Angry over planned cuts at Veterans Affairs facilities and a lack of communication from department leaders about those moves, congressional Democrats are plotting confirmation holds, legislative obstruction and unofficial hearings in an attempt to create public outrage over the administration’s changes to veterans programs and benefits.
“There’s a war on veterans,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., at a Wednesday “shadow hearing” on Capitol Hill highlighting their complaints about the looming plans.
“President Trump has already fired more veterans than any president in the history of the United States … and they have already told the country that [VA leaders] are going to lay off another 80,000 people at the VA.”
Wednesday’s event — the first in a series planned by Democrats on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee — featured testimony from veterans who lost their government jobs in the initial waves of dismissals connected to President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce.
VA secretary insists massive staff cuts needed to refocus department
About one-third of federal employees are veterans. White House officials have not said how many of the dismissed workers are veterans, but outside groups have estimated that more than 5,000 former military members have been caught up in the cost-cutting efforts so far.
And critics say that number will only grow. VA Secretary Doug Collins has announced plans to trim his agency’s workforce back to 2019 staffing levels, a move that would eliminate more than 80,000 of the department’s roughly 480,000 workers.
In an interview with Military Times in March, Collins said efforts will be made to consider veterans status in job cuts and contract cancellations, but that the federal government should not serve as an employment program for the country.
He also has repeatedly vowed that individuals who work directly in veterans health care or processing veterans benefits will not be impacted, and that veterans will see more support as a result of a more efficient department, not less.
But Democrats in the House and Senate have disputed those claims.
They call the department reform plans haphazard and cruel, without a clear guideline on how to protect veterans benefits and support services amid plans to create savings in government operations. Much of the anger at Wednesday’s event was focused on the Department of Government Oversight and billionaire Elon Musk and their opaque authority in the administration.
“Fear and chaos, that’s how this administration is running every agency,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii. “VA is a very critical part of the health care that veterans deserve, and they don’t know what is happening to VA.”
Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Wednesday’s hearing is the first step in a series of attempts by his caucus to slow or halt the controversial reforms.
The caucus plans similar hearings every few weeks throughout the spring, highlighting potential dangers of the White House’s VA plans.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., has announced a hold on all VA nominees until Collins withdraws his plans for significant staff cuts. Blumenthal went further on Wednesday, promising a hold on VA and some Defense Department nominees until more information is released on workforce and contracting changes at the veterans bureaucracy.
And the senior Democrat on the veterans committee said lawmakers are looking at procedural moves to slow down floor business in protest of the VA cuts, and their refusal to publicly testify on the proposals. House Democratic leaders are planning similar tactics in coming weeks.
“Obviously, our tools are limited, since we’re in the minority,” Blumenthal said. “But we’re going to use every one of them as effectively and promptly as we can. And ultimately, we’re going to take this to the veterans themselves, enlist them in this fight.”
In response to Wednesday’s threats of obstruction from Democrats, VA officials repeated a statement from earlier in the week criticizing the moves.
“Imagine how much better off veterans would be if lawmakers like Sen. Blumenthal cared as much about fixing VA as they do about protecting the department’s broken bureaucracy,” said VA Press Secretary Pete Kasperowicz.
“VA health care has been on the Government Accountability Office’s high-risk list for more than a decade, and GAO says VA faces ‘system-wide challenges in overseeing patient safety and access to care, hiring critical staff and meeting future infrastructure needs.’ Under Secretary Collins, VA is working hard to fix these and other issues.”
Collins is expected to testify before both the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees — and the chambers’ respective appropriations panels — later this spring. But those dates have not yet been announced, and Republican leaders of the panels have not publicly pushed for congressional questioning of the VA leader in the near future.
