VA makes significant changes

#Veterans #Changes

Under the new presidential administration, and under the guidance of the new VA Secretary Doug Collins, the Department of Veterans Affairs has made several significant changes. The core mission: providing the best possible care and services to veterans, families, caregivers and survivors. As Secretary Collins said, “We have already stripped away many of the costly distractions that were coming between VA beneficiaries and the benefits they have earned.”

Here are a few examples:

What Collins called “DEI and gender ideology” has been taken off the table, saying that the “VA should not be in the business of helping people try to change their sex.” That’s going to save the VA $14 million.

Working from home is a no-no now, with a schedule being created to get everyone back in the office by summer. No more “phoning it in from home,” per Collins. And I have to agree – service on the phone is much better when employees are in the office within earshot of colleagues.

When it comes to duplicate and unnecessary contracts, so far the VA has identified “hundreds of millions of dollars” that they can divert back to services for veterans. They’ll continue to take a look at the 130,000 VA contracts to see what further dollars they can save.

The modernization of the electronic health record program was something that stalled over the last two years, but already, just since March, they’ve worked to be able to bring nine more medical facilities online by next year and all of them by 2031.

In his opinion piece and video, Collins addresses the pushback he’s gotten from various sources that only want the VA to keep going as before. Not going to happen, per Collins. His job is to work to put veterans first, and he says that’s what he intends to do.

The video Secretary Collins made can be found on his X (formerly known as Twitter) account. Or if you prefer to read it, search for his opinion piece “First 100 Days at VA: Putting Veterans First” at DCJournal.com.

(c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.