VA Sec. Doug Collins Says He's 'Fought Rumor And Innuendo' For First 100 Days In Opening Remarks

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On Thursday, VA Secretary Doug Collins testified before the House Appropriations Committee.

Transcript

00:01Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Ranking Member.

00:03It's always good to see you, and it's good to be here to clear up a lot of misconceptions,

00:08a lot of things that have been said.

00:09In fact, frankly, Mr. Chairman and Madam Ranking Member, that's all I've done for 100 days,

00:14is I've fought rumor and innuendo and going through.

00:16In fact, it's the thing that we do the most of, and a lot of which was just talked about

00:21here in some of your opening statement, but especially the Ranking Member's opening statement.

00:25I look forward to answering those questions as we go, because, you know, the one thing

00:29I have found in my 100 days, which is tomorrow, coming forward, is that we have, at the VA,

00:34have some of the best men and women in the country taking care of the most unique and special

00:39group of people, and that is the people who serve our country.

00:41Those who have served alongside of me and many of you are getting the care that they need.

00:46However, there's interesting that what I have found is, is the moment you begin to discuss

00:50the VA, and the moment you begin to go through it in this subcommittee, realize the VA is in

00:54need of reform.

00:55I've heard it from most of you.

00:56I've heard it from many while I was serving in this body.

00:59The VA is a place that needs reform and needs to be able to deliver timely care and getting

01:05to yes for veterans to the benefits that they have earned.

01:08And making such sure money that Congress appropriates to the VA is not diverted to

01:12non-mission critical or even wasteful programs.

01:15You see, even last year, even going back just to last year, Congress, about the need for

01:19reform in VA simply many times just came across as a request for more money and more people.

01:23But I think what you're going to see today as we discuss this is that money and people

01:27are not the exact answers to all the things that hurt us.

01:31In fact, the Biden administration for the last four years didn't address the most serious

01:35issues lying before it, such as benefit backlogs and rising health care wait times.

01:40In fact, the numbers speak for themselves.

01:42The VA grew by 52,000 full-time equivalents from fiscal year 21 to 24.

01:47Did all those extra people help make veterans care better?

01:49No.

01:50In fact, the VA performance metrics got worse.

01:53Health care wait times went up.

01:55Disability benefits backlog increased.

01:58And sometimes something has to change.

02:00And President Trump is committed to making sure those changes happen at the VA.

02:04Our goal is to create a department that works better for veterans, families, caregivers, and

02:09survivors.

02:09And I've never been shy about addressing tough issues head on.

02:12And I won't ignore the elephant in the room here today.

02:15As everyone is aware, we're conducting a thorough review of department structure and

02:18staffing across the enterprise.

02:20I've said countless times the review is aimed at finding ways to improve care and benefits

02:24for veterans without cutting care and benefits for those veterans.

02:28Our goal is to increase productivity and efficiency and to eliminate waste and bureaucracy, improving

02:33health care delivery and benefits to our veterans.

02:36We're going to maintain VA essential jobs like doctors and nurses and claims processors while

02:41phasing out other non-mission critical ideas and consolidating areas in which we have,

02:46frankly, overlap and waste.

02:49Our goal is to ensure that the employees where they're needed, it's put them there, and cut

02:53unnecessary overhead.

02:55Strategically reduced staff to ensure the VA's budget is mostly going directly to veterans

02:58and will accomplish this without making cuts to health care or benefits to VA beneficiaries.

03:04Year after year, calls for the VA reform come from every corner.

03:08Lawmakers, media watchdogs, this body, Inspector General, even the Government Accountability

03:14Office, VSOs, and including veterans across the country.

03:18So guess what?

03:18This year, we're actually going to do it.

03:20This area is actually the time that we're actually going to take those calls and say,

03:23we're going to try and fix something.

03:24For 10 years, Mr. Chairman, as you well know, the GAO has said that the VA is on a high risk

03:29list for issues of abuse, of issues of fraud, the issues of waste.

03:34These are the GAO's words, not mine.

03:36For patient care, for patient accountability, these are their words, not mine.

03:4010 years, this has been going on.

03:43And every year, we just continue to act as if it doesn't exist.

03:47And so when we look at this, my issue is, is how do we actually make sure that we have

03:52change that actually works?

03:53And when you make system-wide changes, yes, there's going to be some issues in how we

03:57do it and how we go about it.

03:59But I made a commitment on my first day that the VA was no longer about the organization.

04:03It was about a service organization that was there for the veteran themselves.

04:07Instead of it being about what we're doing internally, it's about how are we delivering

04:11the service that we're entitled, they're entitled to, and that we're commanded to give.

04:17So as we start this, there's going to be a lot of questions.

04:19You know, the VA is not a federal jobs program.

04:22It's a service organization that is designed to help our veterans.

04:25So in these first 100 days, we have done things that you've heard about.

04:28We've actually started looking at our structure, going with career employees, our consultants,

04:32and others to say, how are we actually looking at our employee workforce and how we're spending

04:37money?

04:38We're doing that in a very concise way.

04:40We're looking at contracts, and we're going to talk about those, I'm sure, today.

04:43But we're also making sure that the Mission Act is something that is fulfilled.

04:47The Mission Act was passed by this body and for many years has been basically ignored, and

04:50especially the last few years.

04:52Disturbing evidence has came up as we began to look at why community care, which many of you

04:56hear about from your constituents all the time, of not being able to get to their community

05:00doctors, or not being accessed to community care, is why is that happening?

05:03Well, a lot of it was because the VA itself was not encouraging it.

05:07In fact, it was actually discouraging the community care aspect.

05:11In fact, I was just in Arizona with a veteran student who actually told me, he said, the

05:15only concern I have, he said, Mr. Secretary, he said, I've been waiting for about three

05:20months or more on my appointment, and I can't get one.

05:23And I asked him, I said, have you been offered any other alternatives such as community

05:26care, and this veteran looked at me and said, what is that?

05:31By the way, the medical center director was sitting right next to me and quickly perked

05:36up at that.

05:38This is the kind of things we face.

05:40This is something we can actually come together on.

05:43This is not something that necessarily needs to be a divisive issue, but there is ways that

05:48we can fix this.

05:48But after 10 years, I think the GAO has said, it's time to get to work.

05:52So as we talk about this today, Mr. Chairman, I'm looking forward to answering these questions.

05:57I'm looking forward to talking about how we have come together to make already changes

06:01in our VA.

06:02There's places we'll agree, and there's places we'll disagree.

06:05But I'm amazed at what I have found.

06:07I found some great folks, and I found some veterans that, again, deserve the best treatment.

06:11But I've also seen a system that, unfortunately, has been talked about reform for so long, but

06:16not gotten it.

06:17Now's the time to make the reform.

06:19And with that, I yield back.

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