'Not A 'Not A Good Enough Answer For My Constituent': Chris Pappas Grills Doug Collins About VASP Program Enough Answer For My Constituent'_ Chris Pappas Grills Doug Collins About VASP Program

Forbes Breaking News

During Thursday’s House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH) questioned Veterans’ Affairs Secretary Doug Collins about the VASP program.

Transcript

00:00Representative Pat.

00:02Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary.

00:05Thanks very much for your comments.

00:07I want to ask you about an issue that's critically important to veterans in New Hampshire.

00:10New Hampshire remains the only state in the contiguous 48 states without a full-service

00:15VA hospital.

00:16And so the Manchester VA Medical Center was built in the 1950s.

00:19It continues to experience serious infrastructure issues, pipes bursting in the winter, flooding,

00:24heating outages, even insects in the operating surgical suite.

00:29On May 9th, the Trump administration announced an executive order directing a feasibility study

00:33at the VA within 180 days of the order, submitting a plan to the president, an action plan to expand

00:40services at the Manchester VA into a full-service medical center.

00:44So veterans have been asking for this for about 20 years now.

00:47They're ready to move past the talking stage and to see some action on this.

00:51So I'm wondering if, as this study is moving forward, you're going to work to engage with

00:56veterans and stakeholders in the state of New Hampshire to make sure you're hearing directly

00:59from them and capturing their feedback.

01:01Yes, Congressman.

01:02I appreciate that.

01:03And I appreciate you carrying the torch for that.

01:05Also, I've talked with your governor about this as well.

01:07And I can report to you that that feasibility study started this week.

01:10And we're going to be working with our stakeholders in New Hampshire and other places to make sure

01:15that this goes through.

01:16So following through the promise of the president who made the promise to look at your facilities

01:21up there, that's what the EO said.

01:23And we're already started that process.

01:25And we started it this week.

01:26I appreciate that.

01:27And do you start this process with the commitment to establishing a full-service hospital in New

01:31Hampshire?

01:32I believe that is the desire of the administration as we go forward.

01:35And we're looking at it from that side.

01:37You have a system in which we're going to work at and make sure that we get the proper needs

01:41and the proper care in that area.

01:44I appreciate your attention to that.

01:45Before I get to my next questions, Chairman Bost asked unanimous consent to enter into the

01:49record data received from the Housing Policy Council showing over 80,000 veterans state-by-state

01:55who are at extremely high risk of foreclosure.

01:57Without objection.

01:58Thank you very much.

02:00So I disagree fundamentally with VA's decision to end the VAS program.

02:04And I want to ask you a little bit about the timing around that because it was extremely

02:08unclear who was informed and when.

02:10So VA briefed committee staff on April 9th that VASP would stop accepting applications

02:15from lenders on May 1st.

02:17I'm wondering when VA first publicly posted the information to the general public about

02:22its plans to stop accepting VASP applications.

02:25As far as an exact date on when published, I would have to get you an exact date.

02:30I think going the VASP program in general, though, this is a program that I think many

02:35on this committee have strong feelings about should have never started to begin with.

02:38This was not a congressional mandate.

02:41This was not a congressional program.

02:43So it was stopped and it already got into an area VA didn't need to be in to start with.

02:48So we have the date basically April 23rd is when that was posted publicly.

02:53So literally a matter of days before veterans were made aware of the fact that this program

02:58was coming to an end.

02:59And I ask about this because we heard directly from a constituent who was caught up in this.

03:03He is a veteran whose name is Daniel.

03:06He's 100% service disabled, veteran of the first Gulf War, reached out to our office days

03:11before the end of VASP, understanding that he might still have a chance to get into this

03:17program and to make sure that he could start making payments and stay in his home along

03:21with his service animals.

03:22So I'm wondering if you have any guidance for veterans like this who have been caught up

03:26in this period of time where VASP is coming to an end.

03:29There wasn't clear communication from the department.

03:32What do veterans like Daniel do to be able to stay in their homes while we wait for Congress

03:37to take the important step forward to develop a partial claims program?

03:40Well, I think that's what the first step is, is Congress needs to act upon this.

03:44And this should not have been a program that was taking money away from other things to

03:47start in getting the VA into a mortgage business.

03:50I mean, the numbers here, I think at this point it stopped on May 1st.

03:53No one who is currently in VASP was taken off VASP.

03:56Anybody who currently is working through VASP is still on VASP.

03:59We just did not take any more.

04:01So respectfully, it's not a good enough answer for my constituent.

04:05He's someone who understood that the date was coming May 1st, was trying to work with

04:09his lender to get into the program.

04:11And now he's not sure he has any other opportunity to protect his home and to stay in his home.

04:16And we're facing a housing crisis in New Hampshire as we are in states across the country.

04:20So would you be open to a foreclosure moratorium in the interim while we await action in Congress

04:27to develop a bipartisan plan for a partial claims program?

04:30I'm not going to commit to a program on the fly here in the middle of the hearing.

04:33I think I understand your concern in looking at it.

04:36But again, sort of we set up a problem that was going to end up developing.

04:40The reason VASP was stopped was because the VBA, which took money from other programs,

04:45reprogrammed from other things to do this program, came forward and they were now going to ask for

04:51multiple billions of dollars out of their mandatory program to go forward,

04:54which I'd have had to come to Congress for.

04:56And it was just an area that it had to be a time to cut it.

04:59We did it as much as we could.

05:00It's not an answer I know you want to hear or the veteran may want to hear,

05:03but this is just a program we should have never gotten into.

05:06So look, I disagree with that answer.

05:08I think the fact is this was a last resort program that should have been a stop gap

05:12while Congress developed something that was more permanent.

05:15And we're working on that.

05:17But we've got to be looking out for constituents like this,

05:19who number 80,000 across the country, people that are at risk of foreclosure,

05:23veterans who deserve our support.

05:26And so I want to get to just a final statement here.

05:29I hear from veterans across New Hampshire that are deeply concerned

05:32with some of the moves they see being made by VA.

05:35Now, I agree with your statement that you made in your testimony

05:38that we've got to be looking out for end veterans.

05:40And I believe that we do that on this committee.

05:42I've served here for six years now through administrations of both parties.

05:46But I take exception to the claim of what you've said, which is that, quote,

05:51literally all VA stakeholders agree with what needs to be done.

05:55And that's reflected in the action that you're taking.

05:58I don't think that's true because veterans I talked to don't agree with the abrupt ending to VASP.

06:03They don't agree that we should put more veterans at risk of foreclosure.

06:07They don't agree with the fact that we've seen crisis line employees lose their jobs

06:12who are in probationary status.

06:14They don't agree with the fact that your stated goal is to fire 83,000 workers

06:18that would cut deeply into VA's ability to meet the needs of our veterans

06:22and provide the kind of care and benefits that they deserve.

06:25So we've got work to do to make sure that we're improving services at VA,

06:28that we're getting things done for veterans.

06:30Let's be willing to work together and do what it takes to meet the needs of these heroes

06:35who have worn the uniform and have done everything to serve the United States of America.

06:39But veterans know that we need more.

06:41We need better cooperation.

06:42We need better leadership from you to get the job done.

06:45And I yield back my time.

Category

Transcript

Recommended