When Doug Collins first Appeared Prior to his verification hearing, his comfortable bromide for his devotion to VA and Veterans before the Veterans’ Senate Committee (SVAC) SVAC voted to confirm Collins as the head of Collins’ Veterans’ Military Secretariat, except for some exceptions. As a capitol hill insider told THE viewMany people, unlike Pete Hegseth or RFK JR., believed that Collins was “a person who can work together.”
The Democratic Party of the Veterans’ House of Representatives (HVAC) has come to the same conclusion. CEO Mark Takano (D-CA)HVAC’s ranking member said he was ready to enter the former Georgia parliament.
It will proceed quickly for 4 months and a half May 6thWhen Collins appeared second in front of the Senate Committee, and on May 15, he First appearance before HVAC. During the first month at work, the Democratic Party now sees Collins as an opposite to the person who works with the Veterans of the country. They expressed their anger at dismissing 1,000 probation employees, canceled hundreds of contracts with suppliers who supplied important resources to VA, and ended the VA Research Institute to interfere with clinical trials that could be helpful for Veterans. Of course, there was a pledge to dismiss 83,000 VA employees in Collins.
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At the two hearings, Collins abandoned the scale of commonality. When faced with uncomfortable facts and inconsistent arguments, Collins said Roy Cohn told a young Donald Trump: “Attack, attack, attack, nothing, rejects everything, and always claims to win.”
At the Senate’s hearing, Collins’ avoidance and weaving began when they questioned the goal of reducing 15 %of VA’s 480,000 employees and returning the second largest federal agency in the United States to the level of human resources in 2019. He said His written testimony“We strategically reduce our employees so that most VA budgets proceed directly to Veterans. We will achieve this without reducing health care or benefits to Veterans or VA beneficiaries.”
Even SVAC Chairman Kansas Republican Senator Jerry Moran expressed serious reservation for the proposed cost reduction initiative. At the hearing, Moran said, “This was not a fixed number, but about rights.” The ongoing changes should be supported by the data received by veteran requirements and focuses on improving the results of men and women serviced by VA.
In response, Collins argued that VA does not require all current manpower because the number of registered Veterans has been steadily maintained at about 9 million years in several years. He was conveniently involved in the critical fact that the Veterans’ Health Bureau (VHA) set the highest record in FY2024. 7 % more promise Than 2023.
Collins also argued that his plan did not threaten the caregiver’s job, but only doctors and nurses who did not directly treat patients, as well as gardener, interior designers, human resources and salary personnel, threaten. Some of the House of Representatives have accused their VA employees who have been warned of the administration’s “fork on the road”, watched the possibility of their colleagues, saw their colleagues, and accused them of finding out that they had recently known whether they were “essential,” and criticized for disclosing false information, criticizing false information. He blamed false information and learned that his position was “a must.”
Perhaps Collins’ most despired behavior was when he refused to take responsibility for his actions.
Collins also justified his goal to cut VA staff, and VA insisted that since the late 1990s, VA has added tens of thousands of administrators who work in local offices that manage VA health through VAN’s Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN).
26 years ago, the VHA patient registration was less than 9 million today for legislators who were not used to restructuring of Hyundai VHA in the 1990s. During the same period, Congress has added a lot of new programs with new reporting requirements. This includes the Trump Age VA Mission Act and the Biden Age Agreement. Mission Act has created a VCCP (Veterans Community Care Program), a huge parallel private health care network. The Congress mandates the obligation to the VHA manager who works at a special VCCP adjustment office with an annual budget for supervising and claiming recommendation by the 1.7 million private sector VCCP health providers.
One VA observer, who chose to maintain anonymity, said: “Some VISN staff reductions can occur without the loss of functional abilities if some VISN employee decreases are performed in a systematic and thoughtful way.
Doctors and nurse Collins, who have poor performance, are medical officers, employees, nurses, or nurses who provide clinical leadership of hospitals or health systems. This administrative position also requires a very clinical background that Collins seems to disband.
Collins is correct when some clinical staff says they are reducing time to provide clinical treatment. Why is it? Some have been assigned to book the recommendation of acceleration for the private sector. Others are busy trying to cancel the damage of another Trump era policy. During Trump’s first term, Cerner (currently owned by Oracle) was awarded to replace VA’s in -house user -friendly electronic health records (EHR) as a ready -made alternative.
