VA hospitals can stay open after next week.

The VA shocked Congress just weeks ago by suddenly revealing it has a huge budget shortfall that will force VA hospitals around the country to close in August.

The news infuriated both Republicans and Democrats who said it's just the latest example of gross mismanagement at the VA. House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said the VA gave Congress just a month's notice of the massive problem.

That management failure prompted Miller to write a scathing letter to President Obama asking him to get involved in an agency that has been in almost constant trouble with Congress over the last few years.

"VA's central office is physically located steps from the White House front door," Miller wrote. "I strongly suggest you pay a visit and get to the bottom of what is happening."

But with time running out, Congress has little choice but to ensure the VA has the money after next week. Late Friday, Miller proposed a bill doing just that.

Some House leadership aides said there were no official decisions as of Friday to pass the bill, and next week's official House schedule only lists the bill as a possible option. But one GOP aide told the Washington Examiner that the bill will almost certainly be brought up and passed.

"We expect that next week it will come for a vote and pass in the House," he said.

Under Miller's bill, the VA would get what it's been asking for: the ability to use money in the Veterans Choice Program to help keep VA hospitals operating. Congress has resisted raiding that program, since it was created just last year to get veterans medical care outside the broken VA system that has delayed care to thousands over the last few years.

Specifically, the bill would let the VA temporarily use $3.348 billion from the Choice program, and direct it back to the VA hospitals to keep them running, according to a House aide.

The VA would have to report to Congress every two weeks on how this funding is being used.

But that new flexibility will come at a price. Miller's bill would require the VA to overhaul and consolidate all of its non-VA care programs. It's an attempt to strengthen and protect access to non-VA care, something many members say is needed to ensure veterans are able to get care in light of the disastrous waiting list scandal that was revealed last year.

The last-minute fix will come just as the House was already planning to impose more reforms on the VA. One issue that has been boiling over is the VA's failure to fire anyone for their role in the wait-list scandal.

To put the pressure on, the House will also pass a bill next week giving the VA the option to fire anyone it wants. The VA has already had the ability to fire senior officials since last year, but this authority has barely been touched.

No one has officially been canned over the scandal, and some were allowed to retire with benefits.

Despite the years of anger over that issue and many others, members have indicated that shifting VA funds around to keep hospitals open is the only way to ensure veterans aren't blocked from care options starting in August. Miller and Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., who chairs the VA subcommittee on appropriations, said this week that they wouldn't allow hospitals to shut down.

"Congress will not allow the VA's failures to close care facilities or furlough the personnel our veterans rely on every day," they said. "We will work to enact the necessary reforms to end this continuing mismanagement and transform the VA into a more transparent and accountable agency."