As the Trump administration approaches 100 days in its second term, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins describes a focus on 'customer service' as he settles into his role leading the department, amid efforts to trim the federal government.
"We're going to service the veterans and the needs that that they have statutorily, and what they've been, what they've earned. So our healthcare benefits, disability benefits, education benefits, housing, all those kind of things. So we're very much focused on customer service," Collins said. "The biggest difference you're going to see is a streamlining and really a focus on making sure that everything we do in the VA is efficiently serviced toward that veteran process."
Across agencies, there was has been an effort from the administration to trim the workforce and cut what its views as waste. The VA has canceled DEI related contracts, canceled nearly 600 "non-mission critical or duplicative contracts," and sought to place probationary employees on leave.
"And there was a number of 15% put out of our workforce, which for us is rather large. Most people don't realize that the VA workforce currently is larger than the active duty Army. So that would be a lot of people. 80,000 is one of the numbers thrown around. But it's a goal for us, because we're never going to put in jeopardy patient health care or the disability benefits getting to the people who need them, the veterans who have earned them," Collins said.
Collins called it a "goal."
"If you don't start with a target, you'll never get anything done. And if we get there, that will be one thing. If we don't that, that will be another as well," he said.
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Collins says despite previous growth in the VA, numbers did not reflect a benefit.
"Our backlog actually went worse after COVID, and frankly, the GAO has said that we're on the High Risk List for, you know, the waste and issues of personnel and patient care," he said.
Collins says the VA has become "the poster child in many ways for bureaucracy."
"What's really interesting for your listeners should be is the fact that we've increased so much, but yet really not seen a real nominal improvement in our healthcare wait times, especially our backlog numbers, the numbers that we actually look at to say, 'hey, if you got this much money being spent, this many people being hired, are you getting a better result?' And right now, frankly, we're not getting that result. So we've got a lot of people — we've got doctors, nurses and others who are not in the clinics, helping patients. We've got a middle layer of bureaucracy that keeps our system slowed down. So we're looking at all of that right now," Collins said.
But the sweeping reforms across agencies alongside the Department of Government Efficiency have prompted concerns over the impacts of cuts.
"Veterans have been shortchanged and systematically betrayed by these cruel cuts in staff and critical resources resulting from the Trump-Musk-Collins anti-vet policies. It's intentional malevolence or benign neglect — either way, we need to stop it," Senator Richard Blumenthal, the ranking member on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said last month during a hearing.
Collins rejected the notion that this would impact things like telehealth support, the speed of claims processing, appointment books, or research and support for medical staff.
"That's exactly what we're working to improve," Collins said.
"By looking at our department, looking at how we're actually structured. Are we using computers more and our information technology in a better way that can actually process claims quicker, get those out to folks? Can we get more appointments in? Can we put more doctors and nurses into the facilities? You mentioned contracts, and I'm really glad to talk about that, because we were able to move over $300 million out of contracts that were basically administrative contracts for PowerPoints, meeting notes, things like that. And we moved over $300 million into our community care patient network, which that is something that helps our patients directly. So we're actually making it better," Collins said.
Collins indicated veterans will continue to receive the benefits provided through the PACT Act, a piece of bipartisan legislation that sought to expand benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and toxic substances.
"Yeah, that's easy. That's statutory. I mean, they're going to get the benefits that they've earned. Again, we're looking at our own efficiencies and procedures internally, but the PACT Act, what's interesting is, is a lot of members of the hill, Senators and Congressmen as well, want to talk about the PACT Act and how they've increased our workload and everything else."
"In the last 10 years, our number of veterans in our country has went down almost 5 million total, and our number of veterans served or accounted for in the VA system has been steady at about 9 million," Collins said. "So we have some new ones coming in. We have, of course, those who are leaving the system through death and others. So we're not, really, frankly, seeing a huge surge, but we are seeing a lot of benefits being paid out to those who've earned those benefits and that the PACT Act said that they were going to get. So that's not changing at all."
The secretary decried what he called misinformation.
"Let me make also very clear, there's a lot of misinformation out there saying that we've cut — that we're cutting healthcare benefits, and we're cutting disability benefits. There couldn't be anything further from the truth. When you're set up how we actually operate, none of those are actually even discussed or even partial. They're actually just out to scare veterans and to scare others. And I just try to put out the fire, to say 'that's not even happening.' We're trying to actually make it easier for the veteran who has earned that benefit to get it," Collins said.
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When asked if veterans sensitive medical protection was protected amid DOGE and the VA's work, Collins said "We're taking all the precautions that are always there."
Amid the streamlining efforts at the VA, Collins denied privatizing veteran healthcare, calling it a scare tactic "that's actually thrown out by folks who don't want to see anything change."
"It'll never be taken out, because there's a place, there'll always be a VA for the veteran who needs it. And if you put that 9 million people onto the healthcare system of the United States, there will be no way in most communities that they can handle the burden," Collins said.
Collins says his long term vision includes a more efficient and productive organization.
"I want to see a system that actually distributes the healthcare benefits, gives them the highest quality care, from everything from mental health, to physical therapy, to prosthetics, to everything that they get, to normal primary care. I want them to be able, if they've earned a disability benefit, if they've earned a educational benefit, or a housing benefit, or anything else we offer, that they get that in the quickest amount of time with the least amount of administrative burden," Collins said.
Collins also urged veterans to connect with each other.
"Reach out to your battle buddies, your airmen, your wingmen," Collins said. "There are a lot of them that we see, because our suicide rate is way too high among veterans. And I hope that they will reach out, that they will try to get them, if they can, to the VA."
Collins urged veterans who needed it to make use of the Veterans Crisis Line, which can be reached by dialing 988 and then pressing 1.