Ross Coppel, a professor of medical and information at the University of Pennsylvania, said, “It is a big business to try to help a difficult shift from the existing EHR to a new Cerner-Oracle system.” I leaned and contributed hundreds of hours. Serious errors have been repeatedly documented and solved by Congress. This emphasizes both patients and clinical trials. This is especially because VHA is looking for an opportunity to reduce employees and use private medical services. ”
Collins also avoided the facts when the VHA’s expansion of suicide prevention budget was also avoided since 2008, and veteran suicide deaths were constant. He did not explain in 2008 as a year of the establishment of the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) (and the year was deployed in each VA Medical Center). VCL alone accounts for more than half of the suicide prevention budget, and it is possible to dispatch 50 to 100 emergency while receiving 2,600 calls every day and promote the structure of saving each potential life.
Regarding the VBA (Veterans Benefits Administration), Collins was not less dissatisfied when he hit the BIDEN administration due to an increase in the disability claim backlog. He conveniently ignored the data that could be easily used on the VA website, which compensated for Veterans who are exposed to toxins in military service and have surged more than a million new claims. In 2024 alone, the VBA completed more than 2.5 million disability compensation and pension claims, exceeding 27 % of the previous year’s record and reducing the backlog claim by 42 %.
Perhaps Collins’ most despired behavior was when he refused to take responsibility for his actions. Senator Richard Blumentshal, SVAC’s ranking, reminded Collins that it had a serious ripple effect when the staff were restored, and Collins raised his hand with anger and said, “This is my opposition.
At the end of the house hearing, the ranking member TAKANO showed a spreadsheet that calculated the cost savings of the Collins’s team by 15 % reduced in all VA categories. Takano estimates that spreadsheets will save $ 1 billion if they reduce 4,000 nurses and save $ 110 million if they reduce 400 psychologists. Why did Takano asked the minister and the Collins promised not to cut the medical staff directly, and why did his team asked him to perform this kind of analysis?
Instead of responding to this question, Collins began to scream to the ranking members. Collins condemned his subordinates for “malicious rules,” under his instructions on another exchange of return orders with the office.
Collins, who served in the military and retired as a colonel for 20 years, exhibited the military officers’ actions by repeatedly rejecting his responsibilities on his actions and policies. In the army, the sign of a good officer is not only given a clear command, but also executed properly, but is responsible for the net effect of the decision.
As a military expert “Command is a sacred trust. The commander’s legal and moral responsibility exceeds the responsibility of a similar position or other leaders of authority.” According to military doctrine and US law, “the commanding authorities are responsible for soldiers’ actions under supervision.” If the army makes a mistake, it is the failure of leadership.
The Democratic Party bravely tried to focus on this failure. But as they continue to explore, they will have to speak more powerfully. As Collins’s mass launch in the next few months, it is necessary to explain why it is so wrong to take the VA to the preliminary employee level. In 2019 view The VA reported that there was actually a short staff by 70,000 positions, not over -staff. According to a report from the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute, it is difficult to provide a timely request for treatment or process of benefits from the process of treating the process of treating the staff. Ironically, a year ago, President Biden’s Denis McDonough has been ranked as a member of HVAC that he will have to cut 10,000 full -time positions by the budget limit, and he is called a “bold” decision by explosing the proposal.
Republican colleagues with Democrats and partners should also be careful about the numbers that Collins set for them. Collins was able to dismiss 70,000 or 50,000 VA employees, as suggested. By doing so, he can overturn an irreversible damage to VA and the Veterans of the State, while he can still seem to respond well and flexible.
After the afternoon after the Senate’s hearing, 60 Common Defense members, a progressive veteran group who started a national campaign called “VA: Not for Sale”, joined the stage of the US Capitol to protest the plan of Collins. Jose Vasquez, the executive director of Common Defense, said convincingly about his treatment. He has recently undergone surgery and is currently undergoing chemotherapy of pancreatic cancer in Manhattan VA.
Vasquez later said that view The general defense opposes any massor of the VA. “VA should not be dismissed 83,000 employees, 80 or 8,000 people. VA must hire, not fire.” More importantly, Vasquez added: “Instead of attacking VA doctors and nurses who contribute to our treatment in all kinds of ways, VA leaders must support a dedicated caregiver who sacrifices to support the same veterans like me.”
