{"id":169284,"date":"2025-05-07T08:18:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T12:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=169284"},"modified":"2025-05-07T08:18:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T12:18:43","slug":"va-bureaucracy-in-disarray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=169284","title":{"rendered":"VA- Bureaucracy in Disarray"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Collins, Dems spar over whether VA needs key fixes or full overhaul<\/h3>\n

By Leo Shane III<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both Republicans and Democrats agree that the Department of Veterans Affairs is not perfect. On Tuesday, the two sides fought over just how not perfect it is.<\/p>\n

In testimony before a Senate oversight committee, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins portrayed his department as a bureaucracy in severe disarray when he took over three months ago. But he insisted reforms from the new administration since then have set operations on the right track.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur shared goal needs to be making things better for veterans rather than protecting the department\u2019s broken bureaucracy,\u201d he told members of the Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee. \u201cTo simply say that where we came in was okay, everyone knows that was just simply not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, Senate Democrats accused President Donald Trump\u2019s administration of working to dismantle the department rather than improve it, accusing Collins of exaggerating and fabricating problems to justify dramatic changes in coming months.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot slash and trash the VA without eliminating essential positions which provide access and availability of health care,\u201d said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ranking member of the committee.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Military Times<\/a><\/p>\n

Vets themselves overwhelmingly believe the VA is in need of urgent reforms. Improvements should be focused on speed, accessibility and responsiveness. They are calling for streamlined processes, more emphasis on customer service, and extended referral windows for care. The Trump administration has proposed a 4% increase in VA funding next fiscal year despite proposed staff and contract cuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Collins, Dems spar over whether VA needs key fixes or full overhaul By Leo Shane III … VA- Bureaucracy in Disarray<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-pentagon","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=169284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=169284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=169284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=169284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}