In light of the Trump administration’s plan to fire thousands more employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs as the White House drastically downsizes the federal workforce, some people are worried about how this could impact veterans.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins sat down with “News Hour” host Geoff Bennett to discuss the layoffs and how it’ll impact veterans.
Bennet began, “The Trump administration announced it’s planning to fire thousands more employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs as part of the White House effort to dramatically downsize the federal work force. A quarter of the VA’s work force comprises veterans themselves. And that’s prompting questions about how the cuts might affect the quality and timeliness of the services the VA provides.”
He continued, “Earlier this evening, you confirmed that the VA will terminate an additional 70,000-plus staffers, and you say that these cuts will help the VA fulfill its core mission. How exactly? How is it possible to reduce staffing and resources without negatively impacting the quality and timeliness of care?”
Collins replied, “Well, the first off is, I didn’t announce that we’re actually going through it at this moment. I said we’re beginning the process to look at a reduction in force that will resemble about 15 percent of the force, and that’s what we have begun to do.”
He explained, “What we have done all along is actually take a look at our core functions, making sure that the veteran is first. And it is sort of interesting to me that we say that there’s no way this can affect quality of care or others, when really what we’re seeing right now, what we have experienced over the last few years is Washington, D.C.’s tendency to just throw money and people at problems.”
“Over the last four years, there’s been $130 billion added to the budget at the VA and plus 80,000 employees, but yet at the same time backlogs of benefits have went up. health care wait times have actually went up, and when this was all a different position just four years ago,” Collins explained. “So the question is not what we’re looking at to make sure that we’re getting efficient, is following what the president has called for, but also making sure that we’re delivering it in the best way. And we’re the best ones to look at that by actually taking our force, who is doing a great job, but saying, how can we do it more efficiently?”
Bennet pressed, “Well, given the VA wait times scandal during the Obama administration, the ongoing concerns about access to care for veterans, what specific safeguards are in place to ensure that veterans don’t face longer delays or reduced services?”
Collins said, “Well, I think what safeguards is employees doing their jobs, and which is what they’re trying — we’re working to make sure they have all the tools to do that. We’re also putting in place making sure that they have the critical assets to the appointment schedules. We’re making a look at all of how we actually deal with our hiring. Remember, one of the things we have talked about here and that has not been talked about enough is, we’re protecting and have protected over 300,000 positions at the VA that we had this mission critical, front-facing to our veterans, not only in health care but in benefits as well.”
“We’re doing this to make sure that we’re actually getting the results we needed. I think too long we found in Washington — and I have said this before, and I said it on the video earlier — that we have this idea that money and people will solve issues,” he continued. “And, really, the reality is, is, if you don’t have good processes in place, you’re not going to solve the problem. This has been going on the Hill and we have known this on Capitol Hill for years. Senator Johnny Isakson from Georgia, who used to be the chair of the Senate VA Committee, actually said this almost 10 years ago. He said the problem with the VA is not that it needs more money. And this was almost $200 billion ago. It needed a better structure. And that’s what we’re trying to provide.”