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Former Georgia Congressman Doug Collins is President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Veteran Affairs, a cabinet agency second in size only to the Pentagon. Collins answered questions from the Senate VA Committee yesterday amid the blizzard of partisan politics as Trump took office. NPR's veterans correspondent Quil Lawrence reports this hearing was civil and bipartisan.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Doug Collins is a former Georgia congressman. He's also a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, and he put his service front and center at his hearing before the Senate VA Committee.
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DOUG COLLINS: These are my dog tags. They're a reminder, just like every other veteran who served, that we're part of a bigger unit.
LAWRENCE: Collins referred to his service again when asked about the PACT Act, the massive expansion of VA benefits under the Biden administration, treating toxic exposures going back decades, such as Agent Orange in Vietnam, or noxious burning trash pits, like the one in Balad, Iraq, where Collins deployed as a chaplain.
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COLLINS: I'm an Iraq War veteran. I understand burn pits because I slept next to one for many months. I understand this generation that went for time and time again, deployment after deployment, in a different way than we've seen many times before in our past wars.
LAWRENCE: Collins served three terms in the House and was known more for his loyalty to President Trump than for any involvement in veterans issues. He's never led an organization a fraction the size of the VA's 400,000 staff and 1,300 health facilities. Critics say that's why he's unqualified. But at the confirmation hearing, he went into the weeds on VA policy and smoothly parried senators' questions.
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COLLINS: My issue is I'm going to take care of the veterans. That means that we're not going to balance budgets on the back of veterans benefits. We're not going to do that. We're going to put the veteran first.
LAWRENCE: That was his answer to questions about President Trump's suggestions of cutting government spending and his announcement of a federal hiring freeze. But with that announcement less than 24 hours old, Collins could not answer specifics about how it would affect VA's many job vacancies, even urgent ones for doctors, nurses and mental health care. Washington Democrat Patty Murray pushed him on the seemingly endless quest to update the VA's electronic health record, which has now spanned four presidencies. Collins vowed bipartisan cooperation.
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COLLINS: We're going to have to work together. The finger-pointing is done. It's time to get it done for one reason and one reason only. As I said earlier, the mission is the vet.
LAWRENCE: Senator Murray quickly pivoted into the more controversial issue of the VA providing abortion services.
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PATTY MURRAY: I have cared deeply about our women veterans and that they have the services they need. So I want to just ask you, do you believe a veteran who lives in Texas, who has been raped and becomes pregnant, should be able to get abortion care at her local VA?
LAWRENCE: Since the Supreme Court ruled that states could ban abortion, the Biden VA has provided abortion care nationwide. But Collins said he believes a 1992 law prohibits VA from offering abortion services.
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COLLINS: I will tell you this. We will be looking at that issue when I get in there to confirm that the VA is actually following the law.
LAWRENCE: The other most serious disagreement on display was about VA care versus private health care. The Trump administration supports allowing veterans to choose either, but leaning on private or community care is a growing drain on the VA's budget. Collins said there's a happy medium.
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COLLINS: I believe you have a strong VA as it currently exists and have the community care aspect. I believe you can have both.
LAWRENCE: How to have both is the biggest veterans policy disagreement in Washington. So many Democratic senators asked Collins to pledge not to privatize veterans' health care, that Republican Thom Tillis half-jokingly asked Collins to pinky swear he wouldn't do it. Collins held up his pinky and obliged. But President Trump has vowed to slash government spending, and the VA is a perennial target.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF FURINO'S "ABOUT CLAUDIA (FEAT. IMPORTMEDIA)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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